Hartford, Conn., council leaders said yesterday that they oppose filing for bankruptcy, just days after the mayor warned he would seek that protection if the city doesn’t get state aid soon, the Hartford Courant reported today. “Filing for bankruptcy is something that will have devastating impacts and it should not be done in a hasteful way,” Wildaliz Bermudez, the panel’s minority leader, said. “There needs to be community conversations…. There are many things that have to happen before we even get to that level.” Bermudez and council President Thomas “TJ” Clarke II issued a statement yesterday saying that a “majority” of council members oppose bankruptcy. They called on the legislature to send assistance to the troubled capital city. “Bankruptcy should not be an option for Hartford,” Clarke said. Last week, however, Clarke and four other Democratic council members stood behind Mayor Luke Bronin as he declared that the city would seek chapter 9 protection if it didn’t receive its needed state aid within 60 days.
