From Brian Lockhart, CT Post:
Berndt Tardy did a competent enough job buying goods and services to remain acting director of the city purchasing department for 10 years and two mayors.
Then he drew some fire last year for his role in Mayor Bill Finch’s administration’s decision to pay contractor Manuel “Manny” Moutinho to build a no-bid driveway for Moutinho and some neighbors.Now, whether by coincidence or design, Tardy faces demotion, and he is not doing so quietly.
“Berndt has done an excellent job,” said attorney Thomas Bucci, an ex-city mayor who is representing Tardy.
Full story here.
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Anastasi gets a no-bid raise. Whatever happened to Lisa Trachtenberg?
Berndt at the stake.
Another payday for Bucci. For sure he must have made more off the city than from the city.
Bob–I hope your comment is meant in a positive way. Where else can people who are wronged by the city turn?
Now someone is going to have to explain possibly in court how Berndt could be acting purchasing director for TEN YEARS and yet not competent to pass a test.
How exactly could that happen? TEN YEARS and two mayors accepted incompetency in the purchasing department.
Maybe we should come up with a test for Finch.
That’s why the City won’t make the Director Personnel, David Dunn, take the exam for the Acting position he is in because Mayor Finch needs Dunn to screw over City workers so he cannot take a chance on Dunn failing the exam.
Good question, Mackey, how can David Dunn remain in a position for five years without testing for said position? Ricky Torres, that’s a question you should be asking if in fact you are concerned about transparency and accountability. The ball’s in your court, councilman.
Maybe Mark can explain to the council how no one from his office was disciplined for the airport fiasco that cost taxpayers $400,000-plus for a new driveway for Manny M.
Maybe Mark can explain why Lisa T from his office was not fired for incompetence. The administration wants to get rid of a career employee, that means they have someone else in mind for this job.
You’ve got that one right, Andy.
Tardy is now Absent as head of the Stoopervisor Union.
You know what they say about Tardy?
Better late than never.
I think the only part of the test Berndt failed was:
A) Not falling on the sword fast enough.
B) Admitting he had not followed procedures for years.
C) Not praising Finch and Wood enough for the great job they do in spite of all of the incompetent CS employees.
D) All the above.
HERE IS A LIST OF PEOPLE THIS ADMINISTRATION GOT RID OF FOR NO APPARENT REASON:
1. Nancy Hadley
2. Michele Mount
3. Rena Bakalar
4. Joe Manopoli
5. John Ricci
6. Head of the Port Authority
7. Head of the WPCA
8. Jacobs from Civil Service
These are just a few of the names I can remember but I bet the people on the council know more and not surprisingly they have all kept quiet.
Andrew C Fardy, I would like to add one more item, how did it cost the taxpayers for getting rid of those City workers?
In September 2013, Tardy told the council the city’s procurement rules required members to be notified within five days of the waiving of a competitive bid, but he had ended that practice in 2008 due to staff cuts.
“The ordinance does not give you an option,” Council President Thomas McCarthy, D-133, said at the time.
The purchasing department has been reduced in size steadily during the Finch administration. And a Department like that supervised by Tardy for years does not get to present its needs, goals and budget to the City Council at budget time. It is done for them. So what the City Council knows in this instance may be slight, at best.
However, if the focus is on the $400,000 driveway, then why has the spotlight been upon the Mayor and Council President? They are on the Airport Commission. When did this issue hit their Agenda, get discussed and recorded in the Minutes, and why is the language of Ordinance held up to such high regard by Tom McCarthy. He has presided over the Council Ordinance process for years where the Council makes laws or regulations for the City and then fails to follow them. The example I know best dates from about 15 years ago wherein the City Internal Auditor is assigned to prepare an annual report on City purchases and do an audit every three years. Have those things been done?
Let’s blame the absence of such work on the lack of an Internal Auditor as an employee when Finch decided that position was no longer needed. Did reports get done? NO! Did McCarthy ever recognize what was not being done? Guess NOT!! Did the Council persons on the Ordinance Committee ever review their work? DOUBTFUL!!
So McCarthy says, “The ordinance does not give you an option.” Staff cuts that continued throughout the Finch years caused Tardy to change a practice (as a practical matter).
But several years ago I pointed out the lack of a purchasing report as required by ordinance to Mr. Tardy. I learned that when the Ordinance was passed the Advantage system did not allow such reports to be made, but by then the City had moved to the Munis system. I pointed out what the Council meant the public to have and Tardy worked it out by sending digital and print reports to the City Clerk office for the past four years.
Where he can meet Ordinance expectations he has done so. I believe Tardy to be a most fair and credible public servant. My thoughts on Finch and McCarthy sitting in the director’s seats of the Airport Commission and pleading to be “dumb and dumber” about what really happened is a civic tragedy.
Go to the City web site. Click on Department Directory on the right side. When the directory shows up, scroll down to Boards and Commissions and search for the Airport Commission. Does it show on your screen? Why not? When are its meetings? Their agenda for the latest October meeting indicates they just approved the January 2014 minutes. What could have caused such a delayed process, I wonder? Open, accountable and transparent? NOT!! Yet almost $45 Million of Federal, State and local funds are to be spent. Where is the public being served? Why are public servants having to retain legal counsel to fight for their rights, their work, and their compensation? Time will tell.
Wow what a list, Andy. We know Jacobs of civil service was replaced by a Finch political hack (David Dunn), my question to you is how many of the others were replaced by Finch hacks?
Donald, this is the best I can do:
1. Nancy Hadley, first by Don Eversley then by David Kooris
2. Michele Mount, replaced by a male member of the cabinet
3. Rena Bakalar. I don’t know if she was replaced
4. Joe Manopoli, replaced by Rich Paoletto
5. John Ricci, replaced by the girlfriend of the LI Ferry owner.
6. Head of the Port Authority. Duties taken over by Andy Nunn
7. Head of the WPCA. William Robinson
8. Jacobs from Civil Service, replaced by David Dunn
Only Paoletto lives in Bridgeport.
Don’t forget Marian Evans, head of the Health Department.
Scapegoat season. 🙂
Why is the administration going after Tardy? It must be they have a politically connected person who needs a job. They are using what they claim are improprieties relating to the airport driveway incident. Well why haven’t Finch, McCarthy and members of the city attorney’s office been punished for their roles in this fiasco?
The airport has been losing money for years and now we have an airport director whose boyfriend owns the Long Island Ferry. Strange how the Ferry stopped their plans to move across the channel, do you think the airport job had anything to do with it?
Remember, Finch and McCarthy are members of the airport commission and the spending of the $400K had to go through them. The city attorney’s office is as culpable and what happens there? Anastasi gets a raise and Lisa T keeps working. What bullshit.
Andy, you say only one person in that group lives in Bridgeport? That’s a damned shame. According to the Department of Labor, Bridgeport boasts 17,040 college graduates. One would think he could have found more than one Bridgeport resident college grad to represent the city in those positions. Why are city jobs going to suburbanites who have no stake in this city?
Politics and money and I have to think there is discrimination on some level. I believe the highest-ranking minorities are Garcia in PF and Larry Osborne in Labor Relations. The minority communities have been quiet on this subject for years.
Andy’s list does not include the many professional career employees who have been forced out by Finch and his cronies. People such as Mike Nidoh, Director of Planning, and Alexandra McGoldrick, Director of Central Grants, who spoke their minds and then were punished for doing so. They left of their own accord because the writing was on the wall.
What is happening to Berndt Tardy is typical. He held an acting position for years with the “acting” part hanging over his head. One false move and Andy Nunn and Adam Wood would order a test be given and would make sure Berndt did not fare well. This administration only wants people who will do as they’re told, not what’s right or legal. Unfortunately, Berndt is one in a long string of casualties.
If the minority community had any idea how many people Larry Osborne has hurt simply because he was ordered to do so, they would be shocked. Larry has no degree or qualifications to hold that position, he is merely a puppet for this administration. It is truly shameful.
city hall smoker, thank you for updating the list I posted. Every person you mention was a great employee and got the shaft from the city and its henchmen. I have to wonder how Osborne, Anastasi, Wood and Nunn sleep at night. I know how Finch sleeps at night, and that’s from a branch and upside down.
Ralph Jacobs the former Civil Service Director did a study of testing and “Acting” and “Provisional appointments” and how it hurts the command structure by not providing qualify leadership who have shown by passing an exam for the position they are working in. It’s possible to have someone making decisions who fail the exam for the position they hold.
Here’s an opportunity for the City to get a great employee!
… of course, she’s fair …
www .courant.com/politics/hc-yelmini-laid-off-1125-20141124-story.html