Mayor Joe Ganim on Monday will receive the oath of office for another four-year term. Technically according to the City Charter, his term started 12:01 a.m. Sunday, the first day of December.
Ganim, with more than 15 years on the job, is the second-longest serving mayor in Bridgeport history after Socialist Jasper McLevy, 1933-57.
More than 30 other municipal office holders will also take part in inaugural ceremonies Monday, 5:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 45 Lyon Terrace. Immediately after the full City Council will meet for an organizational meeting when Aidee Nieves is expected to receive another nod as council president who is next in line if the mayor is unable to perform duties or a vacancy occurs in the office.
She will then make committee assignments. Several pieces of business will be referred to committees. See agenda here and addendum here.
Power of the mayor per City Charter here.
Power of City Council per City Charter here.
In addition to Ganim, other municipal office holders:
City Clerk Lydia Martinez
Town Clerk Charles “Don” Clemons Jr.
City Council by district:
130: Matthew McCarthy, Scott Burns
131: Denese Taylor-Moye, Jorge Cruz
132: Marcus Brown, M. Evette Brantley
133: Jeanette Herron, Mike DeFilippo
134: Michelle Lyons, AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia
135: Rosalina Roman-Christy, Mary McBride-Lee
136: Alfredo Castillo, Maria Zambrano Viggiano
137: Aidee Nieves, Maria Ines Valle
138th: Maria Pereira, Samia Suliman
139: Eneida L. Martinez, Ernest E. Newton II
Board of Education: Sybil Allen, Albert Benejan, Bobbi Brown, Joseph Lombard
City Sheriffs:
(D): Stephen M. Nelson, Mitchell Robles, Dennis Scinto
(R): Mike Moretti, Mike Garrett, Enrique “Rick” Torres
Mayor Joe Ganim is the top leaders in Connecticut with this issue, let’s see if his State of the City speech address this issue, let’s not forget that former mayor Bill Finch had hand in helping Bridgeport to achieve this status.
“Why affordable housing is built in areas with high crime, few jobs and struggling schools”
Connecticut’s approach to affordable housing creates pockets of poverty, where low-income people are locked out of opportunities that are just around the corner.
https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Why-affordable-housing-is-built-in-areas-with-14874116.php?src=posthpcp
Affordable housing doesn’t produce pockets of poverty. It was there all along.
Listen to Ron Mackey–what could be better than “opportunity just around the corner” with affordable housing nearby?
What every entrepreneur should know:
If the cost of your employees exceeds their value, your enterprise will soon die-unless you’re the Governor of Connecticut and you are the state’s largest employer. Lamont tolerates inefficiency! I wonder if he put his wife’s private equity firm on a debt diet. PE without debt is like a fish out of water. It’ll soon die.
David Walker taught us Connecticut can never go bankrupt, meaning the day of reckoning has been delayed but not eliminated.
I carry some observations, views and lessons from David Walker, but the supposed “teaching” presented by LE is not one of them.
In my mind was his reminder that you do not increase your spending budget more rapidly than the taxable grand list is growing ( or you end up doing so with borrowed money that has to be repaid by someone….you at a later date with extra expense (Ganim). And increasing debt burdens directly or by restructuring and kicking the payments into the future is a cruel joke on those who must settle your debt without enjoying the current buying decision.
Public finance has been an area where we have no public conversations with Ganim1, Ganim2 and unless he changes, with Ganim. the 2019 winner. Imagine a City with a Finance board of independent, public service minded, financially skilled and experienced professionals, with some political diversity at least, and long track records of integrity to look at spending, create dialog with taxpayers and whistleblowers who pay taxes? How do these characteristics contrast with those wielding their positional power as we currently experience? Time will tell.
JML, your observations were incomplete. There is plenty of data to confirm the notion that Connecticut cannot declare bankruptcy.
Before you declare me wrong, prove yourself right!
Read it again, please.
Did I declare you wrong? Why begin howling and demanding? It reflects poorly on your self-confidence in terms of overall grasp of the subject matter.
Now that you have re-read and likely realize that I did not declare you anything (other than having a memory different from you regarding David Walker’s observations), I no longer have to prove myself right? Time will tell.
JML, let me point out a few things, remember former mayor Bill Finch giving 40 year tax abatement, funding public education with property taxes is one of the worst ways to fund public education and let’s not forget the money Bridgeport and every town and city in Connecticut pays in federal income taxes and how President 45’s tax cut to the rich is being paid by states like Connecticut, and lastly, what is Connecticut share of those federal tax cuts coming back to Bridgeport and to Connecticut?
Ron,
Have you and LE been meeting secretly? Are you finding that the level of discourse about important City issues is too often absent? Are you yet ready to meet with me for coffee? I do not take seriously what otherwise might be a serious sign of disrespect in that you avoid answering or meeting.
However, why do you think I will answer such an open ended question about funding of public education on a thread that is about Ganim and installation of the recently elected just because you decided to ask it?? You know that I do research, reading and fact-finding. I know that you do history on several subjects and that is valuable to OIB readers.
The subject of funding education in the City is critical at a time when Smarter Balance test scores in English Language Art hovers at 35% and Mathematic scores are trending up, but are still below 20%. When does accountability for results become a subject of real factual information and discussion as to strategies and practices for radical change? Does anyone else need to lament where we are with schools and how our lack of concentration limits the opportunity for youths and the community? Time will tell.
John Marshall Lee, you misinterpret my decisiveness for meaningless chatter. To troll is human. OIB hardens my resistance to character assassinations. The burden of proof is never on you.
JML, I did address a specific issue cause by Bridgeport mayors, Bill Finch and Joe Ganim, tax abatement, especially long term tax abatement. JML, you know nothing is going to change with the G3 administration, it will be the same dog and pony show with smoke and mirrors until he runs for governor again. Tax abatement for businesses means campaign donations to Mario. JML, the joke is on us for allowing Joe Ganim to get back into office again because with Ganim you got Mario Testa and we nothing is going to change.
Purely speculative on my part but,IMHO, Ganim will abscond to Washington D.C If a Democrat wins the Presidency next year. If Aidee Nieves remains City Council President, she would assume the Bridgeport mayoral post which means NO CHANGE whatsoever. I have reservationsabout Ganim running for Governor because he got burned badly but he barely survived that debacle. But if he survived this past mayoral election and just try again.
Frank, I understand what you are saying and back during G1 it looked like he would be going to D.C. and get appointed to a deputy of HUD or something like that but after G2 lost at the Democrats convention and he didn’t chose party unity and to be loyal to the party instead Joe Ganim decided to drag the party through a primary where Ganim got his ass kicked big time. Joe Ganim is no longer the fair hair golden boy when he would have victories with 80% of the vote, those days are long gone, he lost to State Senator Marilyn More at the voting polls by over 300 votes, that’s something that no one has ever done to Joe Ganim running for mayor.