Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 125

elected are going to run Hart served on the Citv Council for nist on the council Dees her rift PliWlY she is 42 and much closer to the corporate community: the white corporate community. with the mayor to a "conflict of styles" that emerged almost as soon as they began working together after the 1991 election. "My style is more of a person who believes in less talk and more action, in actually doing the deed as opposed to talking it out ad infinitum," Milward says. "My style is that you have to follow up. When you begin a process you have to finalize it I am a bottom-line person." Milward describes Perry as "very flowery with the words people want to hear.

But behind that, is there any real beef? I want to tell you, there isn't" Some see a generational theme, and a complicated racial undertone, to the Perry-Mil-ward feud. Milward is also a hi ark woman, thoutrh substan tially younger than Perry CfMPS AND ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN There a hostility there tnat is very personal and very deep," one observer says. "It's as if Perry feels she isn't getting the proper respect from this young yuppie, and Milward is saying that Carrie Perry is just an old fart" Many others, though, affirm Milward's basic analysis of Perry's shortcomings. "Carrie Perry may be a nice person but she doesn't have any ideas. At some point you have to accomplish something, you have to get things done.

What happened with her council slate is that there was just no leadership there, no direction," says Democratic state Senate Majority Leader William A. DiBella, a Hartford native who COED STUDY SKILLS Grades 7-12 bnpreve row grades, lean BMre leu tiaaa. Studv Skills. Time Monogement, Writing, Word Processing, Moth, trtechva Reoding, All content areas. ALSO Uom hew to Um Your Computor to Study: Typing, outlining, vocobulory building, word DrocaMing, editing, spat ehadung end using a taction doto MM tor raioorch popan).

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All we nave is our access to the political sys tem." She claims the current diffu sion of power has allowed a ne- farious and unelected "shadow government" to take over. She doesn't define exactly who runs it or how, but DiBcllas name crops up often, as does that of Nicholas Carbone, the former deputy mayor, now a real estate developer. 1 know tneir signature," Perry says without naming names. "I know they're in volved. To some, this is all about power.

Power and money." what money; "More than $204 million in school construction. A new con vention center. More than $1 billion in contracts over the next three years," she says. "You think they want a little black lady with a hat sitting on top of that?" DiBella responds to Perry's assertions "She's paranoid. It's just insane paranoia." But in Perry view, tnese shadowy forces of greed are also behind the move to bring casino gambling to the city.

DiBella, for instance, has been an outspoken proponent of Las Vegas gambling magnate Steve Wynn's proposal for a downtown casino complex. DiBella insists he is interested only in creating jobs and revitalizing the local economy. But Perry sees the casino bid as offering bttle to Hartford's 20,000 structurally unemployed. She also sees it as a threat to the spiritual fiber of the city, and an insult to the folks who live here. She says Wynn, DiBella and their cohorts have pushed the thing without consulting her or the community.

HAIW DCStGMS 997 Farmmgto Ave. W. Htfd. Center 2J6-0S63 nine years before moving to the legislature. DiBella dismisses Perry's argument that the charter renders her powerless.

"She's got great power to get press, to advance an agenda, to use the bully pulpit The charter isn't the problem. She doesn't use the power the charter gives her." The charter issue will come to a head a week from Tuesday, when Hartford voters go to the polls to decide whether to create a strnnff-mavor form of Govern ment the charter change also would expand the Uty touncu from nine to 13 members, with district representation; all nine members are now at-large. Perry has made the charter referendum her personal cause wlehre. nushinflr it onto the bal lot in mid-February not an optimum time to be drumming up enthusiasm for a relatively arcane issue anainst the ad vice of many supporters, who fplt hp should have set It aside until her September re-election i campaign, increasingly, me referendum is considered a quixotic effort In order for it to pass. 15 percent of the eligible voters or I0.0W people must vote affirmatively (and be in the maioritvl.

Perrv admits: "On the coldest dav of the cold est month of the year, it may take a miracle." But winnirur seems to be sec ondary to her. As she has so many times in the past Perry has taken on what she calls her "greatest political challenge ever" because she sees a funda mental Drinciole at stake. "This isn't about personalities, and it isn't about Carrie Perrv aeizinir power. It's about accountability and it's about all the people of this city sharing nower." aha aavs. "It's about whether the anointed or the Continued from preceding page just how politically impotent Perry is right now, she had no more leverage than the average Jane or Juan.

Perry blames the city charter and her power-hungry former allies for her predicament But her critics, who are both virulent and legion, say she's created the mess herself. Her coalition crumbled because she failed to lead it, they say. She put her own people in place, then failed to advance the programs and policies and issues around which they could coalesce, leaving a power vacuum that guaranteed havoc Deputy Mayor Henrietta S. Milward, Perry onetime protegee and now her chief antago COED CAMP WOODSTOCK "The Friendship Camp" 1-M0-r2-2344 Cal tar Fraa Broehura A Branch Of Hartford YMCA A baauftM camp tocatsd Monnaaatam ConnacacU wn program tm MOfc FUN THAN VOU CAN IMAGINE I fto 4 Orti agM 1 arallaa COED ManatlaM'a Holiday Hill Day Camp Fresh Air. Fun and Fnanoarup tor over Thirty Vaar Transportation provKMd om moat fcastam Ct trxma Dacourwa tar aarty anrotmant (Daadkna March 31) CaB Oadley Hamlin: 42J-1175 MawttteK Cater, ct otzaa war 12 Mm COED COMPUTER CREATIYES Tna Summae ptaca tor Laamtnq, Typing, worrj rracaaaarg ana Programming ptua romaotanon Reading.

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