Moses To Part Halfway House, Mayor Begins Mending Process

Charlton Heston as Moses
Former State Senator Ernie Newton will officially become a free man Friday morning when he signs out of a halfway house in Waterbury.

The Moses of his peeps, a declaration Ernie made following a court appearance five years ago, served out the final months of his federal bribery sentence under home confinement. Like former Mayor Joseph Ganim, who was officially released last month, Ernie will spend three years of supervised release under conditions set by U.S. Probation. Those conditions generally include seeking permission to travel out of the state, filing monthly financial statements and staying out of trouble.

But for the most part he’ll be able to carry out his life and reenter politics. There is no prohibition on Ernie seeking public office. Ernie is closely aligned with East End District Leader Ralph Ford who was among several key political leaders who broke ranks with Mayor Bill Finch and Democratic Town Chair Mario Testa by supporting Dan Malloy for governor.

Look for Ernie to make more reappearances than Lieutenant Columbo. He has missed the political game and loves the action. And he’ll not waste any time being a big pain in the ass. Ernie fashions himself a social irritant on the city scene. He’s done his time. He’s even with the house.

Speaking Of Political Irritation …

Mayor Bill Finch has started the process of reaching out to pols who supported Democrat Dan Malloy’s lopsided statewide win over Ned Lamont (Bill’s candidate) who outspent Malloy four to one. Whether Black Rock District Leader Danny Roach, East End District Leader Ralph Ford or former town chair John Stafstrom, these are pols with votes who Finch will need for reelection. The mayor is not a man of personal wealth, it’s not like he can walk away from the mayoralty with a young family to feed, he’ll need their support for reelection next year, with State Rep. Chris Caruso poised to breathe down his neck.

The mayor will have plenty of campaign dough to make his case. But so did Ned Lamont. Campaigns are all about Mom–money, organization and message. Ned had only one of three. The mayor will need all three next year.

Ya Think Dick And Linda Will Get Ugly?

Can you imagine the headline in November, Linda Licks Dick? State Dems hope not. Get a load of this:

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21 comments

  1. Loyalty is a quality to admire in a person and highly prized by those who have it. When given and not returned, its absence is not lost in time.

    OMG, does this fit into these stories or what?

    AND, I’m not talking Mc or Dick here.

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  2. Having been involved in local politics for more than 30 years this is one election I will never forget.
    Bill Finch has a lot to worry about and the main thing he has to worry about are people who are expressing support for his upcoming race for mayor.
    I have never seen a larger group of whores than I have seen in this past primary. People who up to and including election night professed their support for Lamont and in the background worked to defeat him.
    How did they do this? Well let me explain. You had one very large district that did not work to get the vote out, sure they were at the polls but made no attempt to get the people out with telephone calls and such.
    You had another district where there was a phone bank but no soft sheets to track who voted and thus did not need a phone call.
    You had a district where the person running the operation was found to have Malloy material hidden in their car. Their phone bank was abandoned in favor of a door-to-door get out the vote which is always a waste of energy on election day.
    You had a district where an elected official was on the surface working for Lamont yet declared he was voting for Malloy.
    Look the list goes on and on. Political whores have become the mainstay of the Bridgeport Democratic party. Every single soul is saying What’s in it For ME?
    Finch needs to separate these people from his campaign and find a core of hardworking people who give a shit. Will he do that? NO!!!
    Does anyone think Stafstrom backed Malloy because he really liked his platform? Yeah right or could it be future Bond Council work for his firm? Could it be a future job for Murphy or in fact a renewal of his Bridgeport contract? Ralph Ford is Ralph Ford always with his hand out and politicians still think he gets the vote out. Look at this year’s results in his district.
    Bridgeport makes the Mustang Ranch in Vegas look like a church retreat.

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  3. Memo to Bill Finch: If you want to be reelected in 2011 you had better start making some tough decisions NOW. Let’s look at a few of these decisions.
    1. Get rid of Adam Wood he has been the reason for much of the anger and negativity directed at you. He contributes Zilch to your administration.
    2. Get Charlie Carroll off his ass and out of city hall. Get him to start cleaning up this city. Bridgeport is getting dirtier by the day and nothing is being done to clean it up. What other city do you know that mows the grass clippings and paper into the street and leaves it there?
    3. You can’t be following the advice of 2 town chairmen. Get rid of Stafstrom, he lost and has been a divisive force in your administration. He is self-centered and could care less about you.
    4. Before you go after the unions and the employees take a look at the budget proposals for this year and make the necessary cuts that should have been make by the council’s budget committee. One example trim $2 million off the PD overtime request. No one submits a budget and does not expect it to be cut. No budget requests were cut this year.
    5. Once you have made the budget cuts then sit down with the unions and deal with them in and honest and fair manner. Explain to them a partnership needs to be formed to save the city.
    6. Lead by example and remove the 4% salary increase for mayoral appointments. Then cut all appointees’ salaries by 7%. If anyone quits there are plenty of more qualified people looking for work.
    Bill this is a start and you need to do it post haste.

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  4. “Town Committee,” I agree with both of your postings but Andy, I don’t agree with giving this mayor any advice to get re-elected, he is a man who does not listen and he does not keep his word.

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  5. Ron: The advice I gave him will if nothing else help the city. We are fast becoming a dump and a place where people’s word means squat. That needs to change. When your public officials can’t be trusted when they give their word how can we expect developers to come here and spend millions? How can we expect developers who tour the city and see the dirt and grime in the streets to invest their money here? I know what I write will be ignored and that’s all right it still needs to be said.

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  6. TC your postings have been good advice for whoever is running the City or wishes to going forward. The fact that budgets were proposed and passed from Executive through Legislative without cutting, commentary, etc. raises the question as to who is administering the financial store???

    Has anyone looked at the audits for the past couple years, at the management letters or reviews? Anyone have any idea as to the size of the retirement plan obligations and/or retired employee healthcare? Want to get a headache?

    So perhaps the long-term political, City administrative, and taxpaying experience of contributors to this site may serve as the beginning of a template for attention by any or all candidates for 2011 municipal election (as well as for Charter review), because soon enough we will be there, and past decisions as to labor negotiations will be coming home to roost. And claims from incumbents about taxes and job reduction in past years will attempt to drown out the reality of the moment.

    For instance, until this morning who knew the Pequonnock Yacht Club had unfinished responsibilities left regarding the property other than to pick up their $250,000 escrow check? In the same vein of cash flow issues, what percentage of taxes due were paid to the City by August 2??? And what is the unrestricted fund balance of the City at this time? If nothing is done by this administration to fill the $8 Million empty budget line, or $6 Million if $2 Million reduction in Police OT is pushed, would that wipe out the fund balance account? Anybody remember what the Charter calls for as an unrestricted fund balance target for budget purposes?

    Realism about money, talking about it, raising it, and using it, at the end of the day is what voters at all levels will be focused upon for years to come. You either have the ability or you don’t and voters will have shorter patience than in the past with the games that have been played.

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  7. TC:
    Interesting points to roll ’round.

    However, I strongly disagree with your characterization of Bridgeport Democrats as the biggest political whores ever. That covers a lot of territory and may be disrespectful towards whores. After all, usually they stay bought.

    A wizened old reporter described to a young ‘un once about a political convention in Hartford where the Bridgeport leader was in semi-panic because of disappearing delegates. He telegraphed to his sponsors in Bridgeport the following message:
    “Send more money. Delegates leaving one by one.”

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  8. Why would the people of Bridgeport consider reelecting Bill Finch? If I understand it correctly, this Charlie Carroll is the executive in charge of keeping Bridgeport clean. Does anyone know if Mr. Carroll has traveled up Main Street from the courthouse to the defunct theaters? It is a disgrace.

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  9. Town Committee,
    The concerns you raise are on target .. .my concerns go beyond the physical to the obvious absence of any moral compass among any of these armchair cronies who gather in the Mayor’s office on a routine basis and have the Mayor make decision after decision in their personal favor … so reflective of the Mayor himself.
    Count how many loyal, extraordinarily motivated, smart and dedicated people on the Mayor’s staff who got terminated without cause because they chose to work for the betterment of Bridgeport as a City rather than advance the agenda of those who would pimp the City. Some moral compass …
    Is there any disagreement that an agent of change is needed?

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  10. Carolanne: I have written extensively about the administration’s actions in regards to people who care for Bridgeport and want to do their jobs. Here are just a few:
    Joe Minopoli Housing enforcement replaced by council person.
    Mr. Jacobs Civil Service replaced by political yes man David Dunn.
    Mr. O’Brien Tax Collector I don’t know who replaced him.
    Mr. Riccio Port Authority replaced by landlocked Andy Nunn.
    Mike Lupkus Comptroler’s Office replaced by stooge from Stratford.
    John Gomes CitiStat I don’t know who replaced him.
    Strong opinionated smart women scare this administration let go Rita Bakalar, Michelle Mount, Nancy Hadley Carolanne Curry and I am sure there are others I can’t remember.
    This administration is full of appointees who don’t have a clue, no management training, no civil training just plain no training at all.
    What other city do you know is 1-1/2 months into a new budget year that still does not have a budget and has no idea how to cover a built-in deficit.
    Everyone on this blog talks about the Testa machine when in fact the Stafstrom machine has been behind a lot of the bullshit that is going on here. When I ran for the council with Ann Barney this administration was petrified we would win. They inserted a 3rd set of candidates, they got certain city unions out in force on election day and they had big ranking city officials like Anastasi and McCarthy at the polls all day long. They are afraid of people who want nothing but a better Bridgeport. They can’t understand that.

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  11. Town Committee–Let me fill in the blanks.

    Ann Kelly Tax Collector–Stratford
    Jodie Paul CitiStat–Stratford
    Mike Feeney Finance–Stratford
    Adam Heller IT–Formerly of Stratford
    Ronald Preston Treasurer–Stratford
    Half of the IT Department–Stratford

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  12. TC, okay you are back in on my good side again. As to Stratford employees, I can’t really say anything about the people mentioned, but I can tell you there is an excellent former town clerk of 35 years in the City’s records and archives department who is a true asset to Bridgeport. Bridgeport is lucky to have her and I am lucky to be her friend.

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