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Fighting for Her Job, Hartford Registrar Says Council President Should Recuse Himself

Jeff Cohen
/
WNPR
The registrars office in Hartford City Hall.

The Hartford city council has voted to begin the process of removing its three elected registrars of voters.  But attorneys for at least one of the registrars are trying to throw the process off course before it starts.

In paperwork filed with the city council and sent to WNPR, attorneys for Democratic Registrar Olga Vazquez are making the case that Council President Shawn Wooden must recuse himself from the process to remove her. That's because he is a partner Day Pitney -- the same law firm as one of the attorneys involved in the investigation of the case. 

"It would be wholly inappropriate for Wooden to be able to sit and adjudicate a decision in which he -- and his law firm -- has a direct, personal, and pecuniary interest," write attorneys Leon Rosenblatt and Richard Padykula. "Not only does Councilman Wooden’s conflict of interest diminish the Board’s appearance of impartiality but also simultaneously violates Registrar Vazquez’s due process rights to a fair hearing."

But a lawyer for the city council says that argument is just wrong. 

"The entire premise of the motion is erroneous," said Ross Garber, an attorney for the city council. "It appears that Mr. Rosenblatt doesn't recognize that no one from Shawn Wooden's firm is on the prosecution team. Period."

In fact, one of the attorneys in the investigation of the registrars works at Wooden's firm. But Garber says that attorney is not involved in the prosecution.  UPDATE: And, contrary to what Rosenblatt says in his motion, Wooden says that the work that his firm did during that investigation was done for free.   

Vazquez's attorneys as well as those for Working Families Party Registrar Urania Petit are also making the case that the law doesn't allow the council to remove the registrars. Council attorney Allan Taylor has said that a special law passed in 1947 gives the council the right it is seeking to enforce.

On Monday, Rosenblatt sent a letter to the city council and its attorneys, saying that its members “do not have legal authority to terminate a registrar unless and until the registrar has had the opportunity to exhaust judicial review.”

Last month, an attorney for Working Families Party Registrar Urania Petit made a similar argument.

“The power to impeach any elected official in Connecticut resides exclusively with the General Assembly,” wrote attorney Thomas Murphy, calling that a “constitutional concern.” Murphy also argued that the special act of 1947 “no longer has legal force or effect.”

A city investigation into election day failures in Hartford showed "multiple, serious errors" on the part of the registrars office. 

The city turned people away from the polls, lost track of 70 absentee ballots, and failed to agree on an accurate vote tally. Some residents couldn't cast their ballots on election day because the polls weren't open, and the polls weren't open because voter lists weren't in place.

The city council proceedings are scheduled to begin in April.

Jeff Cohen started in newspapers in 2001 and joined Connecticut Public in 2010, where he worked as a reporter and fill-in host. In 2017, he was named news director. Then, in 2022, he became a senior enterprise reporter.

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