How about some power for no pay? That’s the deal when city residents sign up to serve on boards and commissions.
The Mayor’s Office kicked out this announcement on Wednesday:
Currently, there are vacancies on the Fire Commission, Police Commission, Civil Service, Harbor Commission, Historic Commission, Planning & Zoning, Parks Commission, Port Authority, Stratfield Historic District, Water Pollution Control Authority, and Zoning Board of Appeals.
Individuals that are interested in achieving their civic duty by volunteering their skill and experience on a City Board or Commission must:
— be a resident of Bridgeport
— submit to a criminal background check
— not currently hold or have held a public office or a role in an organization with the primary purpose of influencing legislation
— submit to City’s commission on ethics disclosure of their property and business and financial interests in the City
The application process can be found here. Successful qualified applicants must be nominated by Mayor Ganim and confirmed by the City Council to be appointed to a Board or Commission. Appointed members will attend monthly meetings to conduct city business with occasional, additional “Special Meetings,” as necessary. Meetings are currently hosted via Zoom or YouTube livestream during the COVID-19 health crisis.
A complete list of the Boards and Commissions that serve our city can be found here.
Perhaps an ordinance requiring and empty seat be filled with if 30 days or the appointment falls to the Governor or another independent agent of the state? Loss of the ability to appoint is a great motivator for most and has kept the BBOE seats filled with only one mayor appointment (since I’ve been watching at least). Watch how fast these seats if this happens.
Big question: Can the current requirements extends to those that are serving now, whose terms are not up? This way they can fill more seats with people who possibly have more of a concern for the betterment of the city.
Cheers!
WHO is Minding Our Governance Store Currently?
November 3, 2020- 145 million votes were cast for the two top presidential contenders. It is now eight days later and despite one party exceeding the incumbent by 5 million ballots, the current President, 45, is not ready or willing to acknowledge the certain defeat awaiting him as the few actual remaining ballots are counted. This attitude decreases the amount of time that can be devoted to preparing for new leadership to move into rightful place, assume a position of readiness, and safeguard the “security of all of the people”.
At a reduced governance level in Bridgeport, rest the 150 or more “mayoral appointed officeholders” of citizen residents to serve according to our Charter. The numbers of members, terms of service, basic requirements and limitations attach to all, except that “once appointed, members serve until a successor is appointed and qualified”. That clause guarantees a failsafe mechanism, so that committees do not run out of members, although they may run out of executive enthusiasm, mayoral interest, or nominations. So, during this week, a look at the City web site provides current data showing perhaps 180 potential appointed office holders, at least 72 such positions show vacancies where names of volunteer citizens serving appointed and qualifying terms contributing to good government.
Another 72 persons were appointed in the past and continue listed because though their terms expired, they are not retired. It is likely that one or more of these duties have permanently expired because the Board or Commission has disappeared from the scene such as is the case of Fair Rent and Fair Housing. Only one Commission is fully current, the former Bridgeport Housing Authority, known as Park City Communities, recently. Has any Mayor tasked himself with assessing how well each Board or Commission is serving? Attendance? Participation?
Currently there appear to be only 13 members of the public with unexpired terms beyond November 30, 2020. Should we question what the Mayor’s office has directed his staff to do relative to the range of official groups? Why are there City groups without required ‘ balance of party’ membership? Why are there sites without Agenda or Committee Meeting Minutes attached? Where can the public find those documents? Why is there no detail about the Ethics Commission in a community with two major departments and perhaps more under current investigation and charges? How has Mayor Ganim let the Ethics Group fade into darkness when taxpayers are paying for his criminal legal defense expense?
Why has Mayor Ganim, in the past five years funded two political supporters in succession on City staff with full pay and benefits to organize his work of appointment? He asked them to update this citizen section of municipal governance. Yet it continues to seem woefully incomplete, off the tracks and gaining no respect for our way of doing public business? Is the Mayor able to get this job done? Perhaps he wants to keep qualified volunteers from meaningful service, assisting with oversight, providing informed voting, and making opinions known? What does the Mayor say regarding our ETHICS Commission status? Time will tell.
Any connection between my essay of one month ago and a Mayoral announcement this week? Probably a coincidence?
Requests for volunteers from Mayors Fabrizi, Finch, and even Ganim2 have been part of the scenery for 15 years or more. And people have submitted, and piles of candidate apps have been “lost”, and bringing citizen voluntary service up to a commendable standard of quality and quantity happens. Why? Because the current patch on the system “extension of terms otherwise completed extended until replacement” serves the need as the only alternative. But 150 positions with about half currently vacant and the other half with expired terms and only about 10% current is not seen as anything but a useful power of the Mayor. Does anyone in his office have a task of maintaining a list overseeing attendance, participation and added training for and by board members so that six months before expiry, THE MAYOR is prepared to offer renewal of a term, or failing that find someone new. The way the last few Mayors have handled this singular responsibility (privilege) shows why Charter change in this area would improve our governance. When you operate as we have for years, citizen training and participation opportunities are lost, civic education to one or more governance issues is lost, and board processes are slowed down. Is there anything positive going on with these outcomes?
Are we getting diversity of parties on these boards and commissions as called for? Time will tell.
What BS. The mayor could do this at anytime so why now???
Hint. He’s got people in mind for the open positions. He’s just putting on a dog and pony show to impress the public.
And as far as Joe S goes, don’t waste your breath. I am a visionary. I wrote an ordinance suggesting that exact idea.
Mark A blocked it. I wrote it in such a way that the Council President would appoint in not filled in so many days. And if the Council President didn’t fill it in the required number of days, the Miscellaneous Matters Committee would fill it. And so on and so forth. Mark A said it was illegal because I was taking power away from the mayor. I said the mayor doesn’t have the power if he chooses not to use it.
Let’s see if someone new will take up the fight.
What is ludicrous about all of this is that Walsh’s memory in this case is right on. Mark A loves his own solutions. Those that maintain the power of the Mayor and beggar everyone else who have no room to breathe in the City, and the spirit of the City dies. I think the fact that my recent comments, including as they did real numbers about what “Ganim neglect” brings us to are no small part of the small activity Ganim seems to have set in motion.
If you are really interested, why no response to the observation that two groups have actually died, as the Fair Rent and Fair Housing groups have ceased operating. With even minor oversight, you might believe that the website might have been cleared of such bodies. This is what happens when there are Charter duties, and they are not attended to, and the machine then runs on automatic .What does Ganim2 care about? How things look, or how things work? Time will tell.
I Was just looking at this again and realized that third bullet point is troublesome. I could understand restricting current officeholder from applying (anybody could quote the ordinance/charter provision?). But past elected officials? Seems like they are intentionally designing these boards to lack experience.