5:30 p.m. update: Okay, here’s the City Council primary lineup for September 15.
District 135: Peter Clarke and Mary McBride-Lee have qualified to challenge incumbents Warren Blunt and Richard Bonney. So has Isa Mujahid who is running solo.
District 136: Mark Trojanowski, running solo, was certified to take on incumbents Angel DePara and Carlos Silva. This is an interesting one because Troj was placed on the DTC in that district by Party Vice Chair Dottie Guman so the Mother Goose of the party is not happy with Mark.
District 137: Maria Valle and Christina Ayala qualified to challenge endorsed candidates Lydia Martinez and Manny Ayala. That should be a good fight. Valle is an incumbent City Council member who was dumped by the town committee.
District 138: Hold on to your seats. This is gonna be a beauty. OIB friends Andy Fardy and Ann Barney have been certified to challenge incumbents Bob Curwen and Rich Paoletto. Here’s where it gets more interesting. James Morton and Tyreke Bird have also qualified. This creates a wide-open race. Endorsed candidates listed on the top line, followed by Fardy and Barney and then Morton and Bird. Not that placement matters with paper ballots.
District 132: Joyce Guyan failed to turn in signatures to qualify. No primary for City Councilman Bob Troll Walsh.
District 133: Lou Innacell did not turn in signatures before the deadline.
A big OIB thank you to Democratic Registrar of Voters Sandi Ayala for providing information.
The Riccio Plan
No formal action has been taken yet by the Civil Service Commission to remove Personnel Director Ralph Jacobs at the urging of Mayor Bill Finch who’s apoplectic about Sir Ralph not playing ball with hizzoner regarding job placements.
The mayor wants to put his own person in that slot to control jobs. It’s been decades since a mayor has taken on the non-political personnel director. Hard to say who’s on the side of the angels on this one. Jacobs has both his supporters and detractors in the building. The mayor wants Jacobs out even if it requires a Riccio Plan. Say what?
Remember Joe Ricco, the former executive director of the Bridgeport Port Authority? When the heat was turned up after Joe wired that state legislation that placed the port authority under the control of the state DOT the city was able to buy out Joe.
So the thinking is, let’s can Jacobs and give him a pay day so he’ll go away without a major court fight. Stay tuned.
Well, Rell?
An OIB friend shared this observation the other day and it doesn’t sound crazy. Once Jodi Rell finalizes a budget deal with Democrats (don’t hold your breath) she’ll resign from office giving her Lieutenant Governor Mike Fedele a chance to become chief executive for a year and run on his own in 2010. Maybe Mother Rell wants to sit back and relax in Brookfield?
Fedele announced last week that if Rell doesn’t run he’s in. But maybe the door also opens for other Republican candidates? Fairfield State Senator John McKinney shocked the GOP when he announced he would not seek the GOP endorsement in Connecticut’s Fourth Congressional District. John wants to be close to home with his family. But maybe closer to home in Hartford is an option for John?
Who knows, but Rell bailing out adds a new dimension to the gubernatorial cycle.
Ann & I welcome James Morton and Tyreke Bird to the fray. We also welcome all of the others that have joined the primary fray. Ann & I would have liked to have seen more primaries in more districts but this is a start.
If we can change some of the members of the present council with primary victories maybe just maybe in the future more people will see that it is possible to beat the incumbents.
To those that have qualified congratulations as we know how much work went into qualifying.
On another front the assault on Ralph Jacobs is disgusting. I don’t know Mr. Jacobs. I do know he is the head of civil service.
Finch and company have attacked long-time city employees on all fronts and in many cases have been able to get rid of them. They have eliminated their jobs only to have these same jobs show up with new titles. All of this has been done with the blessing of most council members some of whom have benefited by this process.
Finch has been helped in this process by Everything is Wonderful CC president Tom McCarthy. It’s no surprise that Larry Osborne’s name has popped up as a replacement for Jacobs.
Any assault on civil service should be stopped in its tracks. To the council members that are city employees I issue a word of caution. THE NEXT JOB ELIMINATED COULD BE YOURS. Without civil service protection you could be out the door.
Mama Rell will be leaving to spend time with Papa Rell, who has some health issues.
*** If Rell pulls out, the governor’s race is wide open to either party! That may not be a good thing for CT in general, depending on who actually gets in the governors seat? God help us, but right now the way things are going economically in this state & city, it’s not looking very good for the future! The go west young man, go west saying seems to be sounding better & better as time moves on! *** Time will tell very soon! ***
*** In ending, I hope the Obama Admin. does not try to push this health care bill down American’s throat if in fact the majority of Americans do not want it right now! If it’s needed to go back to the drawing board with 50/50 input from both parties to find something that everyone can understand & agree to, so be it. ***
“town committee” I am in total agreement with your comments concerning the primaries and about the assault on Ralph Jacobs the head of civil service. Personnel Director Ralph Jacobs is showing us all that you can fight City Hall, he can win if the citizens and the City Council support his fight against the Mayor Bill Finch takeover of Civil Service.
Hey Walsh …
Is it true you intend to “obstruct” Jacobs’ fight to stop Phinch from taking over Civil Service?
I realize that Yahooy just loves calling me an obstructionist simply because I won’t roll over and play dead like the rest of the council does for the mayor. If anything at times I simply like to slow down the process and allow other checks and balances to take place and I would be happy to publicly or privately discuss with Yahooy any issue that he cares to ask me about. This is far more than he would get from any other council member in the city of Bridgeport.
Specifically to Ralph Jacobs, I have told other individuals that some people think that he does too many things strictly by the book. I do not have a problem with that. I do have a problem where he deviates at times based on the issue or individual far more than his discretion should allow.
However, I have also seen him not back down when pushed by the City Attorney’s office and I respect him for that.
All things considered, I would support retaining Mr. Jacobs at the present time in his present position.
With much of the civil service rules defined and embedded in the City Charter it is not an easy process to change. If the mayor has problems with Civil Service this is where he should begin and not with simply trying to remove the person in charge.
*** Bob, I’m in agreement; if the Mayor has a problem with Civil Service then it’s high time for a City Charter Review & Study to make modern, streamlined, sensible changes that will benefit the city taxpayers & workers alike! Ralph can be a stickler for by the book policies @ times and a bit old-fashioned but knows the job & what’s needed to make things much more productive as well. He also seems to enjoy a good challenge on policy from time to time, so I like the man’s spirit too! Last but not least, Yahooy is an ignorant old man whom needs attention & seems to find it here on OIB. He’s not a Bpt resident so has to depend on outside the box rumors & daily local media news, etc. Forget about that fool Bob, he’s a mosquito looking for a bite! ***
Bob
Why would Finch start following the charter, when he has Mark Anastasi not following it for him?
*** Mr. Anastasi is a company man, or the Government Company’s main attorney. He’s paid to protect the city’s interest legally, right or wrong, regardless of his own personal feelings; that’s it! ***
Dear Up Bpt:
I don’t see how we can pick on poor Mr. Anastasi. After all, he is merely the lawyer for the city and Mr. Finch. And as we all know, lawyer comes from the Middle English, lieaeor, meaning liar.
A lawyer once told me that a lawyer is someone you hire to lie for you.
So it looks like I am actually benefiting Walsh’s campaign by getting him to publicly state why he does things the way he does. Perception, regrettably, is a single-edged sword. The public perceives obstructionist manners while the altruist takes the high road. Walsh, you need to offer more blogalogue so that the people who depend on you can have confidence that you are a watchful guardian protecting their interests and further protecting them from Phinch and the Calamarians.
As to Jacobs … no man should be removed from a job simply because he is rigid in his interpretation of his responsibilities. You say he sometimes “goes by the book too much.” Well, the “book” was written so that an even playing field could be established in a way that everyone knows what the rules are. We need more of that and less Calamarian-led manipulation.
Jacobs stays. Phinch goes. Not a bad mantra.
Andy Fardy can you answer these questions? I found them very interesting because some users on the CT Post have been saying this about you is this true? The first user says …
I wonder if Mr. Fardy will stay out of Testo’s long enough to campaign. This guy is way too loaded half the time to get elected and do us any good. Look at the mess his wife made by approving the lot that creates new floods across from Treeland when she was a Planning & Zoning commissioner. Now he’s mad because she isn’t able to do any more damage to our area, so he wants to get elected. God help us.
The second user says
I totally agree with you. I own property on that side of the street whose yard was damaged as a direct result of that approval. Not only did she make a bad decision but their son also robbed the city he quick deeded his house to his parents so the city couldn’t claim it when he was arrested. So these comments about getting all these cronies out of office want another crooked politician in there. Curwen has served our district to the best of his ability and I say keep him in there.
If you want to see for yourself check them out here
www .topix.net/forum/source/connecticut-post/TTF9HGOJVS2QRB3NG
These comments are plants in a blog that have no credibility. Just to answer a few of your questions. The last time I was in Testa’s restaurant was for a meeting of the DTC. I average 1 beer a week if it’s anyone’s business.
Bringing my family into this is low and dirty.
My wife did not approve the storage lot on Huntington Turnpike; that was already zoned for what it is being used for.
The flooding on Glenbrooke road. The person that wrote about the flooding that happens on the turnpike is not even a resident of that area; if they were they would know that is the area where the city has the runoff from the storm drains on Broadbridge and Glenbroke empty into. If they were from the area they would have known that myself and my wife got the state to replace a broken pipe that went under Huntington Turnpike and stopped the flow of storm water from the area I just described.
The city or the feds had no claim on my son’s house. If they did my selling it would not have stopped their claims. The city taxes were fully paid and the feds had no claim on the house. So there is another dumb-ass that has no clue.
Donj these are remarks from desperate people who know Ann and I will win this election. We were qualified in less than 8 days, we stopped at Every House where a democrat was registered. I suggest you look at our blog to see what we have accomplished in a few short weeks. Don’t you think that if I were a regular at Testo’s I would have gotten the nomination and not have to primary? Ignore the BS and learn the facts.
DONJ
CALAMARIAN
Donj, is that true? Are you a Calamarian?
All this time I thought you were a Rastafarian!
Off topic, but does anyone know what our director of economic development, Eversley, does? When I read his comment about the closing of A&P, and I’ll paraphrase “I had heard something about that. Hopefully something else will occupy that space.” If he heard something the first thing he should do is pick up the phone and arrange a meeting with the principals to see what could be done. Developers aren’t going to come knocking on his door. I could do as bad a job and I’d charge less.
town committee
I agree with you. I just wanted you to clear the air because the last thing we need are lies by these corrupt DTC people. Vote September 15 for change!!!
I was just informed by Santa Ayala that I have qualified for the Democratic Primary for District 135. Thanks for all your support and well wishes.
The Bookies on Stratford Avenue and Beardsley Terrace have Warren Blunt crushing Isa Mujahid 10 to 1, once Warren puts his Political “Weight” on Isa.
isamujahid,
Congrats man I’m rooting for you. I have contacted 2 cousins of mine to vote at Wilbur Cross for you. I will make sure I give them a ride; they were first-time voters in November and it is good that we make them not only vote for Obama but for all candidates that will bring change in our city. isamujahid a place I can see you winning and running up the numbers is Park City magnet. Take a look at this number from the 2007 primary. 87 Finch and 187 Caruso. You need to run up the numbers there.
Joel Gonzalez
Lol far from that thing Yahooy said I’m actually a lady’s man and Yahooy would have no shot at me against no pretty lady out there. Like I said I don’t answer anything that bad but since you asked Joel I had to say something about that. On the other hand you are almost correct about the Rastafarian I am of Rastafarian heritage.
Are you saying that “Calamarian” is a heritage?
Farewell Rell.
Lennie, there are rumors that Rell will be saying, “Farewell” to Connecticut. There seems to be a free-for-all going on in the Connecticut Republican Party. You read between the lines when McKinney left open the door for a Statewide run. I hear that McKinney wants to run for Governor and is seeking the Republican Party endorsement over Fedele. Could we see McKinney as the Lt. Gov?
The free-for-all is evident in the 4th Congressional race with Debicella and Russo. Rell, a strong supporter of Russo could have convinced Debicella to hold on to his Senate seat and not risk losing it to the Dems at a time when the Feds seem ready to go after Gov. official #1 in Shelton. The Republican Party must keep their numbers of State Senators the same at the least or gain one more so the Gov. has Veto-proof power.
Dear Joel,
President Obama told the American people in his weekend address he wanted to “start dispelling the outlandish rumors” about the Democrats’ risky health care experiment.
I couldn’t agree more with the President.
There is no place for outlandish rumor or outrageous rhetoric in the debate for the affordable and accessible health care reform we all want.
Below are some facts that will help you counter the dishonest rhetoric Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and liberal special interest groups are disseminating in their attempt to silence dissent:
Rhetoric: President Obama Promises Americans Can Keep Their Current Health Care Coverage. “You know, the interesting thing is we’ve actually been very clear on what we want. I’ve said I want to make sure if you have health care you are going to keep it…” (PBS’s “The Newshour With Jim Lehrer,” 7/20/09)
FACT: Analysis Shows Over 88 Million People To Lose Current Insurance Under Government Health Care Takeover. “Under current law, there will be about 158.1 million people who are covered under an employer plan as workers, dependents or early retirees in 2011. If the act were fully implemented in that year, about 88.1 million workers would shift from private employer insurance to the public plan.” (John Shelis, Vice President, Lewin Group, “Analysis Of The July 15 Draft Of The American Affordable Health Choices Act Of 2009,” 7/17/09)
Rhetoric: President Obama Pledges Americans Can Keep Their Doctor. “If you like your plan and you like your doctor, you won’t have to do a thing. You keep your plan. You keep your doctor…We’re not going to mess with it.” (President Barack Obama, Remarks At White House Press Conference, The White House, 6/23/09)
FACT: Mayo Clinic Says Government-Run Health Care Will Force Doctors To Drop Patients. ‘[L]awmakers are on track to approve across-the-board federal payment reductions of $155 billion over 10 years for hospitals … Mayo and similar health systems object to the sweeping cuts. ‘Across-the-board cuts will be harmful to everyone and we think it is particularly bad to penalize the high-value organizations,’ said Jeff Korsmo, executive director of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center. ‘We will have to violate our values in order to stay in business and reduce our access to government patients.'” (Phil Galewitz, “‘Model’ Health Systems Press Case For Medicare Fix In Reform,” Kaiser Health News, 7/20/09)
Rhetoric: President Obama Promises No Additional Taxes On Middle Class. “What I’ve said is, and I have stuck to this point, I don’t want to see additional tax burdens on people making $250,000 a year or less.” (NBC’s “Today Show,” 7/21/09)
FACT: Democrats’ Plan Imposes 2.5% Tax On Uninsured Individuals. “The penalty assessed on people who would be subject to the mandate but did not obtain insurance would equal 2.5 percent of the difference between their adjusted gross income (modified to include tax-exempt interest and certain other sources of income) and the tax filing threshold …” (Douglas W. Elmendorf, “Preliminary Analysis Of The Insurance Coverage Specifications Provided By The House Tri-Committee Group,” Letter To Chairman Rangel, 7/17/09)
The Republicans want an honest and open debate about how to reform health care, but it is the Democrats who do not want to have a legitimate discussion on the issues. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their liberal special interest cronies are resorting to calling concerned citizens who have questions about their health care schemes “astroturf,” “un-American,” and even “political terrorists.”
One White House aide went so far to say “if you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard” when coaching Senate Democrats on the ways of “Chicago land politics.”
It’s time for the President to practice what he preached on the campaign trail and respect all voices in the health care debate.
Help the RNC spread the facts about the Obama Democrats’ dishonest rhetoric and stop their efforts to silence dissent by forwarding this email to your friends, and if you can, make a contribution of whatever you can afford to the RNC today.
And for more information about Obama’s government-run health care experiment, go to www .BarackObamaExperiment.com. Joel, there’s too much at stake for Democrats and their left-wing allies to dominate the debate on health care reform with misinformation, name calling and scare tactics. Please help Republicans fight back today!
Sincerely,
Michael Steele
Chairman, Republican National Committee
Congratulations Isa Mujahid … I’m pretty sure there’s a bunch of Bpt peeps eating crow for dinner tonight …
I hope they catch the crows eating my corn.
“town committee,” don’t get caught up in majoring in minor issues on a blog. Every question from some unknown person does not always require a response. Andy, I understand and respect you or anyone else standing up for their wife and family but you know that there are those who will push your buttons.
Agreed. Family is off limits. I’m sure that was either Curwen or Paoletto trying to put TC on the defensive. They should know better. You know what they say about people in glass houses.
*** Yeah C.H.S. it was probably those 2 guys running against T/C blogging those mean-spirited things, reminds me of you! And you’re sure one hell of a blog detective to be able to narrow it down to state that you’re sure the 2 councilmen from that district said all those things. Wow, you’re one hell of a city rumor reporter & then some! *** Get a life will you or just go smoke a butt or something already please! ***
Thanks Ron, you are 100% right. I thought what you wrote after I posted.
www .youtube.com/watch?v=8CyZhOirPTU
Hey Lennie, you have been writing a lot about Political Party nominations. When are the nominations for Best Local blog 2009?
Walsh,
These are your words.
“because I won’t roll over and play dead like the rest of the council does for the mayor. If anything at times I simply like to slow down the process and allow other checks and balances …”
How arrogant. How irresponsible. You are an egotist with a single-minded opinion. The bad part is that we cannot afford the luxury of “slowing things down.” We need a council filled with members who can FACILITATE ACTION leading to great progress. Get important, albeit stagnant, projects off the mark and lead them to implementation in whatever form passes your so-called “smell test.” BTW … if ***MoPho*** should come to a council meeting, try not to sit in close proximity to him. It will cause you to be confused while evaluating issues … you know; the “smell test” method. Seriously. If you cannot find it within yourself to move proposed projects to fruition, then you should seek other venues for your spare time. You have been referred to by many as a nice guy. That may very well be the case. But your current methodologies are hurting the good people of this city. You must change your ways or leave the City Council.
*** Words from an outsider loser that’s never done shit but complain & hide behind a web mask like a little brat that’s always had his way @ home but is a complete jerk & ass-kisser in the real world. A Bozo wannabe-type for sure, no mistake! ***