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Griebel Says He’s Not The Bad Guy

By Jeff Cohen

May 10, 2012

No one can seem to agree on just who is at fault for creating an $8 million hole in next year’s budget for the city of Hartford. Is it Mayor Pedro Segarra’s fault for including that money in the budget to begin with? Is it the fault of Oz Griebel at the MetroHartford Alliance, as Segarra and State Rep. Matt Ritter say?

We spoke with Griebel. We’ll have some good tape from him later today on the air. But here’s what he said when I told him that Segarra and Ritter say he blocked the bill.

“Absolutely, categorically reject that conversation because we had an agreement, as long as three weeks ago, with the mayor, Senator [John] Fonfara, and Representative [Matt] Ritter. Representative Ritter, about three weeks ago, decided for reasons that were pressure being applied to him from various sources, that he could not live with the bill and so chose to go off on his own.”

More to come.