Here is the district list from the East Hartford registrar. Simply download the PDF and search or browse for your street and note the district number to the right of it.

Example:
ELMS VILLAGE DRIVE 5 – 1640
EMELY STREET 4 – 1650
ENSIGN STREET 5 – 1660
ERIC WAY 2 – 1665

In this example the roads Elms Village Drive and Ensign Street are located in district 5 while Emely Street is in district 4 and Eric Way is in district 2.

EAST HARTFORD VOTER DISTRICT LIST

So why should I or anyone care that Aldi is coming to town and what the heck is an Aldi anyways? I finally got my answer today.

The kids and I decided to take Mom out to breakfast at her favorite place, Denny’s, and were thwarted by excessive lines as everyone (and their mother) apparently had the same idea. With no hope of getting a hungry toddler and infant to understand the concept of waiting to be seated we decided to head up the Silas Dean highway in search of Mitchell’s which I’ve heard is supposed to offer a good (and cheap) breakfast to those in the know. As we cruised up Silas Dean we spotted the new banner proclaiming Aldi was now open at Kohls Plaza. Being curious we turned in to see if the legends of 25 cent grocery carts and sub-WalMart pricing were really true.

Now, we had a little scare initially as we scrambled to locate a just in case cart quarter. Fortunately the ash tray had done it’s job and held onto our loose change for just such an occasion. As we approached the store a couple of things grabbed my attention. First, the company offers $52,000/year as a starting training salary for store managers and second, the lot had about 5 cars in it. I’ll attribute the latter to the fact that it’s Mothers Day and the last thing a mother wants to be doing on her morning is grocery shopping.

As we got to the door the quarter question proved true enough. The carts are equipped with an ingenious device which locks all the carts together and can only be released by the insertion of a quarter. When the quarter is inserted the gadget releases the chain, the cart is free and your quarter is captive. The captive quarter is ransom to ensure that you or another entrepreneurial individual return the cart to it’s proper locked state.

Upon entering the store I was immediately reminded of Save-A-Lot only the color scheme seemed warmer and friendlier. In most ways the two stores are very similar. Both offer custom brands at below super market prices, charge you for groceries bags if you weren’t gifted with the foresight to bring your own and require you to bag your own groceries. In both cases the cashier puts the items in your cart so that you can easily wheel them to the community table for bagging.

Despite their similarities I think ultimately Aldi has the advantage. At Aldi milk was just $2.49/gallon for any type with shredded cheese coming in at about $3.50/pound. Both a good bit cheaper than Save-A-Lot. Over all the selection is not as extensive as you would find in Stop & Shop, Shaws or Big Y but what you give up in selection is made up many times over in pricing.

As we walked the aisles picking up breakfast items so that we could attempt to duplicate the Denny’s breakfast fate denied us we were surprised by the savings. Wheat bread was just $.99/loaf bacon was $1.99 per pound (in actual slices with economy grade also available for cheaper) and corned beef hash, ever a beacon of inflation, was priced at $.99/can. All these things are also available at our normal grocery store Save-A-Lot but not as cheaply.

Hamburger is available just as at Save-A-Lot for $1.79 per pound for 73/27 and in frozen chubs of 75/25 for $1.66 per pound. Salmon pre-frozen in 16oz bags was available for $3.99/lb a dollar cheaper than Save-A-Lot’s regular price which is also the sale price at most grocery stores.

I suppose I could go on most of the day pointing out all the favorable price differences but suffice it to say the over all savings is great enough for me to consider running across the river to Aldi for my weekly grocery pickup until our very own store opens up on Silver Lane. How did the residents of East Hartford ever get so lucky to have two of the cheapest grocery stores I have ever seen (Aldi and Save-A-Lot) come to town. Woe be to the supermarket chains when the average citizen decides the cost savings are more important than having an unenthusiastic teenager bag their groceries for them.

Today our normal shopping experience consists of Sams Club (Milk and general goods), Shop-Rite (Sales items) and Save-A-lot (Staples) each shopped competitively and without mercy to meet our $250/month grocery budget. I foresee a close future which eliminates both Sams Club and Save-A-Lot as they are replaced by the less expensive Aldi store providing a bonus benefit of less fuel consumption to boot.

As reported by East Hartford Resident’s Blog:

The TPZ will not take action on the proposed Adult Entertainment zoning regulation changes during their next meeting on May 14th.

It appears to me that the TPZ was listening and heard the residents speak.

..….

Republican delegates from first congressional district member towns met at 10AM today at the West Hartford town hall to nominate and select their congressional candidate.

Joseph Visconti, currently serving as a member of the West Hartford Town Council, received the GOP nod with no contest in a unanimous decision.

From Joe’s Website:

Joe is a businessman, a member of the West Hartford Town Council, patron of the arts and community activist. He serves on the council’s Community Planning and Development Committee, and is the Council liaison to the West Hartford Board of Education.

On hand were two of our own Town Council members Eric Thompson and Don Pitkin as well as RTC members Paul Roczynski (Chairman), Patrick Sanzo, Dominic Fulco and Joe Kronen to serve as delegates to represent East Hartford in candidate selection.

The biggest question now is how much a challenge can Visconti pose to the incumbent Larson who no doubt has taken for granted a victory in November based on the history of the 1st congressional district. The 1st Congressional district has belonged to the democrat party since 1959 with Larson in office since 1999.

Despite the overwhelming (greater than 2 to 1) voter registration benefit the democrats enjoy it will be interesting to see if district voters of all affiliations are ready for a change of pace. Personally, I think 10 years in office is long enough when after 10 years we still have the same excessive and abusive taxation we had in the beginning with less to show for it than if we received no federal benefits at all.

From Tax Foundation:

Federal Tax Burdens and Expenditures: Connecticut Is a Donor State
Connecticut taxpayers receive less federal funding per dollar of federal taxes paid compared to the average state. Per dollar of Federal tax collected in 2005, Connecticut citizens received approximately $0.69 in the way of federal spending. This ranks the state 3rd lowest nationally, slightly higher than in 1995 when Connecticut ranked last, receving $0.68 in federal spending per dollar of taxes. Neighboring states and the federal spending received per dollar of federal taxes collected were: New York ($0.79), Massachusetts ($0.82), New Hampshire ($0.71), Vermont ($1.08) and Rhode Island ($1.00).

Video is below. Forgive the shakiness. I didn’t bring my tripod.

Convention comes to order.

Convention reconvenes and rules committee gives convention rules report.

Credentials committee gives delegate report.

Ralph Capenera gives nominating speech for Joe Visconti.

Theresa McGrath gives a seconding speech for Joe Visconti.

Joe Visconti is confirmed and accepts the nomination.

In an attempt to improve the viewing experience (at the expense of post length) I have broken up the video into many individual segments. Any segment can be downloaded by clicking on the video to go to google video and clicking the download video for Ipod link on the right.

Now for the video…
Feel free to comment if I didn’t get a name right or I have no name for you.

Start of the public hearing

Mike Dayton’s Testimony

Hugo Benettieri’s Testimony

Phil Michalowski’s Testimony

Mike Dayton’s Testimony 2

Public Testimony

Patrick Sanzo

Reginald (?)

Catherine Stevens

Barbara Austin

Susan Kniep

Michael Sylvestor

Susan Kniep 2

Irene (?)

George Franek

Peter Santoro

Jonathan Keller

Mike DeGregario

Kim Coleman

Kathy Lombardo

Janet Rice

Greg Foran

Unknown

Karen Howe

Unknown

Michael Sylvestor Jr.

Steve Livingston

Salvatore Ingallinero

Clara Pierceton

Unknown

Anita Morrison

Peter Santoro 2

Greg Foran 2

Susan Kniep 3

Patrick Sanzo 2

Don Pitkin

Kim Coleman 2

Reginald ? 2

Marc Weinberg

End of hearing and P&Z action

The public hearing is over and the P&Z has decided to postpone action on the proposed zoning changes for adult establishments until their next regular meeting at earliest to allow for further research.

Many people turned out and all told I have about 3 hours of video to sort through so more will come later.

The message was clear tonight. Not in my town. Not in my backyard. The P&Z will continue investigating alternatives but it looks like it will be our town and our back yards.

Agenda is HERE.

If you live in North Meadows or the Prestige Park area you need to be there.
The topic of discussion will be the zoning changes to allow strip clubs in the North Meadows and Prestige Park sections of town.

Thanks Jim. To answer your question, I’m just an average guy who is sick of municipal, state and federal government regulating my life and taxing me for the privilege. So sick in fact that I decided to get involved.

If you weren’t aware the Town Council and P&Z Commission met in a joint meeting last night at 6:30 to discuss needed regulatory and zoning changes to bring the city into compliance with constitutional tests the courts are likely to apply regarding the restrictions of first amendment rights applied to adult establishments.

The town retained the firm Harrall-Michalowski Associates Inc. to do a study of our current zoning and regulations concerning adult establishments and the zoning and regulations of other areas that have faced this issue previously. They presented some suggested regulatory changes to the council and zoning changes to the P&Z. Changes suggested include allowing adult establishments in the areas known as Prestige Park and the Meadows.

The topic of the night was secondary effects. Secondary effects are important, as explained by Kim Coleman (legal council for Masters Club LLC.), because a way the town can restrict the free speech rights of an adult establishment (or any other group) is by demonstrating secondary effects sufficiently harmful to warrant a restriction.

For his part Mr. Dayton, the town planner, presented a considerable compilation of police reports and incidents to councilors and commissioners demonstrating the secondary effects of the existing adult establishments. Was it enough to make the case? Kim Coleman says no.

In my discussion with Coleman after the meeting she conveyed that although secondary effects can be a valid reason for limiting free speech rights the argument doesn’t work here because the town has made a mistake in the areas they chose to recommend for adult establishment use because as the maps distributed by the town’s consultant show the two designated areas have a considerably greater residential concentration and therefore greater likelihood of secondary effects than the currently disputed site on Robert’s Street.

In reviewing the maps I can’t help but to agree with her on that point. While Prestige Park has a benefit in that the club would be somewhat cordoned off inside the industrial park it has a large negative in that it’s positioning provides for no direct highway access and worse it’s central location in proximity to surrounding highways guarantees that visitors would come from every direction and would have to use residential neighborhoods and streets throughout town as their route to the club which would likely translate into a lot more intoxicated persons driving in the surrounding residential areas day and night.

While the Meadows location does have some of the benefits that the Roberts Street location has, such as almost direct highway access from Rt 2, I-84 and I-91 as well as relative isolation, it’s a very mixed area with about a quarter of the properties being residential. The location of the residential properties makes it unlikely that any of them would be able to escape exposure to adult establishments located in that area.
To add insult to injury the largest vacant lots to be developed are located directly adjacent to residential properties.

With the shortcomings of these areas in mind it must be considered that more than just Masters Club LLC is on the table here. The town is required to make it possible for future developers to have the opportunity to come to town and this isn’t a town with a lot of real estate to consider which wouldn’t have a close proximity to undesirable properties such as houses, schools and churches. In that thread these areas may not be better than the Robert’s Street location but they may be the best we can get and still allow for future development as required.

So what happens now? Well have to wait and see. The lawsuit filed by Masters Club is at least temporarily halted in trade for the town paying their legal fees to date totaling over $13,000 and as my conversation with Coleman suggests temporarily is the key word so long as the town fails to provide a zone with ample development potential which would suffer less secondary effects than the Robert’s Street location.

On Wednesday the 30th at 7PM there will be a public hearing on the proposed zoning changes at town hall in the council chamber. I strongly encourage anyone who can to attend and bring talking points. Especially if you live around prestige park or in or around the meadows area.

Video and documents are below.

Video of Joint Meeting of Town Council and P&Z

Video of Interview with Kim Coleman

Adult regulations from other communities.
Adult Establishment Regulations - Seattle, Washington
Adult Establishment Regulations - Freetown, Massachusetts
Adult Establishment Regulations - Burlington, Iowa
Adult Establishment Regulations - Delaware County, Ohio

Maps of recommended adult zones.
Adult Establishment Map
School and Church Location Map
Proposed Prestige Park Zone
Prestige Park Land Use Map
Proposed North Meadows Zone
North Meadows Land Use Map

I received an update email from Kim Coleman who is the legal counsel for Masters Club LLC.

Hi Jon-

Just a quick update as to what has occurred in the lawsuit.

The Town of East Hartford is again amending their zoning regulations. They are changing several zones. A portion of North Meadows (including water) is being converted from B-3 to B-3A. A portion of Prestige Park is being converted from I-3 to I-3A. Both will allow adult entertainment establishments.

On April 23, 2008 there is a joint meeting between the Town Council & P&Z.

The P&Z meeting to adopt the zone changes is on April 30, 2008.

We came to a temporary resolution with the town recently. The paid for my client’s attorney fees and we agreed to no press forward on the suit until after the zoning changes are in effect.

Our concerns regarding these changes are that they are still in residential areas and no parking is required; what will the impact be on traffic in these residential areas; lack of notice to the residents and business owners in the areas.

Kim Coleman

Law Offices of Norman A. Pattis, LLC

I had a feeling this was the case when I saw that the council voted to pay the attorney fees. I take it this means the town has finally come to terms that a new strip club is coming to town (potentially more than one) and and has decided to move towards managing it rather than preventing it.

I’ve emailed my application. You should too.

Download the form here: Green Committee.pdf

Email it to the Mayor here: mcurrey@ci.east-hartford.ct.us

Or fax it to the Mayor here: 860-282-2978

Finally a significantly cheaper energy supplier has entered the market.

Public Power and Utility

Alternative Electricity Provider To Charge Less
By David Krechevsky

An alternative electricity provider already offering Connecticut Light & Power and United Illuminating customers a significantly lower rate plans to cut that rate even further on Friday.

Public Power & Utility of New Milford, which electrician David Pearsall opened in November to serve as an alternative for CL&P and UI customers, said this week it will cut its rate by about 2 percent.

PP&U currently offers electricity at 10.494 cents per kilowatt hour, nearly 11 percent below CL&P’s standard residential rate of 11.78 cents and about 14.5 percent below UI’s rate of 12.28 cents.

Friday, PP&U will reduce its rate to 10.294 cents/kWh. According to a comparison calculator on the company’s Web site, the typical CL&P customer using 700 kilowatt hours a month would save $10.40 per month by switching to electricity supplied by PP&U.

It should be noted that this is what competition brings in a free (somewhat) market.

As I watched the Town Council meeting tonight two things struck me. First I thought “what a good idea” when I heard a renewable energy committee was being created to investigate and give guidance on energy solutions for the town, businesses and residents.

Secondly I thought “how stupid” when I then saw the council unanimously commit to offsetting 20% of the town’s energy usage without any factual consideration of the costs or impact on the town. I heard unsubstantiated and misinformed rhetoric related to oil and global warming which would be expected with such a motion but no discussion of the costs. Mr Rojas was certainly passionate about it in his description and on it’s face it seems like a reasonable and responsible thing to do. The problem here is that we don’t elect our town leaders to judge things by their face. We elect them to exhibit wisdom and deep consideration of matters such as these which will have actual costs and consequences. There was no such wisdom or consideration demonstrated on this issue which has the fortune of a pretty face.

I plan on putting my name in for the energy committee and I hope you will too. I whole heartedly support alternative energy and as my wife can attest it’s one of my hobbies. It makes no sense whatsoever, though, to replace one expensive energy source with a more expensive one. Industries created by government demand are not sound industries. When oil rises in price or alternative energy lowers in price to a point where it is naturally competitive for alternative energy sources to compete they will. Until then it is an economic drain to force through taxation a less cost efficient energy source on business and residents of East Hartford.

Bottom line, shame on our councilors for committing the town to spending money it doesn’t need to spend in the name of going ‘green’.

ETA: A bit of research through the Department of Energy shows that the premium for energy certificates is generally between 1.5 and 5 cents per KWH. If I were to participate for my house alone there would be an additional cost of between $42 and $140 per year to be offset 20%. That’s for just one 1300 sq ft house now. Imagine the cost when we are talking all town buildings and resource.

I looked into the 99MPG.COM site that Mr. Sanzo expressed interest in. It’s ideas like those which need public support, not companies who sell uncompetitive solar installations. R&D is where future affordability is to be found, not installation services.

ETA2: From looking back through the budget it appears that the budgeted expenditure for town electricity in 08-09 not including the schools is targeted at about 1.02 million dollars. Interestingly that budgeted amount is less than it actually cost in 07-08 (to the tune of about $86,000) so I wonder if there is legitimate energy savings there which accounts for the lower amount or if those budget items were reduced to give an appearance of a lower budget since they are items which are guaranteed to be funded anyways if there is a shortfall. A really rough and inaccurate estimate based on the above figure and a need for an additional 12% offset (8% already being offset according to the electric contract?) would be an annual cost between $10,282 and $34,275 that the town has no real need to spend.

I can’t help but wonder if town document fees, despite limitations imposed by CGS Sec. 1-212, and the necessity of a physical trip to town hall have a tangible negative impact on citizen knowledge and participation in town politics. I know for certain they have that result with me, but how many others feel the same way?

Just for reference the standard fee for a copy of any standard document not fortunate enough to be featured on the town website or unfortunate enough to have aged off the site is 50 cents per page. In the case of a double sided document that is 50 cents per side.

For a bit of reference the last P&Z meeting I attended had an information packet about 96 pages in length not including over-sized drawings and the minutes of previous meetings. For the math impaired that translates into a fee of greater than $48 for the average citizen to  have access to the same information as the P&Z members. Granted the information is available for review in the Town Council office (I believe) and on site at the meeting, but it’s hardly practical for one person to review 96 pages plus drawings and minutes prior to a meeting or while sitting in the council office. It’s not expected that commission or council members should have to do so and it should not be expected for citizens to do so.

I took this a step further and investigated just how much money the town takes in through copy fees. According to data from the finance department since July 1st 2007 the town has taken in just $1,200 across all departments in copy fees. Weigh that sum against the capital expenditures in the budget that many called discretionary to say the least and it demonstrated just how minuscule that amount really is. There is clearly no risk of loss of a substantial revenue stream by making documents freely available.

Here’s what I’d like to see happen. I’d like to see every committee, commission and council document made available either online at the town website or for free at the council office.
I’d like to see the town website archive all electronic documents in perpetuity. There is no excuse for the events of last year to fall off the site eliminating the simplest way for residents to know what has happened in the past.

I’d like to see all EHCTV broadcasts made available on the town website and archived.

I realize all this takes time and money, but the technology is here and there is no excuse for it to cost the residents of East Hartford anything to exercise their right to be informed citizens.

There is nothing more vital to healthy government than an informed citizenry. Without transparency everything else is just a show.

That’s what I think. What do you think?

I would like to have mentioned this a few days ago but for obvious reasons I was too busy.

If you haven’t been following the economy closely for the last week or two you may not have noticed that the federal reserve has been very active in throwing fluff at the market. This has manifested itself in a misplaced belief that the market may be recovering.

It’s time for a reality check. Nothing has changed fundamentally in the monetary policy of the fed and in fact they have furthered coming inflation through an additional rate cut and attempts at increasing liquidity by dumping money on the market.

This is where the good news comes in. When the fed takes these steps the market typically reacts positively in the short term as it has done for the past 2 weeks or so. This has pushed foreign currencies and precious metals down from their recent highs and created a new buying opportunity. It’s a certainty that until our country stops incurring war debt and our monetary policy is changed to end inflationary credit that the dollar will continue to slide making investments in foreign currency and precious metals a sure bet.

It’s impossible to know in the near term how many more surprises the fed is going to spring in order to delay metals and currencies from returning to their highs, but rest assured they can’t fool me and they can’t fool the market for long.

Mr. Bernanke can tell me one thing but the fact that the Swiss Franc and Canadian Dollar both traded above the value of the dollar and the Australian Dollar is just pennies away proves he is obscuring the facts.

Here are the reasons why politics matter.

Lucas was born Friday the 28th in the wee hours.

Big brother Jacob holding Lucas.

Other than recording the event for future generations there was little reason for me to attend the Tuesday night special hearing meeting since there was no public comment period in the agenda and none of the council members moved to add one.

The democrats had a plan already in place and the republicans weren’t of a mind to offer any challenges more substantial than scolding words. There was a good hour of back and forth which begs the question why since none of the republicans were willing to go as far as putting a motion where their mouths were to actually amend the budget motion.

The most noticeable thing for me, despite Mr. Horan’s attempt to mitigate it in his commentary, was the partisanship dripping down the walls. It was clear that this was a divided and uncooperative council. The budget was not introduced as the council budget, but rather as the democratic budget. The democrats spent a considerable period patting themselves on the back for their work on the budget without even realizing that what they are saying is that they intentionally and without remorse excluded a third of the council from active budget negotiation and gave their written suggestions only a token notice.

As I said before this is not national politics playing out on CNN or with a presidential office at stake. This is our town these are our dollars and our lives, yet our elected officials are playing politics with each other without regard for our best interest. If the intention was for the majority party to exclude the minority party we never would have bothered to include minority party protection in the charter.

There were a lot of things that struck me as wrong, comedic or generally strange. I had a long drawn out review of the whole night written but in reading it I felt it was kind of pointless. You’ll either get it or you won’t when you watch it and a blow by blow from me isn’t going to change that.

All I really want to comment on other than partisan politics and the pointless response of the republicans was the following:

The democrats argued that the registrars didn’t deserve a raise, despite acknowledging that they are underpaid and work extremely hard, on account of them being elected officials who knew the salary when they ran for office and the town being unable to afford it. Then they went on to give the Mayor a raise with the argument that she works hard and deserves it. They conveniently forgot the part of their prior argument against raises that she is an elected official who knew the salary and the town can’t afford it.

Barbara Ann Rossi, Jason Rojas and Bill Horan each commented that taxes are not a significant factor in people losing their homes. They seem to conveniently forget that the average monthly tax impact is $383 per month. That’s hardly a small sum and more than enough to send a person to the poor house. Also, for Barbara specifically since she suggested the lack of tax lien foreclosures equaled a lack of tax impact, tax liens are a poor indicator of the effects of taxes on foreclosure. The mortgage companies who perform the majority of foreclosures pay the taxes if and when the owners do not so that their interests are protected and thereby prevent tax lien foreclosure while going on to foreclose on the owner who can’t afford the taxes (and therefore can’t keep the mortgage current) themselves.

The Republicans put their money where their mouths were and included a 5% reduction in their salary and a suggestion that the mayor and other councilors follow suit. Needless to say the democratic response was “that’s absurd”. So much for leading by example.

Barbara commented on the mill rate making the claim that it’s the lowest one since 1998 and representing that as some kind of landmark accomplishment of spending restraint. That made me smile since even a little common sense shows that the mill rate is attributable solely to the completion of the reval phase in. A testament to spending restraint will be keeping it where it is until 2018. Despite what the mill rate claim was supposed to prove, our tax bills will establish a new record high this year.

Almost last and hardly least, renovations for the town hall were overwhelmingly supported in the name of handicap accessibility and yet it seems most of the renovations have no such effect at all. Of all the renovations only two have that effect, a new elevator to the mayors office and a new motor for the existing elevator. The rest are purely cosmetic items. Apparently the mayor and council feel that those of us with handicaps have a lower tolerance for carpet and furniture wear than the rest of us.

As if the 118K or so for new granite curbs (that’s right, the same stuff you can’t afford for your kitchen) at the town hall weren’t enough the council voted to spend over 40K on just design for a new median on Rt 44 (which is owned and maintained by the state, read: their responsibility) and a built in promise to come back next year for about 500K to actually build the new median. Remember, we couldn’t afford the 3,500 or so that was requested for the registrars because of the state of the town and yet we somehow can afford a raise for the democratic mayor (who was smiling quite widely at the democratic defense of her raise and work dedication), luxury curbing and new medians for roads we don’t have the responsibility to maintain.

After watching the whole thing in person I must conclude that Pat Harmon, Bill Horan and Rich Kehoe were the big winners of the night. They each seemed professional amongst a back and forth that at times had little to do with East Hartford’s welfare. The most entertaining parts inevitably came from the “so what are you going to do about it” look on Rich’s face as he listened to Don’s arguments against the proposed budget motion though I fear I probably didn’t capture them on camera.

The blog got a bit of mention in the Reminder. I really like the intro sentence. It pretty much captures the problem.

Had I known Steve was taking pictures I would have gotten a haircut.
Read for yourself. You’ll have to choose East Hartford as your location to see the story.

.

The Republican Town Council members have released a budget position statement to accompany their budget plan which is to be voted on tonight along with the democratic plan. Hopefully I’ll get a copy of the proposed budgets, though not likely before they are passed or defeated.

Have a read and please do come to the budget meeting tonight.

Republican Budget Statement 2008-2009

As a bit of bonus material I calculated the visible tax burden in our CL&P bills.
As a percentage of the entire bill state tax (that’s what all those fees ultimately are) come to a full 29% of the total delivery bill they are assessed against. This is our energy crisis. I use an energy aggregator as my supply provider so your tax burden may even be higher if you use cl&p.

Take a look at your bill. It’s quite enlightening and enraging at the same time.

.

First off. Where was everyone? 49,000 citizens and only 4 (myself included) came to represent our views as taxpayers.

The whole deal was short and sweet since nobody bothered to show up.  Video is below.
I can’t help but feel that this whole budget process is exclusionary to the general public.

The Democratic council members informed me that they have already gone through the budget and decided on changes, yet wouldn’t answer a direct question on what changes were coming. The Republican council members informed me they were excluded from the budget review the Democrats  conducted and as such had no voice at all in whatever changes the 2/3rds majority is going to present on Tuesday though I’m told they have some ideas of their own.

It would be nice if the council members would let us (the public) know what their changes are going to be before they vote on them. Though what incentive do they have to share when only 4 people show up at the hearing to be heard.

Can’t there be at least an illusion of non-partisan politics for something as important to real people as our town budget? This isn’t a national presidential election and we are all neighbors.

The video of the Tuesday night council meeting is now available below.

So what happened?
Not a whole lot. We learned that East Hartford isn’t good enough for Notre Dame football, multiple community events are coming up this year and Mayor Currey doesn’t like when Councilman Pitkin asks about the treasurer.

..

First off, I owe a big thanks to Mike Walsh (East Hartford Finance Director) for accommodating my request for the detailed budget.

This detailed budget is pretty much a printout from the town accounting system which is now converted to PDF for accessibility. It’s not nearly as pretty as the budget book but the meat is all there.

Here is a summary of it’s use from Mr. Walsh:

Finally, here is the detailed budget. Give it a look before the public hearing if you have time.