Print

Still No Consensus On Hartford Council President

Democrats wanted it resolved by thanksgiving

By Jeff Cohen

December 09, 2011

In Hartford, the goal of city Democrats was to have a new council president by Thanksgiving. But as WNPR's Jeff Cohen reports, that time has come and gone and there still is no consensus on who will lead.

Most of the time, it doesn't really matter who the president of the Hartford city council is. Except, of course, when it does -- like last year, when Pedro Segarra went from council president to mayor. He was filling the seat left vacant by convicted former Mayor Eddie Perez.

Now, more than a month after a predictable election that gave Democrats six of the council's nine seats, the newly elected councilmen still can't agree on who gets to sit in the big chair.

"I think we're trying to get to a point where everyone's comfortable and feels that the process has been fair."

That's Ken Kennedy, one of at least two people interested in the job. Kennedy, a council veteran, says the other interested candidate is Shawn Wooden -- the city attorney who first ran for mayor before getting into the council race.

The eventual president will need five of the nine votes. Kennedy says a resolution is close, but the details aren't yet done.

"Hartford politics can often get tied up in knots over these types of issues. We want to be a different council, we want to get these issues settled so we can go right to the issues of governance and try to hit the ground running."

Kennedy also took a moment to address one popular city rumor -- that, for some reason, Segarra may not finish out the term he just won. Were that true, it would add special weight to the question of who will be the next council president.

"I know the rumor mill in Hartford but I want to state unequivocally that Mayor Segarra is going to finish his entire term."

Segarra has said he plans to serve all four years.