Running unopposed, Bridgeport’s first Latina City Council President Aidee Nieves Monday night was elected to serve another two years as leader of the legislative body. The roll call vote was 17 yes votes with two no votes cast by Maria Pereira and her council partner newcomer Michele Small.
Three other council freshmen Tyler Mack, Aikeem Boyd and Wanda Simmons voted for Nieves.
The remainder of the council agenda was referred to respective committees.
Meanwhile Monday night John Weldon was voted back in as chair during the organizational meeting of the Board of Education.
Nieves announced the following committee assignments:
COMMITTEES OF THE CITY COUNCIL
2021-2022
First two named Councilmembers serve as Co-Chairs
Committee on Budget and Appropriations
Councilmembers: Burns, Newton, McBride-Lee, Herron, McCarthy, Mack, Vizzo-Paniccia.
Committee on Ordinances
Councilmembers: Brown, Roman-Christy, Newton, Lyons, Boyd, Valle, Cruz.
Committee on Public Safety and Transportation
Councilmembers: Valle, Lyons, Cruz, Boyd, Castillo, Simmons, Vizzo-Paniccia.
Committee on Economic and Community Development and Environment
Councilmembers: Valle, Burns, Roman-Christy, Lyons, Mack, McBride-Lee, Brown.
Committee on Miscellaneous Matters
Councilmembers: Vizzo-Paniccia, Mack, Brown, Castillo, Boyd, McCarthy, Simmons.
Committee on Contracts
Councilmembers: McCarthy, Herron, Cruz, Roman-Christy, Pereira, Silva, Newton.
Committee on Education and Social Services
Councilmembers: Cruz, Boyd, Simmons, Silva, Pereira, Lyons.
Maria Pereira and her council partner newcomer Michele Small both voted no, let’s see how long Michele Small continues to play follow the leader following Maria. Just check the record of past council members who ran with Maria then they stopped following her.
There is a saying that ‘just because you don’t agree with someone does not mean that they are wrong or that you are right’. Some on the council who didn’t like or agree with Maria are no longer there.
Cheers!
Rich, you and I have both negotiated contracts with the city, you in Stamford and I did here in Bridgeport and we had some great items on the table that we couldn’t get into the contract but at the end we came up with an agreement where both sides signed off on well that’s not Maria. Rich, your are totally right when you said, “‘just because you don’t agree with someone does not mean that they are wrong or that you are right’” but you are not looking at all the facts as it concerns Maria. Let me say something about Maria that some may think is strange, I think is smart and good at researching but one thing Maria is not, she is not a leader, if are not on her side then you become her enemy (a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something). Rich, in politics 50% plus one is the name of the game and for the city council that number is 11, well Maria has 2 members, Michele Small and herself, Maria can not will not get 9 other council member to support her. Now, why is that, when you don’t agree with her she makes everything personal and she will make personal attacks on that person
Rich, let me make this analogy that my brother Donald Day likes to make:
“take your favorite meal with everything you love to eat and I go outside and get the top of the garbage can and serve that good meal that love on garbage can top, well that not very appetizing” Rich, that’s Maria.
Apparently Maria’s constituents don’t agree with you. They eat her up. No primary candidate for City Council in 2019 or 2021 received more votes than Maria. And… she got those votes without the endorsement of a Town Committee or Political Party or influence group such as Generation by Now. You may not like her but her constituents vote for her.
Marshall, and your point is? Tell me how will Maria be the savior to save Bridgeport from from Mario Testa, the Decomratic Town Committee and Joe Gamin? Maria’s district the 138th has no voice in the making of laws and being heard.
Maria Pereira has established herself as an independent thinker. Today’s world is issue-driven. If the right issue comes along Maria can champion it and convince other CC members of its importance. She has “headline capabilities”.
It can all change in the blink of an eye.
RM’s post is a tearjerker that ends with a gourmet meal served on a garbage can lid. Somebody hand him a handkerchief.
The City Council has more to do than meet, vote, and adjourn. Oversight takes many forms and sharing in the Council work and preparing responses or other matters for presentation at a Council session can be hard work.
Aidee Nieves as President, has her right to attend any of the sub-committee meetings, she is not a member of any of the seven committees. And separately she will assign members as liaison to other entities in municipal governance that include attendance at other regular meetings where experience with issues and practices can be valuable to the whole of the City Council at times.
The upper limit of sub-committee assignments seems to be three. But the current listing includes only 19 Council members when you consider the recent death of Council member Brantley and the vacancy so created.
What assignments will be offered to a second Council member from 132 if all Committees already have seven members and only one Committee has six members?
What reasons leave Castillo, Silva, McBride-Lee, Burns, and Perreira with only two assignments at this time?
Where is the name of Council person Small in print? Does she get a fair sharing of assignments initially? Time will tell.
Well people, it’s not like Ron is off base.
Rich, you have to define “Councilmember who don’t like Maria is no longer there” There are quite a few councilmembers who don’t like Maria that is still there. Although Marcus has a point. Small is only on the council because of Maria, and that can be said for a few members of the 138 in the era of the Piranha.
Let’s face it, Maria puts in the work in her district making her relevant that brings out the votes while most sit back and rely on the power of Bridgeport’s DTC to win elections, and if Smalls wants to win without Maria if/want she falls out of favor with the Piranha 🙂 She too has to connect to the constituents in the 138
To JML’s point, council members/council has more to do than meet, vote, and adjourn, and no member does more to understand the issues of the Piranha in playing that game. 🙂
Local, Maria is far from an independent thinker. Although, you struck a point. Today’s world of politics is issue-driven, mostly racial identity politics, although blurry in the dynamics of Port politics that is all D’s. However, it never stopped Tony Barr. So the era of the Piranha can change in the blink of an eye.
To Ernie’s point, though he is not here. It takes other members to move a news issue-driven forward past the council. A way to look at Maria’s and Small’s position/vote on the city-council president, they lost. And that will be a recurring theme for Maria. When she doesn’t get on board with the other members, no?
I will not demiss the Piranha outright because she can create news-driven issues. At this stage, that seems to be her purpose on that catwalk. 🙂 Not a bad thing for the city in some aspects. Although she can be petty at times that she seems to have grown out of, or because Lennie banned her. 🙂
At any rate, play nice in strengthening the Port’s democracy, elected officials. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avaFt-jcTso
@RobertT
Lennie did not ban Maria. Maria emailed Lennie and asked that she be removed from the OIB ‘membership’
Maria does not have to me a posting ‘member’ to receive coverage in this forum as evidenced by the current discussion.
Maria has proven that you can get out the voters and win without the DTC, Senator Marilyn Moore did the same in her last reelection bid when challenged by Marcus Brown.
‘Now watch the gerrymandering of the 127th house district that extended a sliver to include the home of Brown and Tom Gaudett. Will Brown try to knock off Hennesy in Brown’s quest for a state paycheck? Has Hennesy pissed of Mario and JoeG? will the support Brown?
Interesting times in Bpt politics, never an off year
sorry for the typos…Lennie we need an edit function
Did you not see the 🙂 at the end.
She may have asked Lennie to be removed from OIB membership but not posting on OIB would have the same result, No?
If she did ask Lennie to remove her from OIB she did it out of pettiness. You would be surprised how much Lennie edits my comment if they even make the cut. 🙂
Her comment about Lennie’s manhood states proves that too.
Never said Maria didn’t prove you can’t win without the DTC endorsement you know how you failed to mention on that list who proved they can win without the DTC and Mario’s blessing when he broke the tie vote against her. Aidee, you know the person this thread is about and Maria was so brave and righteous to vote against.
As Lennie stated Port politics is a rat’s nest of infighting, backstabbing, and double-dealing. Yet it doesn’t hold the monopoly. Please refer to my comrade Ron’s comment to Rich about Maria’s political history. JS
Peace out, mazel tov 🙂
http://onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/decisions-decisions-for-bradley-watch-ct-capitol-report-analyzes-state-senators-indictment/
Whether Lennie banned her or it’s self-imposed exile, readership of this blog has declined ever since Maria Pereira stopped posting here. She has nurtured other media outlets to the point of acceptance.
This blog needs her more than she needs it! Even her foes can’t stop talking about her.
She’s fit herself with religion and has a story to tell. That’s called star-power!
It didn’t stop you from reading OIB and posting about your amiga 🙂 her too, or that matters stop her from using Marus to post a point she wants to make on OIB.
She is the point of subject, just like the others, No?
P.S However, I do miss her and Ernie thought. She did bring some sense of notoriety and elegance to the OIB readership, much like yourself. 🙂
http://onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/oibs-urinalysis-pissing-contest-goes-national-washington-post-and-cnn/
Ron you are correct in much of what you wrote but my thinking is that Maria usually falls on the correct side of things. Maybe not always but she seems to have a good idea of what not to do vis a vis items concerning city issues. My wish , far fetched as it is, would be that other council members would realize this and join her on the issues. We both know why that can’t happen because many of them are beholding to the “higher authority” or in some cases too ignorant or uneducated to see that side of the coin. You know that this is true. It’s a difficult situation to be in. I know because I’ve been there before as have you. I bet we could have a great conversation about things because we look at things the same…..differently!!
Cheers!!!
Rich, a little history about Maria, when Joe Ganim made his comeback after serving time in a federal prison it was Maria Pereira who help Joe Ganim to get elected along with Mario Testa and the Democratic Town Committee. Maria is one who supported Dennis Bradley (Ralp Ford’s candidate for mayor after Ganim) Maria ran along with Bradley for the
Bridgeport Board Of Education and they all got elected as a team. It was Maria Pereira candidate for the BBOE who boycottted BBOE meeting until Maria resign from the BBOE, as President of the BBOE all the business of the 21,000 studets was stopped because of Maria and Bradley. In the last election for mayor Maria everything she could to make sure that Senator Marilyn Moore, who was a candidate for mayor against Ganim in the Democrat primary, Maria everything she could to make sure that Senator Moore lost. Then during the election for mayor Maria supported Jeff Kohut who got 27 votes, smart move Maria. Does that sound like the savior of Bridgeport?
Maria Pereira was smart enough to understand that she could not elected to a citywide position because the voters got sick of her act and the only she could get elected in the 138th district but notice that none of the people who have gotten elected never win after they win.
@Ron what’s your obsession with Maria?
She has won city wide and district and primary elections.
The only time she didn’t have to win a primary to get on the ballot was in 2009 when she had the WFP line on the ballot and beat the other candidates.
You ran for City Council years ago and got trounced (IIRC).
As for why Maria had enough of BOE and ran for City Council, aske her. It it were I, I would not want to spend all my time and effort on the BOE when the City continually underfunds the needs of the children in its schools…waste of time and a fool’s errand under the current administration.
Marshall Marcus, it’s people like you, LE and others who post on OIB who praise Maria like she’s going to save Bridgeport, all I do is point the inconsistency.
Today in the Post City Council President Aidee Nieves said this, “She also encouraged the discourse remain civil. There has been greater tension on the council in recent years among some members, with discussions and debates sometimes getting loud and personal.”
“Never use our discourse to personally attack and demean and humiliate people because that is not the best reflection of our community and city,” Nieves said.
You are consistently inconsistent.
In addition, Maria is a better reflection of Bridgeport than you are.
Local Eyes, losers like you and Maria are consistently a reflection of the inconsistent of failure in Bridgeport.
Maria for Mayor!
Marcus, I read all the posts associated with this thread and I fell to see how Ron Mackey is obsessed with Maria. I see Ron addressing you and Paul and your love affair with this crude, rude bigot. The reason the rest of the council will never work with her is simply because they know she’s a snake with NO loyalties to anyone or anything other than her agenda! The fact that she can win the 138th time and time again isn’t a testimony to her, rather it’s a reflection of the apathy of those people in the 138th who think that they don’t deserve better than this bloviating fool!
C’mon Marcus, I expect that condescending BS from Paul because he’s drunk most of the time, whereas I’ve never had the feeling that you were drunk when you posted, but now I don’t know! Most of us know that Maria is like a bird, you teach them how to fly and once they’re in the air they shit on you.
Don, there are a number of people on OIB who support Maria like Paul and Marus and I have suggested that they help Maria to have her own podcast they way say whatever she’s wants and give her opinions unfiltered.
@Ron
Who is Marus?
That’s not my name. feel free to refer to me as Marshall or Mr. Marcus if you wish to use my family name,
Maria does not need to have her own podcast. She gets full coverage in the news media in both print and TV (Channel 12).
The article these comments are responding to are about Aidee Nieves and John Weldon, both being reelected to head the Council and BOE.
Apparently that is meaningless to OIB posters, as in the 24 comments/replies already posted, Nieves is barely mentioned in two and Weldon is never mentioned. Maria, who is not the subject of the article is mentioned in almost every comment.
Marshall Marcus, that’s deep, you are a real puppet for Maria but how does make work, do have strings that she pulls or does she put her hand up inside you and control you that way.
@Donald…………………..
#1 I don’t call you Day, why are you calling me by my last name without an honorific such as Mr.?
#2 I can assure you I am not drunk when I post, I am not ever drunk. I consume less than half a dozen alcoholic drinks in a year….booze is not my thing
#3 I don’t have a love affair with Maria. What I have is disdain for the corrupt politics of the BDTC and don’t believe in electing ex-cons to office. Maria and I don’t always agree on politics and who we support. I supported Sate Senator Marilyn Moore for Mayor, Maria made no public endorsement of the Senator..
I met Maria about half a dozen years ago when I was working in the BPS. She was the only BOE member who responded to issues I brought to their attention.
I admire her ability to research the law, the charter and know Roberts Rules of Order. I have particular loathing for the defective legal opinions handed down by the City legal department that are crafted to suit Joe G and company, not benefit the public or follow the laws as written.
Marshall Marcus, you said, “I admire her ability to research the law, the charter and know Roberts Rules of Order. I have particular loathing for the defective legal opinions handed down by the City legal department that are crafted to suit Joe G and company, not benefit the public or follow the laws as written.”Marcus, Maria does something for you and now you don’t see any flaws in her ability to work with other elected members. What did Maria tell you why she supported Joe Ganim for mayor? Marc us, did Maria tell you why she can’t get other council members to support her? The only people that I observe who support Maria are white males, I would think that seeing that Bridgeport is a majority city of color that Maria would have a number of black and Hispanic supporters who would speak up for Maria.
Marshall, my using your last name instead of your first name was purely accidental and I’m sure with two first name I couldn’t have been the first person to make that mistake! It is common in my culture to refer to someone with their last name and Day is an appropriate response to me at any time and in any forum. My adding respect to your name is and will always be my choice, not yours.
As to the drinking issue it was merely hyperbole and again I’m sure that you knew that as well, yet it appears as if that was fueled by your desire to show me how smart you are!
Everything you’ve said about Maria is exactly what Ron has been saying yet I guess it bothers you Less coming out of your mouth rather than Ron’s! Go figure! Marshal, is there any difference between a city councilor who won’t get anything done and one that can’t get anything done? Different sides of the same coin.
You’re here because you’re an original member of Lennie’s Clubhouse.
I’m here for the kind of abuse I can’t find anywhere else!
LE, that’s called white privilege.