Paul Bass Photo
Marcus Paca in the WNHH FM studio.
Marcus Paca promised Tuesday that, if elected, he won’t have a police officer drive him around and he will promptly come clean with the public about mistakes like breaches of private health data.
During an interview on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program, Paca, who is seeking the Democratic mayoral nomination, cited those two positions as examples of how as mayor he would run a tighter fiscal ship and communicate more openly with the public.
Paca said he plans to seek the support of the Democratic Town Committee at its upcoming nominating convention. If he fails to win the required one-third of votes to win a position on the Sept. 12 party primary ballot, his team will set about collecting the approximately 4,500 signatures of registered Democrats needed to have his name appear. Paca said he plans to open a campaign office at 132 Grand Ave. and launch a voter registration drive Friday afternoon.
Incumbent Mayor Toni Harp, also a Democrat, plans to formally announce her candidacy for a third two-year term at an event at Sound School Friday at 5 p.m.
In Tuesday’s interview, Paca said he would end the practice of having police officers drive the mayor. He said he would drive himself around town. “Listen, I’m 39 years of old. The mayor’s [69] years old,” Paca said. “I don’t feel scared or afraid to walk in my own community. A lot of folks look at that as a sign of disrespect. I’m approachable. I am not going to have a chauffeur.”
Harp responded Tuesday that she chose to have police drivers after then-Police Chief Dean Esserman recommended it. Esserman cited security concerns.
Paca gave the elimination of the driver position, which covers multiple shifts a day and can include overtime, as an example of ways he’d trim the budget. He criticized the Harp administration for proposing a new city budget that raises spending. “We have a spending problem” in New Haven, not a “revenue problem,” he argued, saying he doesn’t believe that the state will come through with a $31 million increase in municipal aid that the proposed budget counts on. Asked for other specific cuts, Paca said he couldn’t produce a total list but offered some suggestions: That better communication can reduce the number of costly lawsuits. That staff travel can be reduced. That “non-essential contracts” for grant-writing and in the education and legal departments can be reexamined. That the city can stop “duplicating” tasks done in the not-for-profit sector, like organizing food policy.
The candidate also criticized the Harp administration’s response to the data breach that occurred last July 28 in the health department, as an example of how city government can be run more transparently.
The state has charged a 36-year-old former city health department epidemiologist with two felony charges for allegedly sneaking back into her old office on that date, downloading computer files onto a personal thumb drive, then erasing the private records of at least 587 adults and minors with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) from a government database while an intern and a union steward watched. (Click here and here to read previous stories about the case.) It took the city close to six months to inform the victims of the breach; federal rules require a 60-day turnaround. The city also never posted a public notice about it — on its website, say — as recommended by the feds; the city’s health director has declined to make any public comments about it. The Office of Civil Rights of the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is conducting an investigation into the case. (HHS spokesman Lou Burton said in an email message Tuesday that the department had no information to release.)
Paca Tuesday said the administration should have immediately notified the victims and spoken publicly about the incident, as well as about what it learned form the mistake.
“The health department was compliant with reporting requirements once the police department conclude its investigation,” Harp responded Tuesday.
Her administration’s position is that, although city officials immediately reported the suspected breach to police the day after it happened, the city needed to wait for a police investigation to confirm the details of the breach before notifying the victims. The city barely made the 60-day deadline after the point at which police notified the health department that it had definitively confirmed the breach.
Paca called that explanation “hogwash.”
“They knew they did something wrong and tried to cover it up. That’s why they were not forthcoming with the information,” he alleged. “… They took several months out hoping nobody would find out. Let’s call it what it was. It was a coverup.”
Asked if he would have fired the union official who escorted the former employee on her mission that day, Paca said he would need more information to make a determination. He said he would have disciplined the health director.
“When we make a mistake — because we will make a mistakes no one’s perfect …” Paca said, “we will be man and woman enough as an administration to say that we were wrong, and rectify the situation.”
A report from the health department to HHS, obtained through the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act, lists general actions the department has taken in the wake of the breach:
“• Adopted encryption technologies
“• Changed password/strengthened password requirements
“• Implemented new technical safeguards
“• Improved physical security
“• Provided business associate with additional training on HIPAA requirements
“• Revised policies and procedures
“• Trained or retrained workforce members.”
Click on or download the above audio file to hear the full interview with Marcus Paca on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program, which also covered housing and economic development as well as his personal story. Click here to read a previous story about Paca’s education platform.
I offer Mr. Paca the following critique on his comment.
https://www.marcuspaca2017.com/fiscal-responsibility
Especially since the Mayor volunteered the weak response: "Harp responded Tuesday that she chose to have police drivers after then-Police Chief Dean Esserman recommended it. Esserman cited security concerns". It raises the question what security concerns does she fear.
• Adopted encryption technologies
"• Changed password/strengthened password requirements
"• Implemented new technical safeguards
"• Improved physical security
"• Provided business associate with additional training on HIPAA requirements
"• Revised policies and procedures
"• Trained or retrained workforce members."
The city still has failed its most important responsibility.. that of securing and paying for their long term Identify care from thief and selling of important personal information.
Collection $4,500 verifiable signatures will take the collection of 12-13K signatures, just ask Ron Smith and Justin Elicker.