Mayor Bill Finch has a special talent for sounding like he knows what he’s talking about even when he’s not really sure. That takes practice and rejoinder’s touch. He has gift for it. Many a public official has wilted under the intensity of an angry electorate. Wednesday night’s public budget session at the Black Rock Library Branch jammed with taxpayers fuming about Finch’s proposed tax increase had the potential for chaos. Say the wrong thing and then it’s screaming, yelling, throwing things. Ya never know. To Finch’s credit he’s putting himself out there selling his budget when there’s no mandatory need. He’s also pretty good at saving himself from himself.
Bill tends to barf out loud what’s in his brain like “those people” should stop complaining about taxes. By way of explanation Wednesday night he opened his remarks by replacing “Black Rock” with “St. Mary’s” to illustrate the real meaning of “those people” receiving a lot of home without the cost of a Westport zip code along the water. Nifty little dodge. St. Mary’s is where the real well-to-do live along picturesque St. Mary’s by-the-Sea, a sweet hamlet on Black Rock Harbor.
Of course there are those who claim Finch is a disingenuous operator; sorta like Eddie Haskell, the pal of Wally, Beaver and Lumpy, who could turn on the charm to impress the adults. “That’s a lovely house you have, Mr. Cleaver” … but when no parents are around … (Pay more in taxes you crumb!!!)
Near the end of the public session in Black Rock, as captured by OIB’s field videographer Steve Krauchick, there was the guy who told Finch he cannot afford to pay more taxes. Finch’s reply: I’m asking you to afford more.
Ah, you gotta hand it to him. There’s a maddening embrace to the mayor’s delivery.
What’s been lost in the budget discussion–beyond more money for schools, pensions, this and that–is the grim reality that Bridgeport’s grand list of taxable property is flat.
Finch has been mayor for nearly four a a half years and there’s still not a high-profile development engineered on his watch he can call his own. Donald Eversley is the city’s director of Economic Development, a revenue generating department. Maybe he knows what he’s doing. If he does we have not yet seen something tangible. This could change. Will Steel Point, that 30-something-year-old promise to redevelop the East Side actually see a shovel in the ground soon? The mayor says it will happen soon. It would be nice to see some cranes.
Something must come online soon, otherwise the next couple of budgets are going to be just as tough.
Even Denny Crane could bring in more revenue than Finch and Neversley. Wake Up Little Snoozies.
What is the most current Net Grand List total reported?
Who are the largest City property taxpayers?
Who are the principal employers in the City?
These are three simple bits of info that are usually included in City annual budget reports.
This year the budget for 2013 answers those three questions with data from: 2008, 2008 and 2008.
For the 2012 budget last year the same respective data years are: 2009, 2010, 2010. Does that puzzle you? Why is the City using less current data this year than last??? And if you look to a paragraph in Demographics and Economics page 16 for 2013 and page 44 in 2012 you will see the same paragraph used that uses the words “The City’s taxable base continues to show growth …” but that paragraph does not relate to any other info provided.
Again, are there conscious competents putting the books together? How ‘green’ is it to kill trees to publish information that is inaccurate or out of date? Does anybody in the know review before publishing? Time will tell.
Shrinking grand list, no shit!!! This city has been bypassed for all kinds of development. Who wants to invest in this city that appears to be in chaos. When developers see a steady flow of top city officials being fired or leaving it makes them wonder.
If you decide to invest then you get the rare privilege of dealing with the incompetents in planning and zoning. That department is pure hell to deal with.
You have a mayor who admits he paid no attention to the school system for four years and now wants to get interested in the schools thus a tax increase.
If a developer checks out the police department he starts to think who is going to come if I call them? Am I going to be told to go to the PD for a report because your problem does not mean shit to us? Is this developer going to get a cop on a bicycle to respond, or a segway, or a cop on an atv or a cop on a horse? Chance of getting a cop in a squad car are very remote.
Economic guru Eversley is advertising pole dancing classes, maybe we could have a international center for pole dancing move here.
In any case this city and its administration officers are screwed up like hogan’s goat.
One last thing Bill, Steel Point My Ass.
Eversley’s time to leave is long overdue. Put him on the next train to Clarkesville and find someone who knows what he is doing. I used to think Nancy Hadley wasn’t getting out and about enough during her tenure. My apologies to her. She runs rings around this dolt.
I don’t know that I would give anyone in the development area of Bridgeport any kudos. All they’ve EVER done is rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
I recall attending a business meeting last year and observing Mr. Eversley fall asleep in the midst of it. It was embarrassing to witness that. He’s nonproductive and brings nothing to the table, not to mention arrogant. Now can you shed some light on this pole-dancing center, unless you are just kidding? For his sake, I hope you are, as that would be utterly ridiculous on his part.
I am not kidding.
Tom Sherwood is a master of deception; it’s what he does best. He cooks the books and then talks circles around those who ask questions. If there are outdated numbers in the budget book, it is by design, not accident.
I’m pretty sure Eversley left only no one noticed. He did nothing in four years so why would we know whether he is here or not? Either his employer didn’t notice or didn’t care. Probably one reason Timpanelli and his gang of yes men are taking up economic development as their cause–again. Finch gets bailed out again–still no accountability for his failures and more pipe dreams from out-of-town guys that Bridgeport taxpayers fund. Sorry, didn’t mean to whine.
*** NO “real” economic developments expected soon, plus for every one new business that opens in Bpt, two leave every other year. And not forgetting the “Net Grand List” and the “Non-Profit” taxpayers along with all the “principle employers” in the city of Bpt leaves us at “zero!” *** WELCOME TO ZOMBIEPORT ***
JML and I met with Mr. Vallas yesterday and spent 45 minutes discussing the school system and his plans. Mr. Vallas knows what is going on; I hope his plans for the school system come to fruition.
Now to the part that is going to piss some people off.
Where are the leaders of the black and Hispanic communities on the educational makeover? Eighty-plus percent of the school population is black or Hhispanic. If this plan works these kids will be ready for what faces them after high school, if the plan does not work we are back where we started and losing our future. After all, it’s today’s kids who are tomorrow’s leaders.
The leadership of both communities have been strangely silent. Where are the leaders of these communities? It’s time to demand representation and when you do send your best and brightest and people who give a shit. Don’t send the political retreads Ralph Ford sends for city jobs. Whoever is the leader in the Hispanic community, that goes for you too. They are your kids, fight for them.
Mr. Fardy … some of those Hispanic leaders are looking out for themselves … pursuing their own aspirations … they have forgotten they must teach others, encourage and motivate the younger generation to take over where one leaves off … to walk side by side. The late Cesar is gone …
Andy Fardy and I are open to work with all City people, whatever their color, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. There are numerous folks we have met who value integrity, competence and good stewardship in the public square. What we have called upon is open, accountable and transparent governance.
There are folks in the system who like to use the words, but do not realize their own actions stand in opposition to the meaning of the words.
Call 203-259-9642 and schedule a meeting with Andy and me, one on one, or for a group. We are active in opposition to the tax increase as presented by the Mayor. He continues to hide the misuse of taxpayer funds with a big smile, brown-bag lunches and arrogant and disdaining comment statements to those who confront him with “FACTS” from his own City documents.
There is no election scheduled for Mayor at the moment. As Mojo reminds us, we missed that opportunity. If it takes a 7% tax increase to wake people up, then the Mayor has finally done the outrageous. Now people need to stand up, listen for the truthful statements, and be ready to take the matter to your Council persons. At this moment they are strangely silent at meetings, in the press, and even absent from important Council meetings. Call them and find out where they stand. There is time for pushback and for the public to see what happens when the existing CONFLICTS of INTEREST present with many Council members meets public outrage that demands to be heard. TIME WILL TELL.
You are right, the same old retreads keep showing up like Robles, Americo Santiago, Ayala, Martinez and a few others.
I have spent a lot of my time with a great many people in the Hispanic community and I know they are not happy with these people.
It’s time for the entire Hispanic community to throw these mooches out on their asses.
Has anyone figured out why we don’t have a minority mayor yet? The reason is the leaders of the black community and the Hispanic community are too busy saying my johnson is bigger than your johnson and if I can’t have the power then screw you.
Two days in a row. Readable, comprehensible and short. Surely to have reached readers who need to be aware of what is going and and what is affecting them. I would expect registered non-voters to give some thought to getting to the polls to make change. I hope he can keep it up. His words have meaning. He makes it too hard to find that meaning.
So much for zero-based budgeting.
*** Great game of city budget “political dodge-ball” by the Mayor and players, no? *** HERE WE GO! ***