Kohut Stands Up For Fabrizi: Resourceful Leader

Jeff Kohut, 2011 petitioning candidate for mayor and policy wonk extraordinaire, shares a commentary urging former Mayor John Fabrizi to run for his old job. Fabrizi has formed an exploratory committee for mayor. From Kohut:

I had the opportunity to spend some time in the Seattle, Washington area last summer. It is a beautiful, vibrant, socially and politically progressive area with abundant affordable housing, low unemployment, and many thriving manufacturing concerns of all sizes–from aerospace and information technology to lower-tech sectors such as basic metal-working and paper products production (not to mention the very important, well-exploited tourism sector). There is also a large service-sector employment base that supports the burgeoning manufacturing sector.

When I look at the social, commercial, and geographic assets of the Seattle area versus our own Fairfield County/New York Metro area–there are many similarities–I find myself hard-pressed to understand why, with all of our natural assets, our area has much higher unemployment, insufficient affordable housing, and general socioeconomic regression.

In particular, Bridgeport, a former regional economic engine, can’t seem to reverse its negative momentum–even with its proximity to the base of so much of the world’s capital, in New York City.

One glaring difference between our area (e.g., Bridgeport) and the Seattle area that is easy to identify is the lack of strong, progressive leadership at the municipal and state levels (see the Everett Sunday Herald of 7/14/13–“Everett’s mayor takes on new role”).

Indeed, it is focused, determined, point-on leadership in bringing business to Bridgeport that we need even more than we need dollars from Hartford and Washington.

It is amazing how no one in Hartford or Bridgeport made as much as a whisper concerning the option of the Bridgewater Group to locate their new, $750 million headquarters to Bridgeport’s Steel Point development after they were rebuffed by Stamford in their efforts to locate their new HQ to the similar Harbor Point development on that city’s waterfront.

What Bridgeport needs is a hands-on mayor who is rooted in, and devoted to the city–a mayor who loves the city and is willing to listen to the people and put their welfare before his/her own political aspirations.

In my lifetime, we have had only one such mayor–John Fabrizi.

I had the good fortune to work with Mayor Fabrizi as a public-safety and economic development activist/proponent, as well as a member of the Ethics Commission.

While I didn’t always agree with Mayor Fabrizi’s policies and decisions, I appreciated his willingness to listen to the citizens of Bridgeport, consider and often implement their suggestions for improvements in government, public safety, and economic development, and to go out on a limb, politically–on a local and state level–to pursue the interests of Bridgeport.

While mayor, John and Bridgeport first lady, Mary Fabrizi, participated in several neighborhood safety patrols with the Lake Forest Block Watch. As mayor, John took direct action on many occasions to assist the Lake Forest neighborhood in its quest to address traffic safety and other public-safety challenges in that part of the North End. Truly, it was the Fabrizi Administration that reconstructed the city’s public safety capacity following its severe erosion during the latter part of the Ganim Administration. Most of the public-safety capacity that Bridgeport enjoys today was put in place by the Fabrizi Administration nearly a decade ago.

We also have to appreciate Mayor Fabrizi’s willingness to appoint independent voices and create upgrades in the functioning of the city’s Ethics Commission via his revival of that moribund commission following its implosion during the Ganim Administration.

And we must not forget the hundreds of new jobs that the Fabrizi Administration brought to Bridgeport (RBS bank and Pitney Bowes, et al.), as well as the many hundreds of existing jobs that he saved through his point-on advocacy on behalf of Bridgeport and its business community.

Yes, John Fabrizi had to deal with some of the demons that often attack driven people of passion and ambition–especially people in the political arena–but he conquered those demons and learned from the experience. I believe that he has emerged from those battles a much wiser, much stronger man and will be a standard-setting mayor because of his triumph over those demons.

John Fabrizi is an intelligent, resourceful, well-educated politician, manager and leader. But, more importantly when it comes to being the mayor of Bridgeport, he is a man of passion and loyalty who is not afraid to advocate for and defend that which he holds near and dear–including family, friends, and the City of Bridgeport.

I sincerely hope that John Fabrizi runs for mayor of Bridgeport–and wins–in 2015. I intend to support him. I would urge my fellow Bridgeporters to do the same.