Hartford Mayor Pedro E. Segarra says he will refile financial statements with the city’s ethics commission disclosing his spouse’s business ties with a city housing agency.
Segarra also says he will seek a legal opinion on whether he violated city’s ethics rules by not revealing that his spouse, Charlie Ortiz, receives some $2,000 a month in federal Section 8 rent subsidies as a landlord with low-income tenants through housing programs the city administers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The mayor’s actions were in response to a Sunday article in The Hartford Courant that reported Segarra’s omission from filings with the city’s ethics commission.
According to The Associated Press, The Courant reported the rental subsidies to Ortiz have amounted to more than $120,000 since May 2006, when Segarra became a city councilman.
“While I think the premise of the story published in today’s Hartford Courant has no merit, I pride my administration on being transparent and open,” Segarra said in a statement.
