“For the most part, people honestly believe that we have turned the ethics corner in Connecticut.”–Jodi M. REll
What whoville is Rell listening to? The CT DOT is the trough that corruption feeds on, and to date, Rell has done nothing substantial about cleaning house and restoring some semblance of transparency and ethics in this crucial department. Let’s review the 2007 hit parade:
Tags: current affairs
Last night’s BOe committee meeting was about as depressing as a meeting could be. The majority of the meeting was spent reviewing the technology and It budget requests. It turns out that Ralph Valenzisi, sitting on a 25 person Microsoft advisory committee is busy recommending, gee what a surprise, Microsoft technology as the public schools’ preferred “tier 1″ vendor. What a conflict of interest! Hearing all the “required” computer “refreshes” and smart boards and other nonsense last night, as not a single BOE member asked the obvious question about what the totally cost of operation was going to be by these proposed solutions, and even worse, gasped at the idea that a computer that is 5 - 7 years in use is still in the schools. “Band-aids” tut-tutted Rosa Murray at the shock of hearing about the age of those computers. Meanwhile in the real world of IT, there is nothing wrong with computers that old that can’t be repurposed into other uses, particularly since the state of educational software hasn’t really advanced since 1999.
Last night the parking authority reviewed its operating budget and recommended that monthly permits and some fines should be raised. From teh Hour:
Parking violation fees and monthly permits are up. Hourly rates are largely unchanged. Security and maintenance are boosted in the Parking Authority’s proposed 2008-09 operating budget.
“We’re enhancing some of our fines. A couple of people on the authority feel very strongly about people who park in handicapped zones and shouldn’t, so we’re bringing that fine up to the state maximum (of $200),” said Stephen G. Bentkover, Parking Authority chairman. “We’re going to be raising the rates on monthly parking stickers, minimally, because we haven’t raised them in years and we have to keep place with inflation.”
Tags: Norwalk
