State Senator Dennis Bradley Monday night announced his resignation from his elected Board of Education seat that he won in 2015. The board has 30 days to fill the vacancy. If not Mayor Joe Ganim has authority to fill it with a Democratic replacement.
Bradley won his Senate seat in November representing the 23rd District covering about two thirds of Bridgeport and a portion of western Stratford.
Bradley’s media star is rising as seen in his video appearance above on Tom Dudchik’s CT Capitol Report discussing criminal justice reform. Bradley technically must submit his formal resignation in writing to the City Clerk’s Office. The 30-day clock begins once that occurs. He says he’ll do that sometime this week.
Bradley served a year as board chair that was punctuated by his call for a meeting boycott, citing board dysfunction, to pressure colleague Maria Pereira’s resignation. Pereira did not resign. In recent weeks she has criticized his board attendance.
Bradley issued this statement to OIB on Sunday about his anticipated resignation at Monday night’s school board meeting.
The 3-plus years I spent on this board has been the most rewarding and eye-opening experience I ever have had in government. First, I have seen the countless hours of service our teachers and administrators give all while facing a lack of equitable funding, allegations of mismanagement and a general lack of recognition. It has inspired me and affirmed my faith in public service with the knowledge that the greatest among us are servants. Moreover, my time on the board has taught me that the problems we face, the frustration we face as a city can only be corrected by our legislature.
It is in this distinguished position of the Senate that I have been given the opportunity to be my brother’s keeper in ensuring we have great public schools in our city.
I promise you that the fighting spirit you have given me I take to Hartford. I also promise you that our fights while deep and intense I see now in retrospect to be done in brotherly love. Know that if you come from the Park City you are my brother and sister and though we may disagree on methodology and in direction we should travel, I ask that you remember our desired destination is the same and that is a bigger, better and brighter Bridgeport.
I am surprised . I really was starting to believe that Bradley was going to stay on the BOE until his term runs out later this year. The question NOW is how will a replacement be chosen. I may be cynical but I suspect that the “powers-to-be” will drag this out beyond the 30 day period giving Mayor Ganim the choice to make the replacement. We’ve seen this game happen before. I am just wondering how can the remainder of the Bridgeport BOE keep the replacement process within their control or are there enough members on the BOE who will stifle any replacement controlled by the BOE and,therefore,GanimTesta will end up with making the decision of who will be the replacement.
I remember when Sauda, Bobby and I were really publicly exposing Dr. Ramos for his really poor management.
My mentor told me that we were doing a great job. My mentor also told me you know what you have with Dr. Ramos, but remember, you never know who they will replace him with.
My mentor was spot on because we ended up with the deformer, Paul Vallas.
Here is my guess. There is going to be a power struggle between the Black and Hispanic powers that be.
The Black leadership will fight for either Chaila Robinson or possibly Bobbi Brown. Both are supported by Ralph Ford.
Chaila Robinson ran with Jessics Martinez and Hernan Illingworth and was nudged out by Hernan. She is the PAC President for Hallen School. Bobbi Broen is Pastor Gloria Brown’s daughter that had her house completely redone by that national t.v. show.
The Hispanic leadership will fight for either Carmen Nieves or Paula Romero.
Carmen Nieves and I attended Harding together. She is a Lydia Martinez loyalist and does significant work for Lydia Martinez regarding ABs. She was a secretary for the BOE, was repeatedly documented for performance issues, went out on a leave. She was eventually dismissed. She has great difficulty with spelling, capitalization and punctuation.
Paula Romero lives in my neighborhood a couple blocks away from me. She is 22 years old. Originally I thought she was connected to Dennis. I have since been able to confirm she is 45 year old State Rep. Ezequiel Santiago’s girlfriend. A 23 year difference.
She travels around with Ezequiel, Dennis, Rosario, Tony.Barr, Nessah Smith and more.
It is my understanding that she has been spending time with Educators 4 Excellence, which is anti- teacher union and pro charter $chool organization primarily funded by the usual white millionaires and billionaires. Apparently they are giving her lessons on public education issues to help her prepare for a BOE run on Ganim’s ticket.
This is just my guess.
P. S. Carmen Nieved is already making the rounds reaching out to the town committees requesting meetings about the endorsement.
I must say that I’m not surprised in the least that Dennis resigned from the BBOE as he never was invested in being a member. He was there for the sole purpose of using it as a stepping stone to something he thought was better, the State Senate. He doesn’t need to be celebrated for his decision to resign, rather he needs to be kicked in his ass for using the education of the youth of Bridgeport as a pawn in pursuit of his ego filler.
His mentors want him to be the first black mayor and Dennis Bradley record of achievements are NOTHING except being the cheerleader for his boycott of doing the busy for the 20,000 Bridgeport school system, he has been a total embarrassment.
I would like people to stop saying Dennis Bradley is “Black,” He is not.
He is of Dominican and Mexican descent, which means he is Hispanic. He pretends to be black in the black community and promotes himself as Hispanic in the Hispanic community.
He is just slimy.
You know who is going to miss Dennis Bradley out of all the high-level staff in Central Office? My guess is just Raul Laffitte and Lissette Colon.
The vast majority despise Chris Taylor, and Dennis Bradley is a close second.
I thought he resigned the day after he was sworn in?
It took him this long to find Lydia’s office to make it official.
As of this morning, he had not submitted a letter of resignation to the City Clerk.
I have put together some spreadsheets regarding every board members attendance since the 5 new members took their seats in December 2018.
Regular Meetings:
Dennis Bradley attended 88% of Regular Meetings. He was late 45% of the time for those he attended.
Christopher Taylor had the worst attendance only attending 76% of Regular Meetings.
Special Meetings: (We had 41 Special Meetings under John Weldon)
Dennis Bradley attended 45% of Special Meetings. For those he attended he was late 55% of the time.
Chris Taylor attended 56% of Special Meetings.
Jessica Martinez attended 66% of Special Meetings. For those she attended she was late 41% of the time.
Facilities Committee: Chaired by Christopher Taylor
He should have scheduled/held 10 meetings. He only held 6. Four were either never scheduled or were canceled.
John Weldon was late 100% of the time as a committee member.
Finance Committee: Chaired by Jessica Martinez
Jessca Martinez scheduled 11 meetings as required, however neither Chris Taylor nor Dennis Bradley showed up, therefore 6 of them were canceled due to a lack of a quorum. Only 5 were held.
Both Dennis Bradley and Chris Taylor only attended 64% of the Finance Committee meetings.
Governance Committee: Mr Weldon appointed himself Chair
He should have already held 11 meetings and has only held 2 which equates to only holding 18% of his required meetings. Bradley & Allen each missed 50% of the meetings because only 2 were held.
I hope most who read this would agree that this is pretty disgraceful.
Good riddance.
At this point I must question our priorities. With Dennis Bradley’s Possible resignation triggering a 30 day countdown, the board seems more intent on having a special meeting on bylaws that have not been vetted in committee. There is such a rush to do this that I just signed a special meeting notice that usurps the Finance commiteee meeting.
I must ask, are we finally fully funded so that a finance meeting has to be done in under an hour or be the 2nd consecutively finance meeting to be cancelled? I must ask are these bylaws more important than choosing Mr. Bradley’s replacement, or do we want the mayor to choose?
Joseph Sokolovic,
Good points but it seems that the majority of The BOE will do nothing and,therefore, this will give the Mayor of Bridgeport to appoint a new member of the BOE.per City Charter etc. We have seen this before.
Maria H Pereira…You are nothing but a bully. I come across your name in the comment sections of so many articles that it leads me to believe you have no life other than to come on here and blast peoples business. Or question someone’s race, or give your explanation to what you think are facts. How about you worry about yourself and less about other people’s business. You come across as a very miserable person who looks to create misery in others.
Thanks, “bobby ortega.”
Are you a friend of Ezequiel Santiago or are you a friend of 500 pound Albert Benejan?
I heard Ezequiel Santiago is upset regarding my post about his relationship with Paula Romero.
By the way, I just saw them having breakfast together in the back room of Frankie’s Diner this past Saturday.
Onto sleuthing…
Oops! Sorry, I meant White’s Diner.
https://www.facebook.com/100014882196829/posts/547114645794604?sfns=mo
A link to the entire proposed bylaws revisions posted on my Facebook page.
Maria H Pereira, You just proved my point. Your choice of words simply exemplifies how Immature you are. Your name calling tactics only solidifies my initial comment of calling you a bully. I guess for you to feel any revelance to the Bpt political scene you have to snoop into other people’s business. Who is hanging with who? This person dates that person. So and so is related to that person who holds this position and that position. This property this, these guys that etc… it never ends with you. I’m waiting for the day for someone to come on here and open the door to your closet and start tossing out the grave yard of skeletons that lie in it. By the way, I know none of the people you mentioned. I’m just an resident of this city, a very small fish in a big pond.
Hey Bobby,
It’s easy to criticize Ms. Pereira for her unorthodox methodology. She only attacks the hypocrites and liars. What have you done for the people of the city of Bridgeport?
The Bridgeport Kid. I’m sure Maria H Pereira very much appreciates your effort to defend her actions. She absolutely does not only attack the hypocrites and liars. Go back and read her comments across various articles. You dont have to believe me its out there for everyone to read. I stand behind my bully comment. I’m not an elected official of any sort so I do not serve the people of Bridgeport. I am rather a law abiding citizen who contributes as any good resident of Bridgeport does. But please enlightened me as to what Maria H Pereira has done for people of Bridgeport?
Bobby Ortega, welcome to OIB. In case you didn’t know, on OIB you are allowed to OIBITCHSLAP any kid.
Bobby Ortega, welcome to OIB. In case you didn’t know, on OIB you are allowed to OIBITCHSLAP any kid.