Torres: Bridgeport’s ‘Institutional Corruption’ Hurts Taxpayers

Mayor Bill Finch dismisses the City Charter approved by voters that prohibits city employees from serving on the City Council. In fact, the head of the city’s legislative body that’s supposed to serve as a check on the executive branch to protect taxpayers works at the pleasure of the mayor as deputy director of Labor Relations. Finch wants to ban some felons from serving in public office who he says violated the public trust while in office, but sanctimoniously sees nothing wrong with him using taxpayer dollars to win support of the head of the legislative branch. This arrangement is illegal in most likewise situations in government. Republican City Councilman Rick Torres, a candidate for the special election in Connecticut’s 129th Assembly District, calls this institutional corruption.

Torres commentary:
In Bridgeport the days of money drop-offs in brown paper bags may be over. The FBI has probably eliminated that activity in 2002. However Bridgeport has upgraded its methodology and now practices Institutional Corruption. Institutional corruption takes place when large corporations control the political process for their own selfish ends.

My experience on the City Council thus far has provided me insight into our local process. In Bridgeport the same large firms control most of the large contracts we award. The ownership and employees of these firms also appear as major donors to Mayor Finch. In past elections the mayor has been able to overwhelm his competitors in fundraising: $750,000 in 2011.

However, to control the political process you must also control the City Council. The City Council is analogous to the balance of power provided by Congress to the power of the President. Instead of that, in Bridgeport the City Council is the proverbial ‘rubber stamp’ for the mayor.

Through a strong political army known as the Democratic Machine, a majority of the Council members are there to do the mayor’s bidding. This control has been won by providing favors or outright awarding of city jobs that exist at the pleasure of the mayor. The most flagrant example of this control is our Council President Thomas McCarthy. Although highly gifted with intellect, President McCarthy has no free will to represent us. One call from the mayor and President McCarthy goes into action to do as he is told, not what he was elected to do.

Bridgeport taxpayers have had a completely conflicted Council president for years. For this dedication (under Finch) McCarthy has been handsomely paid: nearly one million dollars of our money.

Bridgeport taxpayers have been deceived; we exist without accountable government. Institutional corruption rules Bridgeport, not you or me.

Some of you may say: why shouldn’t it be the mayor’s friends who get these contracts? After all someone is going to get them. The simple answer is one of accountability and fairness. His friends are much less if at all accountable; and this process is unfair to people who innocently play by the rules.

We should elect people who have no conflicts. We should elect people who work for us, not for the financially powerful.

0
Share

20 comments

    1. Rick, what you say may be true. It would be as true if it were a Republican in office with a total Republican council. The problem is within your party and their inability to put strong candidates up for election as well as attracting more minorities. Your commentary is a fact and has been a Bridgeport fact since the days of Mandanici, the earliest Mayor I can remember. We of course are only assuming these council people are not following their own good judgement. This commentary has been played out for years. We need checks and balances. The Republicans need to get their act together.

      0
      1. Steve, you have to go back to Samuel Tedesco and the building of the Rte 8/25 connector. If you accuse John Mandanici of corruption you have to show monetary gain. You seem to blame the Republicans, that IF they were in office such corruption would also occur. When’s the last time in Bridgeport you saw Republicans dipping into the city’s coffers? In fact it was Mary Moran who wanted the city to go into bankruptcy due to the overreach of the city’s unions. She was a one-term (two years at that time) mayor. Rick is absolutely correct and you know it.

        0
        1. Bob, I did agree with Torres 100 percent but also stated with 100 percent Republicans it would happen also. We need checks and balances. I was a Republican and I worked for the most honest administration, Mary Moran and the council was 50/50.

          0
      2. Steve,
        Parties are a minor part of what governance “checks and balances” are all about. And blaming our curent weakness in or corruption of governance on the lack of a competitive second party is a cop-out, Steve. It would be as if there were a couple next door where the husband had trouble with self-control, forgot the attraction that got him married in the first place, and merely used his spouse as a punching bag when he got angry. The wife half his size, with self-esteem issues for starters, had long ago forgotten why she had gotten married and was willing to put up with being in this abusive relationship for the crumbs of satisfaction it occasionally got her (in the case of Republicans, some Board or Commission appointments and occasional recognition).
        Real checks and balances would start with the City Council reading the Charter and Ordinances and recognizing where in multiple circumstances the rules and regulations are not being observed. They might focus on the fact they take an oath to uphold the State Constitution (but I assume they do not read that either).
        As individual Council persons they work for the folks in their District, but as a Council they should be working for all the people as a body. They do not act as if they know this and I doubt anyone has ever heard that instruction from any member in Council leadership for years.
        Checks and balances might also be more successful if they had assistance in the legislative process but Tom McCarhty unilaterally made that change at an 11th hour and sold it to a Council anxious to come to budget agreement, not realizing how this one move could cripple the mission of future Councils.
        Much more attention would be focused on financial matters with an independent and active Council representing the people of the City. The fact that monthly reports that are generated receive little or no attention, that annual audits are not even addressed in announced public meetings where questions and answers can be aired, and that no outrage about Council use of City funds for gifts to charities and no concern about keeping current City values private until after the 2015 election are indications of how far the individuals who sit as Council members are from an understanding of their role as a body. When they are not challenged by readers who know this and when they sit without audience at semi-monthly Council meetings for their brief sessions, what are they to think? Time will tell.

        0
        1. Thank you for the laugh, John. The punching-bag analogy reads like a comic strip. You are as always on point, but if you can write a little simpler people’s eyes will not glaze over when reading. Oh, and I am on your side. Remember, most folks perhaps including myself really only have about a sixth-grade education, and that’s not to take away from my child who’s only in third grade. What a sad bunch of bastards she will have to grow up among. Time will tell.

          0
    1. Therefore he should not say it again in the CT Post or in any other forum in which he gets a chance to be heard? Because it has been talked about by the infighting here, and brought up by Democrats at other times.

      0
    2. He’s been talking about the Democrat ruination of Bridgeport for years. It’s sad you perceive him as being “late to the game.” Two things. It ain’t a game. And he left the Democrat party due to the pay-to-play requirements years ago.

      0
  1. So Rick, please tel, what have you done in your role as a City Council member to try to address this “institutional corruption?”
    Have you proposed any council rules to try to limit the powers of city employees on the council? Ban employees from serving as officers or chairman? Ban employees through ordinance from receiving stipends because the funds become too fungible to clearly delineate the tax consequences of these funds?
    Have you proposed any changes to the Ethics Ordinance? Procurement Ordinance? Eligibility to serve on Boards and Commissions?
    Isn’t this where institutional corruption needs to be addressed?
    Just wondering.

    0
  2. Note how Bob Walsh’s post has deteriorated into a pool of questions. Beware this type of desperation.
    I urge the current City Councilmen to ignore the pleas of the former City Councilman.

    0
  3. Bob Walsh, Rick Torres is just a show horse who wants to look good but not to do the work to get things passed. He doesn’t know how to lobby to get others to help him make changes like the ones you have listed.

    0
    1. Ron, please be realistic and fair. Rick is the only Republican on the City Council and all major decisions are made behind closed doors in the Democrat Caucus meeting. The Mayor controls the Council and there are conflicts everywhere, from the President of the City Council to the City Attorney’s Office. The plain and simple truth is if you do not have a sound governance structure then watch out. The basic market test of that is whether the tax base is growing faster than the budget. The answer to that “bottom line” question is “No,” even considering Bass Pro Shops.

      0
      1. Dave Walker, I agree with your points but not the part about Rick Torres. Rick got elected with a new freshman group and should have met with them and just formed a friendly bond with them. Rick doesn’t know to make friends and influence people, he can’t lobby like-minded Democrats because he doesn’t know how to get along with the opposition. Rick wants to the shinning star, he has no desire to work with others. Plus his tattoo and views about blacks with help of the Republican Party here. That’s sad because I believe in a strong two-party system but sadly that won’t happen here so the only game in town is Democrat against Democrat.

        0
  4. Dave,
    Rick was elected with a number of new council members. With the exception of Bob Halstead they all pretty much are do-nothing council reps, Rick Torres included.
    Rick could have continued to shine a light on the process and at least served some purpose but instead seems to have fallen asleep like the rest of them. Now Rick is bored and wants to try something else; state senator, mayor, state rep, whatever.

    0

Leave a Reply