The job of the City Council is to vote.
Yesterday, Veronica Airey-Wilson failed to do her job.

The message that I got from her decision to abstain was this: Airey-Wilson wants to be everyone’s friend. Airey-Wilson wants to make no enemies. Airey-Wilson is unable to summon the courage to do her job, which, by the way, requires that tough decisions be made from time-to-time. In a time of economic meltdown, in a time when many people are losing their jobs, Airey-Wilson should show a little gratitude to at least have a job by performing one of the central tasks that she is being paid to do.

Much is being made of Cotto’s vote and remarks, some of which you can read on CT News Junkie. I have to wonder if anyone on the Council cared when he announced that he was “not down with the way this is happening.” Applause or lack of in the chambers is not what I’m referring to. Did anyone else voting (or in Airey-Wilson’s case, not voting) yesterday try on some empathy? Did anyone question the unethical and painful attempt to strip someone of power when he had not shown any wrongdoing other than having poor choice in friends?

Here is the full text of the statement given by the Working Families Party (Cotto and Deutsch) regarding the attempt to remove City Council President Torres from his position yesterday:

It is time for change in Hartford. Just as change has been needed at the national level and is now happening in Washington, it has also been needed for a while here in our city – and not just for the past week. We’ve been calling for change since the day we took office.

Throughout the past week, we’ve heard many people say they want to do what is best for the City. What’s best for the city is measured in terms of the quality of life of our residents. That’s the kind of change that we need and the kind of change that we in the Working Families Party are committed to.

What is our job in city government? It is to serve the people, honestly, directly, responsively.

* We need transparency and accountability in city government, and we plan to present a proposal to ban political contributions from city contractors as a first step in this direction, and an ordinance to require approval of the city council for any appeal of Freedom of Information requests.

* To foster good employment in the city, we need to act on the improvements to the Living Wage ordinance recommended by the Living Wage task force to expand coverage to more workers in our city. And we need to increase and enforce local hiring requirements of city contractors.
* We need to protect jobs and healthcare and plan to require that any proposal to privatize services require a thorough review and that any plans to alter retiree benefits requires a vote of the City Council.
* We need to ensure a healthy living environment. For starters, we propose working with community organizations, to demand a report into the effectiveness of the current blight ordinance.
* We need to do everything possible to improve healthcare for residents in our city. We will work towards a municipal health care pool that allows all city employees, retirees, and those who work in the city to participate in a community rated health pool.

Beyond this, we need to look closely at our own actions: Approving large tax abatements for corporations as our city faces a fiscal crisis, one outside contract after another, one fee and interest charge after another, contracts for high-priced lobbyists, and allowing the executive branch staff to swell beyond control.

Do we need a change in leadership in Hartford? We believe we do. And we urge the City Council president to resign. But we also need to change the process to ensure that the future of our city is settled through open and democratic discussion. The past week has been influenced by emotions and ambitions more than by reason.

What matters most at a time like this is not the distraction of political in-fighting, but the policies that will restore confidence in our leadership and health to our economy.

Larry Deutsch, Minority Leader
Luis Cotto
Working Families Party, Hartford City Council