Hartford Business Journal

20 Hartford Business Journal • August 24, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com OPINION & COMMENTARY Powell: Hartford's next mayor faces stiff challenge By Chris Powell D oes it matter much who wins the Dem- ocratic primary for mayor of Hartford, which is for all practical purposes the election? A former assis- tant to Governor Mal- loy, Luke Bronin, has wrested the Hartford Democratic commit- tee's endorsement away from Mayor Pedro Segarra, who is in an odd position as the challenger. Segarra's tenure has had many embar- rassments but as with Connecticut's other cit- ies, poor administration really isn't the problem. The problem of the cities is demographics, the worsening concentration of the poor, dysfunc- tional, incorrigible, dependent, drug-addicted, and parentless. How could even the most capa- ble candidate for office in Hartford ever tell his constituents the truth — that the trouble with their city is mainly the people who live there? That the most troublesome of those people may not be fully responsible for themselves but largely the products of horribly mistaken state government policy would be little con- solation politically. So according to the Hartford Courant, last week in their first debate Segarra and Bronin emphasized improving the city by developing its arts and tourism industries. They could not have been less relevant. More arts and tourism won't change Hartford's demographics, just the subject. • • • Joe Scarborough, a former U.S. repre- sentative from Florida who now is host of a morning news program on the cable tele- vision network MSNBC and lives in New Canaan, is being suggested as a candidate for the next Republican nomination for governor. While it holds no statewide offices and none of its municipal leaders and state legis- lators are well-known, is the party really so bankrupt that it again must resort to nomi- nating someone with no experience or record in the state's public life, as the party has done disastrously with its last two nominations for governor and U.S. senator? So much is wrong with Connecticut and the state's decline is so obvious that Repub- licans may need only someone — anyone — who is familiar enough with state government and courageous enough to propose distinctly contrary policies. A Republican candidate for governor who actually had something mean- ingful to say might prove more sensational than anyone from TV land. n Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester. EDITORIAL Hartford's mayoral race should focus on solutions, not tenure E xperience has become a hot-button issue in Hartford's mayoral race, with incum- bent Pedro Segarra accusing top rival Luke Bronin of lacking enough connection to the city to be able to lead it. In last week's debate, Segarra pointed out he's been a Hartford resident for four decades, compared to Bronin who moved to the city with his wife in 2006. Segarra was insinuating that his long tenure as a Hartford resident makes him more qualified to make decisions that will benefit a majority of its citizens. We disagree with Segarra's argument. While it's undeniable the mayor has longer, closer ties to the city, you don't need to be a nearly lifelong resident to diagnose the ills that plague Hartford: poverty, high rates of crime and unemployment, and an educa- tional achievement gap. Bronin, who is a Rhodes scholar, has lived in Hartford on and off for nearly a decade, which is plenty of time to develop a keen sense of the good, bad and ugly the city has to offer. The fact that he won the Democrats' endorsement in July over an incumbent within the same party is proof enough that Bronin has been able to connect with key constituencies in the city. Rather than dwell on tenure, the focus should be on the issues and how to solve key problems like reducing gun violence in Hartford's neighborhoods or bringing more jobs to the city that can be filled by Hartford residents. At the end of the day, voters want someone who can solve problems, whether they've lived in the city for 40 days or 40 years. n Keiler's demise offers business lesson Sad news surfaced last week when it became public that longtime Farmington ad agency Keiler & Co. shut its doors. The sudden closure means Greater Hartford has lost its third largest advertising and communications agency, which listed 48 employees and $65 million in gross billings at the end of 2013, according to Hartford Business Journal's Book of Lists. The firm, whose birth dates back to 1973 when it was founded by Richard Keiler, was well-known in the business-to-business marketing space, with a client base that, at one point, boasted such names as Deloitte and Clarcor. What can be learned from Keiler & Co's extinction? It's difficult to pinpoint an exact business lesson because the company's CEO, Lynn Taylor who took over in 2013, hasn't publicly addressed her firm's closure, but accord- ing to a report in Adweek, the company never recovered from the 2013 loss of one of its biggest clients, Lockheed Martin. Steve Wolfberg, a principal and chief creative officer at Cronin and Co. in Glaston- bury, was recently quoted in the media saying client retention is usually what does ad agencies in, but, of course, companies in most industries won't survive without main- taining their key customers. Where Keiler seems to have gone off track was relying on a single company, Lock- heed Martin, for a large part of its business. That, however, isn't uncommon for many small and midsize businesses that provide products and services to a small client base. The need to diversify, then, becomes the underlying lesson. Just as investors look to mitigate risk by creating a diverse stock portfolio, employ- ers of all sizes should strive to have a deep enough client base that can survive a rainy day. Losing a major client would hurt any business, but well-run companies should be able to pick up the pieces and move on. n OTHER VOICES Doctors are still influential, but face tough political foes By Edward Volpintesta A s Dr. Robert D. Russo, president of the Connecticut State Medical Society (CSMS) and Matthew C. Katz, CSMS' vice president and CEO, outlined in the long list of activities that the CSMS is involved in "State medical society still has important influence" (Aug. 10), it is clear that contrary to the opin- ions expressed in another recent HBJ article, "Healthcare consolidation means waning influ- ence for medical societies" (Aug. 3), the CSMS is indeed active and influential in many areas. In all fairness, the CSMS's influence has to be considered from two viewpoints. 1. First, there are social issues like the use of opioids, childhood obesity and domestic vio- lence. But compared to those that follow they are relatively easy to confront. They take time and energy but they are commonsensical and don't invoke too much push back. CSMS lead- ers who sit on various committees do a pretty good job of handling them. 2. The other issues are the tough political ones. These are unbelievably difficult. I refer to the insurance companies' inordinate role in health care and the malpractice system's unduly adversarial methods that compel doc- tors to practice defensive medicine (ordering tests that may not be necessary to have a defense in case a suit is filed). To begin, confronting the insurance companies and getting them to loosen their stranglehold on doctors and the way medicine is practiced is not done by sitting around a commit- tee table with insurance executives and lawmak- ers and using logic to arrive at good solutions. Getting insurers to change requires that a major- ity of the physicians in Connecticut have to physi- cally bring their concerns to our lawmakers. This won't solve the insurance problem but it will at least be the first step to making lawmakers realize how serious doctors are about how insurers' interference has deval- ued their work and made them less effective, and how it has put up a psychological barrier between them and their patients. As for improving the way malpractice is handled, better ways have been discussed. Special health courts dedicated just to mal- practice are one, another is so-called arbi- tration. Both have positive value but the trial lawyers' dominance in this area is just as great as the insurers' in theirs. If the CSMS is to be as effective as its crit- ics want it to be it will have to drop all of its social agenda and focus strictly on reducing the insurance industry's influence on the way medicine is practiced and convincing law- makers that new and better ways of handling malpractice suits must be found. n Dr. Edward Volpintesta is doctor based in Bethel. 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