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Council, Unions, and Others to Meet

By Jeffrey B. Cohen

May 08, 2009

Despite warnings from the mayor that council negotiations with the city's unions could run afoul of the law, the city council has set up a meeting with the unions and others Monday to discuss the budget.

The meeting, scheduled for 3:30 p.m., will allow representatives from the Hartford Public Services Coalition and other interested groups to discuss ways to save more and spend less city money with the council, said Councilman Pedro Segarra.

"It's really an opportunity for anyone who wants to come before us to address the issue of balancing the budget," Segarra said.

Last week, Perez sent city unions a letter saying that they should send him their suggestions on how to balance the budget by Wednesday at noon. But on Tuesday, five of the unions - working together as a coalition - wrote Perez back, telling him that he was asking for too much, too late.

Also on Monday, Perez wrote the council a letter warning them about negotiating with the unions. But on Wednesday, the council went ahead and scheduled a public meeting.

Richard Rodriguez, head of the city's police union and a spokesman for the coalition, said he'll be there.

"What we hope to get from it is transparent information from the budget so that we can actually come up with the dollar amounts that the mayor has requested," Rodriguez said.