A Couple Of Mayors At R&R

I was thinking (yes, that can be dangerous) about writing a column for weekend bantering–development, downtown stuff, city restaurants–when I came upon Michael Daly’s Sunday column advanced on the Connecticut Post web site. Michael is the editor of the Post editorial page. I always like to be around conversations between former mayors. Nick Panuzio, a Republican and John Fabrizi, a Democrat are always good for a laugh. Check out Daly’s column.

For this weekend at least, basketball fans have supplanted jurors as the main segment of the Bridgeport tourism industry.

With the MAAC championship scheduled to conclude today, the 10 teams and fans from the competing universities are pumping some welcome dollars into a local economy that’s stagnant.

How stagnant? Well, just for instance, last month for the first time in 25 years there was no meeting of the Bridgeport Zoning Board of Appeals, a body that is a pretty good barometer of what’s going on in terms of building activity.

But Thursday night at Ralph ‘n’ Rich’s in downtown Bridgeport, the joint was jumping, former Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi holding forth in one corner and former Bridgeport Mayor Nicholas A. Panuzio in another.

Fabrizi has recently said he will not try to regain the mayor’s seat, but you can’t talk to him for long and not see the passion for the work is there.

He and Panuzio shared a couple of laughs about a visit to the George W. Bush White House when Bridgeport native Anita McBride was an assistant to the president and chief of staff to the first lady.

Standing outside the entrance to the West Wing they recalled Panuzio saying, “Not bad for a couple of Italian guys from Bridgeport.”

Ralph ‘n’ Rich’s restaurant, which this year is marking its 20th year in downtown Bridgeport, is a phenomenon that’s hard to explain.

Through good and bad times, and even from its original out-of-the-way location on Wall Street, it has thrived, bringing a loyal clientele from out of town into what used to be an otherwise barren downtown Bridgeport on Friday and Saturday nights. The MAAC tournament will most likely earn the place some more followers.

Sure, the food is good, the atmosphere convivial, but there’s still a lot of people in suburbia who wouldn’t come to downtown on a bet.

Even as Panuzio and Fabrizi and some others talked, through the front door came a parade of very tall young men who were, collectively, the Siena College basketball team. The Saints. These guys looked like they like to eat.

The Arena at Harbor Yard and the Ball Park at Harbor Yard continue to be positives for the city. People come from the suburbs to visit them, an occurrence that, before the founding of the Bridgeport Bluefish, was rare.

Meanwhile, the city still looks longingly at its Steelpointe–or however it’s spelled these days–peninsula as the place where mammoth, mega-million, mind-bending development is going to turn things around.

Never mind that members of the Pequonnock Yacht Club, which was driven out of the site by the city, had negotiated a deal with the operators of the coal-fired power plant across the harbor to hire neighborhood kids to wash coal residue off the boats all summer. Otherwise, there was going to be a sticky legal issue.

And you think these Greenpeace people are wacky hanging signs about coal pollution?

It’s possible Steelpointe would be a good thing. For more than 15 years, though, it’s been nothing more than an illusion. Mayors have heralded the arrival of “this day” in one shape or form as the “day” that Steelpointe moved from the realm of colorful drawing to reality.

In 1997, it was former Gov. John G. Rowland and former Mayor Joseph P. Ganim who heralded the arrival of “this day.”

Ten years later Fabrizi made a similar announcement of a breakthrough, and on Sept. 1, 2009, Mayor Bill Finch said “this day” is finally here, as he announced scaled-back plans for the project.

The project is in jeopardy once again because an $11 million federal grant that was going to pay for site preparation now looks like it’s going down the tubes.

Oh well. What with all the people that will be living in those high-rise luxury towers at Steelpointe, it would probably be impossible to even get in the door at Ralph ‘n’ Rich’s.

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29 comments

  1. Daly’s mancrush on Fabrizi disgusts me.
    Do a column on the corruption in present-day city hall, Mr. Daly, or on the present candidates for the mayor’s seat who WILL unseat Finch. In case you didn’t know, Mr. Daly, there are two announced candidates for mayor, Mr. Daly. Coviello and Gomes. We know you know Foster.
    Didn’t you watch Fabrizi pee in a cup and do a puffy piece on it, Mr. Daly?

    You disgust me, Mr. Daly.

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  2. Nick Panuzio was the last mayor elected by the city unions, specifically the Police & Fire Unions. We got out more than 3,000 votes from the police and fire department and from their family members.
    I don’t remember which politician allowed police and fire union members to move out of town but from a political point of view it was brilliant. The politician who did this took the police and fire unions out of the Bridgeport political arena as they were no longer a voting force.
    i remember the first thing a mayor or mayoral candidate did was try and gain the two unions’ support. In a primary it was almost a guarantee whoever got the union support won the primary.
    Times have changed and the unions are now at the mercy of the elected officials. We now can see where that got us.

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  3. This administration would like nothing more than to privatize and get a cash influx and remove the unions.

    If Ganim’s greed didn’t do him in he was on his way to privatizing the whole city.

    Charles Carroll’s brother is the head of a major union, so we know where that union’s allegiance is, with an administration that talks about privatizing. Conflict of interest?

    Too bad the CT Post closes its eyes to what happens at City Hall a few doors down from them.

    This is a sad time for unions, but they dig their own graves by bowing down to corrupt politicians and having union heads who aren’t true union people.

    There are many Bpt supervisors who are also in unions, another direct conflict of interest.

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    1. Charlie’s brother may be a union man, but Charlie himself is a disgrace to the union name. He looks the other way as seasonals are called in to work the snowstorms over the experienced UNION employees. When the UNION employees complain they are told to file a grievance. Charlie looks the other way when one favored foreman curses and disrespects the UNION employees. He looks the other way when the same foreman warns a certain employee of random urine drug screens (so the person can go home sick and avoid being detected). Charlie signifies everything that is bad in public works. He has done nothing but ruin the morale and hurt the working UNION employees of that dept. He is a disgrace to the Carroll UNION name.

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      1. The problem is this supervisor is the least of 3 evils left that Charlie can use to occupy the position vacated by Paul that was vacated by Bobby … uh … um … excuse me, Robert Kennedy now. He rules with a temper and iron fist and needs a supervisory skills training class to get him even tempered. As far as warning the individual, well that is bad but a poor excuse because the test does not and should not go away. This person should go the first day back and sent for the test. And if they are getting tipped off and it is a supervisor, he should be dealt with because only managers know in advance about who and when someone’s number is up. Charlie recognizes and looks out for those who work and leaves the ones who do not to their managers. I know managers who treat their employees fairly and others just do not care. Maybe the City should review and find out which managers need this type of training and provide it.

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        1. Yeah well it’s the “least of the 3 evils” warning of the drug test. More to this story than I am at liberty to say. Stay tuned as Labor Relations is investigating. Another supervisor is also involved. Charlie needs to pay a little more attention as all this is going on right in front of his eyes.

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  4. I have a question for the police and fire unions. What the hell are you doing as Finch looks to hold back another pension payment to the pension fund?
    It appears he does not want to make a $20 million payment again. If he wins that means the city is behind $40 million in payments. They will have reached a point of no return as far as catching up on what they should have paid in.
    The silence from both unions is shameful. You as union leaders have a responsibility to your members, not the administration.

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    1. TC … maybe you haven’t heard. The City and the Unions are now, or finished negotiating out of the current pension plan B. The held-back portion was for plan A I believe … right? Now, the new plan, “C,” run by the state, but still funded by members and the City. It’s the CMERS (MERF) plan enjoyed by many City Supervisors and other departments … best three years, cost of living … all the stuff that’s in the news and getting negative publicity! Go figure.

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      1. BARF,
        Interesting information. Where is it posted? You talk about negotiating … when an administration negotiates with a union and they come to an agreement, does the City Council have a say? It would make sense. And would their Budget and Appropriations sub-committee have the facts as to what pension consultants used as assumptions, contributions, retirement ages, mortality assumptions, etc.?
        When one hears about A, B or C it sounds kind of simple. But behind every long-term financial plan are assumptions that, if they fail to become fact, change the outcomes. The public at this time is facing outcomes for decades to come from past decisions. Shining a light on the results of current negotiations when they are ratified is critical.
        In other words at the end of the day, have we stepped into it deeper or is there some relief? Or perhaps we cannot tell, but have to trust, and therefore need to be careful of spin and secrecy?

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        1. Beacon, unfortunately most of the City Council members are uninformed and don’t have the financial expertise to even know what questions to ask. They listen to Tom Sherwood spew his blah blah blah and they do what he tells them to do. The $8m union concession gap is a perfect example. This year there are no meetings with depts and no public hearings scheduled. How does the council not hear from the depts and only hear from Sherwood? That’s simply irresponsible. I also think the lack of hearings says that things are WORSE than they are telling us.

          None of the council people are asking the appropriate questions. Did they close the $8m “union concession” gap this year? I only heard of a few small unions actually giving concessions and that’s nowhere near the $8m. What’s the projected deficit for next year (the real one, not the Sherwood inflated deficit)? What is the fund balance?

          Tom Sherwood cooks the books and we all know that. He inflates the deficit to shake down the unions but then he finds money to hire people like Bob Curwen, Willy Murphy, Jack McCarthy, Lisa’s son (Charlie’s stepson), Mark Anastasi’s son, Ezequiel Santiago’s girlfriend, Dennis Scinto’s girlfriend, and the list goes on. It is a runaway train and no one is stopping it.

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          1. city hall smoker: Last time I was at the park department office CC’s stepson was working in the office. That was a few months ago, I don’t know if he is still there.

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          2. I asked that question the other night at the Black Rock Library meeting. What’s going on with the 8 million dollar shortfall?
            Both Wood and Curwen said “by July we will only have a shortfall of 1 Million.” They did not say if it was from the Unions givebacks.
            Curwen’s head almost fell off, it was nodding so fast.

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          3. Fixer,
            SOS as you know. Nothing new with all this hiring in an election year. They close programs and lay off more than half of the health department and hire Jack, open a free pharmacy, have two not one health directors there too, and they’re closing the building! Mark’s son is a nice kid, bright, smart. But who gives a crap about submitters and closers. Oh boy I can hardly wait until the next time I can read the results of who made first place. And then there is the former councilman hired … let’s just leave this to you all to comment.

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          4. Look, Curwen was in on the fix when the budget was presented to the budget committee. He held meetings with every department head and not one budget request was cut one red cent. That’s where his new job came from. He sent the budget back to the council of the damned and they all with the exception of Walsh voted for it.
            Sure the unions gave back to the city and even that was a sham in the case of the PD. They knowingly inflated their OT budget and gladly reduced it by $2 million without a whimper.
            In my opinion the union rank & file are getting a royal screwing from their leadership who are in the Finch/Wood pocket. I understand their silence with these vicious people in city hall but I urge the rank and file to vote these people out the next time there are elections.
            When Finch and company are replaced in November and that also means Sherwood and we really learn what we owe, stand by, because the cost is going to be high.

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      2. Pension plan A comes from the general fund and there is no statutory requirements to set aside any funds for those pensioners. The other pension fund I guess it’s called B requires the city to put money into a pension fund. I can’t believe the police and fire are under plan C or aka MERF. That would require whatever monies are in the fund go to MERF.
        If the city negotiated a pension plan based on the last 3 years of earnings then they are idiots. I find that really hard to believe when other towns are getting away from using the last 3 years in computing pensions.

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        1. Believe it. The big question is what exactly happens to those already retired on plan “B?” I didn’t think anyone knew because I only hear it from current members of fire and police. I understand, and this is akin to the City refinancing a mortgage of 15 years into a 30. Just the talk around the country of this type of pension, where it is based on more than base pay, worries me that it will default somewhere down the line. I’m sure labor relations knows all the ins and outs … but it is happening as we type!

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          1. BARF, just who do you think in Labor Relations is knowledgeable about the cost and future repercussions of the pension plans? No one that I know of. This is where you bring in an outside consultant who is an expert in this field.

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  5. Michael is amusing and insightful as always.
    However, the cancellation of the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting demands further inquiry. I suggest it was:
    a) A snowstorm last month;
    b) A snowstorm 25 years ago;
    or,
    c) Some lawyer’s check didn’t clear from a real estate broker who wanted to build condos in the middle of Beechmont Avenue.

    Maybe all of the above.

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  6. Mike Daly generally writes a “nostalgia column,” yearning for the “good old days” when he and family were younger, his tennis game was stronger and life was different from today. Not hard to read and to reminisce along with him. However, tough for current Bridgeport readers to relate. Something like getting reports from someone living in a time warp.

    You keep hoping he is going to key in on the actual moving parts of the current scene and it just doesn’t happen! So I started thinking, doesn’t he live in Fairfield where he runs his dog and plays tennis? Maybe I am wrong, but if he doesn’t live in town and pay personal taxes here and attend the nitty-gritty meetings personally (not just the flights of fancy of the few in the CT Post offices), then maybe that’s why he doesn’t talk about the City today? What do you think? Maybe we should lay off the criticism because he is a suburbanite who dines downtown occasionally?

    And where does the new Hearst management live? And pay property taxes? Anybody? Paying those property taxes and being kept in the dark (and half-truths) will hone your focus for sure.

    Had another thought this week as I began to realize all the Federal, State and municipal dollars that will soon no longer be available to run deficit budgets and fund every benefit and program under the sun. I have been waiting for several years to see the Bridgeport BOE audit completed with its several (stop and start) phases, with multiple funders. I can never understand why the State with the major Educational Cost Sharing ongoing each year does not demand what this community has been edging towards, so slowly.

    Anyway, I find few people who would cut back on the opportunity for the young. (Indeed when you consider 90% or more of the kids in the ‘burbs attend some preschool before kindergarten and that number drops to 66% or less in the City, I would argue to add money here. All kids, especially English-language learners deserve a fair start in my book.) So the community spends an average of $12-15,000 per year, inflation adjusted, over the 13 years of a public school education, perhaps $200,000. And we find maybe 25% or more don’t finish this “free” journey. If cuts need to be made, can anyone tell me what we spend on “adult education” each year? What does that work out to per adult student? How much does the student pay towards that? And the community pays how much? I guess I am asking in hard times why the community offers anything in this regard, especially if those taking it are making up for the time and money wasted between Age 5 and 18? Thoughts?

    By the way, anything the City, State or Feds have established as law, regulations, plans, programs, etc. at one time did not exist. It may have been changed in the past. Most things of this type are likely to change in the near future. Priorities will be established and in the words of the Governor, there will be “shared pain.” What has been sacred and/or saved in years past is now history. There is a new day dawning. And the Mayor will open himself once again if he uses another pension deferral to attempt to hide his burdening the City with additional future costs to make the late payments and earn the interest that would have been normally funded.

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  7. Beacon, excellent post. I for one don’t care where Michael Daly lives. I do think he is doing the city an injustice posing as a reporter. The editor (new) is from New York and I venture to say he still lives there. Daly has made sure this new editor of the daily rag met all the political players in our fair city.
    Ah, the governor and education. The state is very close to dumping all the trade schools on the towns and cities where they are located. The parents with kids in Tech are furious and they are worried about what is going to happen to their school when it comes under the Bridgeport Board of Education. If I were them I would also worry. One suggestion, walk into a classroom and picture that 68% of the kids there will not be graduating.
    Night School is a joke and something we should not be paying for. If you want to have night school let the students pay for it. Like you said, they left a free education on their own. Now they find out working at IHop is no bargain.

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  8. They were discussing the politics of moviemaking at Ralph ‘n’ Rich’s.

    I was eavesdropping–disguised as a busboy–and this is what I heard:

    Connecticut Production Coalition is a pro-tax subsidy group that claims to be …

    a diverse group representing different industries and individual backgrounds, with one thing in common: we believe in the value of a strong, robust and sustainable film, television and digital media industry in Connecticut.

    productionct.com

    Do they want a sustainable tax credit, too?

    WE NEED A NEW SCRIPT. ABOLISH Connecticut’s Film subsidies today. Free Enterprise thrives here–bring your cast and crew, we’ll take care of the rest, including the spectacular scenery and great locations.

    busboy: I just couldn’t figure out who said it. but I’ll tell you this: they left the waiter a nice tip!

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  9. Observed:

    13 comments on the weekend post. Nobody gives a damn about Fabrizi or the CT Post. Take note Lennie.

    Finch and his band of do-nothing 6-figure no-show jobbers are the most hated administration since Mary Moron.

    This blog flies with comments every time John M Gomes or Mary-Jane Foster say anything.

    Change is in the wind Bpt.

    9/13/11

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  10. New DECD director pictured here:

    yfrog.com/h88mokvj

    She’s leaving as CEO of ING. That’s the company with many TV ads (Superbowl included) that ask you to “touch the orange ball.” Their junk mail might clog your mailbox. Their ads fill magazines and newspapers.

    In her new capacity she’ll be in charge of job creation.

    That involves developing workers, developing markets and creating products. The rewards are importing money that generates income and smiles on faces. The metrics of psychic income have yet to be determined.

    bonus: www .newser.com

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  11. Interesting article today (yeah I bought the Post). The two Bridgeport-based non-profit hospitals reported a net gain in their profits.
    Bridgeport hospital reported their profits tripled this year from $4.7 million in 2009 to $15.8 million in 2010.

    St. Vincent’s reported a 50% increase in profits for the same period, they went from a profit of $10.8 million to a profit of $15.6 mill.
    Between the 2 hospitals they made a profit in 2010 of $31.4 million yet they have paid ZERO in taxes. Here we in Bridgeport are hanging on by our fingertips and they just keep churning out profits under the guise of the non-profit umbrella. Bullshit.

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