On the heels of State Senate passage with time running out in the legislative session, Democratic mayoral candidate Mary-Jane Foster has sent an email to key members of the General Assembly exhorting support of a government reform law to enforce the Bridgeport City Charter prohibiting city employees serving on the City Council. The proposed legislation is awaiting action by the State House.
I know what a crush these last days of the session are for each of you. I also know everyone has priorities and there are many important issues to address before the close of business Wednesday.
I am writing to urge you to support this extraordinary opportunity to help Bridgeport clean up its house. Bridgeport has had enough issues with corruption–political and institutional. Here is your opportunity to pass legislation that is supported by a very nearly united delegation that will allow us to adhere to our city’s charter. A charter passed by the voters of the city who believe municipal employees should not serve on city council. Help us restore a reputation in Bridgeport for good government–that will help our region and our state.
*** Make no mistake, Bpt voters, it’s a city mayor election year, no doubt! And if Billy Boy stays in office, all the fixer-uppers going on around town is going to cost city taxpayers “big time” come next budget season. Looking for a political city job? Then you’d better pick the right pony, no? ***
*** City’s East Side Boys & Girls Club seems to be making a comeback of sorts, Good Luck! ***
Ganim is busy raining money and Finch is busy raising fears. Mary-Jane is the only one raising issues about how Bridgeport cares.
Bob Walsh, I think Mary-Jane Foster had better start raising money and raising fears as the primary election nears. I would never say I told you so to gloat, but I fear Mary-Jane has missed the boat.
Joe Ganim says he is in favor of this, well why doesn’t he let the State House members know? A little too hypocritical?
Speak up Bill,
Speak up Joe.
Why not let the public know?
If Bill does not weigh in immediately on this timely issue then there should be no doubt about how much he loves having city employees on the council.
And if Joe cannot come out and do the same as Mary-Jane then at a minimum he is telling us this is not important to him.
Hey Hector, where is your leader when it counts? Leading, following or hiding?
Bob, for a guy who held a city job while on the Council, you’re making a lot of noise about this, YOU LEAD BY EXAMPLE! OH, sorry I wasn’t supposed to go there yet, NEVER MIND …
Hector, I have openly admitted to this. And I have openly admitted to being without a job the minute I spoke out against Ganim. So I know firsthand what a vindictive person Joe Ganim is.
And I know firsthand why a city like Bridgeport NEEDS a law like this.
I also knew my union did NOTHING to protect me so they are useless in a situation like this.
And I know when confronted by Brian Lockhart about this, Joe’s memory went fuzzy on him.
What did you think, I was going to deny this? By the way the issue I was speaking against was the privatization of the WPCA, one of the largest areas of corruption in Ganim’s corrupt enterprise. No wonder he had to get rid of me.
Oh, I forgot. Thanks for bringing this up, Hector. Much appreciated.
You’re welcome, now tell us how it felt when you where doing it, not how it felt getting canned or the union not helping, blah blah … tell us when you were getting your check and voting on issues affecting it.
Hector,
I must have lost you somewhere. If I had no problem standing up and speaking my conscience, then I had no problem voting my conscience.
But I would like you to tell me how many council members stood up and spoke out against Ganim after I got canned.
And Hector,
I was paid for by a grant so I did not vote for my pay. The grant was in place when I was hired and I did not stick around long enough to vote when it came up for renewal.
But it is good to hear you care so many years later.
Bob, I actually like you and though we support different candidates for different reasons, I shouldn’t have gone at you directly. I believe in Joe Ganim’s leadership qualities as opposed to the other candidates. It’s his ability to take over a room that impresses me while the others (our current mayor included) fade into the crowds. In any case, I apologize if anything feels personal, it’s not.
Bridgeport voters are more into bricks and mortar. They do not want development on our boarder.
This Bill is important as we all can see. And apparently, Bill and Joe both agree.
It is clear Mary-Jane is most vocal with her plea, as everyone can clearly see.
But her advisers are setting her up to fail, if economic development is her point to nail.
So Joe Ganim is in it to win. If that would happen would it be a sin?
Mayor Finch has his eyes on tomorrow but will UB bring him sorrow?
The Mayor has Bricks And Mortar to show that his time in office was to make the city grow.
But Mary-Jane Foster is trying to find her way, to make some campaign money so she can play.
Time will tell if any campaign can gel and dispose of Finch, who you all call Grinch.
The Mayor is smart and blowing his horn while those who oppose him are full of scorn.
But alas there is hope that has not yet become known that can help Finch and he is homegrown.
Time will tell and we will see who crosses the line, who is forgotten and left back behind.
So to all who are running as fast as they can, remember to listen to your biggest fan.
If you are deaf … dumb and blind, you deserve to be the choice to be left behind.
🙂
Nicely done, Steve.
Steve, to what tune should we attach this? I actually appreciate this, nice job. Jim Fox, my favorite new friend, is affecting the blog favorably.
Talk about leadership, how are thing working out for city employee/legislator Chris Rosario?
Rosario, who is the city’s anti-blight director, said he has concerns about the Bridgeport-centric bill.
“If you want to talk about good government, let’s do it across the board” and include other towns and cities, he said. “I feel like I never got any input.”
Hennessy, in an interview on the House floor, said he is revisiting the potential compromise of allowing existing council members who are municipal workers to remain on the city’s governing panel.
“I think we’re going to do that,” Hennessy said.
Rosario said he would support such a compromise.
“Jack and Marilyn ran on that issue,” Rosario said during an interview in the Capitol. “I respect it. By no means am I going to try to be an obstructionist.”
He is not trying to be an obstructionist. Just a good city employee and a department head in the Finch administration.
Hector, no tune in mind. I learned something today that I was not aware of. Bob Walsh was on the council and had a city job? Well, wonders will never cease!
Steve,
Thank you for calling it a “wonder”!!! You are a pretty informed person relative to much that goes on here currently as well as decades into the past. However, for the City side of the budget, OPM and Finance do not provide the Council or the public with what grants are received, fund which department (or not), and what happens when the City fumbles the reporting and the grant is cut off, or threatened. BOE provides that data when you go to the Public School site, click on Superintendent, then click on Financial Stability. Take a look. Numbers of employees as well as grant employees. Lots of great data to satisfy your curiosity or to feed it. Could that work for the City-side budgets also? Time will tell.
Mary-Jane Foster’s position has been strong and consistent on this significant issue for our city.
This is a key distinction Ms. Foster has over and above the incumbent, Mayor Finch, who unfortunately has gone out of his way to stymie this no-brainer bill. No-brainer Bill, indeed.
Surely it took systematic and sustained efforts by city hall to let this violation of the charter be perpetuated to our public’s disadvantage for so many years–while offering disingenuous rationalizations and legal malarkey by mayor-indentured Mr. Anastasi, all paid for by you and me.
My representative in the lower chamber of the CT General Assembly, Steve Stafstrom, knows this. To his credit, he has been on record repeatedly telling us constituents he would support the bill in any form. Now Mr. Stafstrom, here’s the form the State Senate has passed unanimously. Please do as you said and support it in this form, please–regardless of the election signs reportedly on the lawn of your uncle’s front lawn. This is bigger than that. This is your duty to your constituents.
It’s time for those on the City Council who are employed by the city, including Council President McCarthy, to get their things in order, choose between being a city employee or on the Council, and move on.
If anyone needed any further demonstration of the importance of the state officially prohibiting in Bridgeport what is already banned by the charter regarding public employment and political power: There’s city employee and recently elected state rep, Mr. Rosario! He seems to be unaware he is pissing into a headwind of the inevitable passage of this bill by the CGA (when did the House last vote down something that passed the Senate unanimously?). Or perhaps Rosario is aware and thinks it better to make a last stand in vain for the Finch follies than to do what’s right for the city and its people.
In my estimation, the only person who still stands in the way of this bill becoming law is Governor Malloy. I hope Mary-Jane Foster is prepared to call on Malloy to gain his support when the time comes.
And if/when she does, I hope too she repeats the words of State Senator Gomes to the Governor on the Governor’s errant stance in throwing millions more money at new charter schools while “neighborhood public schools are flat-funded or cut” (CT Mirror):
“I understand that the governor wants charters. I want what my constituents want. We are being disrespected by the state Board of Education,” Sen. Edwin Gomes, D-Bridgeport, said of the panel appointed by the governor that approved a new charter school for Gomes’s district before the legislature agreed to provide the funding. “I got elected by people, and they are not supportive ….”
From CT Mirror article “Could Malloy’s push to fund charter schools jeopardize budget approval?” Online at
ctmirror.org/2015/05/29/could-malloys-push-to-fund-charter-schools-jeopardize-budget-approval/
Spain Reigns!
Dear Up On Bridgeport,
Validated evidence and the truth that can be reckoned reign.
I am merely a foot soldier against BS that harms the public interest … and, think it through, for whose benefit and at whose cost?
Pete,
Thank you for the link to the CT Mirror story. I just spoke with two members of the Bridgeport delegation. Malloy is pressing hard to add in the funding for both new charter schools. I understand it is likely if the charter school funding is in the budget, there are enough state representatives who will vote against the budget. I don’t know if that is the case in the senate. If Dr. Perry’s school is funded, the BPS will lose close to $700,000 next year alone. The BPS will lose close to $8 million in just the next five years. All while Dr. Perry collects $2.6 million in management fees for overseeing fewer than 2,500 students in that same five-year period.
Pete, well said.
NO GRANDFATHERING OF EXISTING COUNCIL MEMBERS!!!