UPDATE: Meeting cancelled for lack of quorum.
A special meeting of the City Council’s joint committee on Miscellaneous Matters and Contracts that was scheduled to take place at 6 tonight (Thursday) to review a proposed settlement of a lawsuit regarding the Town of Trumbull’s user fee arrangement with Bridgeport’s Water Pollution Control Authority has been cancelled due to a lack of quorum so councilors could attend the wake of councilor Scott Burns’ father. Awaiting word on the scheduling of a new meeting. The legal issue dates back to the mayoral administration of Bill Finch. Trumbull’s waste water is connected to the city’s sewage treatment plant.
City resident Phil Smith sent a letter to the respective council committee chairs urging public comment:
I am writing to urge you and the members of the Contracts Committee to insist that members of the public have the opportunity to review and comment on the proposed agreement between the City of Bridgeport and the Town of Trumbull before the your committee and the full Council act on it. Both your committee and the Miscellaneous Matters Committee are in a unique position to support (or deny) the public’s right to know and to be heard.
To date officials in Bridgeport and Trumbull have insisted on withholding the agreement from the public on the dubious grounds that it was either (1) a preliminary draft; and/or (2) it involves pending litigation. That sounds logical, except for the fact that the agreement has already been seen and approved by the adverse parties in the litigation, the Town of Trumbull and the Trumbull Water Pollution Control Authority.
The resulting situation was accurately described by a Trumbull resident who addressed the Town Council prior to its consideration of the agreement:
Both parties know the agreements, the only party kept out of the loop is the public and the public has a significant financial stake in the matter.
The proposed agreement raises a number of important financial, public policy and yes, political questions. Does Trumbull get a better deal than it did under the agreement mediated last year by Judge Bellis? What happens to the arrearages Trumbull owes to Bridgeport? Will Bridgeport continue to subsidize the treatment service provided to Trumbull?
These are all important questions, which–absent extraordinary circumstances–Bridgeport residents and ratepayers have every right to weigh in on. To date no city official has offered a single substantive reason for depriving them of that right.
I hope that your committee and the full City Council will act to ensure that the public has the opportunity to review and comment on the agreement before, not after, it is acted on.
Look out for those user fees, Bridgeport!
What has happened to OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE, TRANSPARENT and HONEST governance in the City? After years of attempts to “make a deal” by the City of Bridgeport, it seems folks in Trumbull know more than I do.
That’s fine with me if I have no obligation to pay for something, or a part of something that is new to the scene. However, I am a taxpayer and I care. It is unreasonable for our SECOND CHANCE candidate, now Mayor Joe, not to offer us a FIRST CHANCE to see what his team is directing us to. No commentary from Av Harris on the subject? Was this one of Joe’s unlisted priorities? If this is a win or even a draw (in the sense of a settlement that gets us out of court and said expense) with each side claiming it is not good, then shouldn’t someone be spinning it already? Time will tell.
We folks in Trumbull do NOT know more than you do. The secret deal was cut and the Trumbull Town Council met and voted on this in Executive Session. We Trumbull residents were told the deal was contingent on no public disclosure until the agreement was passed by BOTH Trumbull and Bridgeport Councils.
Last month the Bridgeport City Council refused to act as they claimed they received the information too late to digest before voting. Today, they leave us hanging, announcing in advance there would be no quorum at 6 PM. Glad they have a crystal ball, or were they told to stay away?
Either way the citizens of both communities are being kept in the dark. Transparency in Government? Not in either community, one D and one R.
Marshall, I want to make sure I understand this. Trumbull residents were told the deal had to remain secret until both communities approved it? I wonder why.
Because it stinks to high heaven. This way the public could not fight the agreement with facts. The Herbst administration has spent untold hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting Bridgeport about WPCA charges. Tim announce a settlement months before the election to sway voters, when no agreement was in place. Herbst could not get along with Finch. As soon as Ganim was sworn in the buddies announced a settlement to be ratified in secret, the public be damned.
Everything about this deal, including its 60-year prelude, stinks to high heaven. Where there is a political secret, there is an actual or potential crime. The main question about this deal is who benefits from it. If it isn’t the people of Bridgeport, which it can’t be by virtue of what it implies for the fate of Bridgeport taxbase/development and the future sewer usage rates for Bridgeport residents, then it is a dirty deal.
The people of Bridgeport need to get ready for full rebellion if this deal isn’t summarily rejected by our leadership/city council and put to special referendum. Watch the behavior of our leadership, council members, and state representation. If they are not actively advocating for referendum on our behalf, then they are operating against us in an underhanded fashion.
CITY RESIDENTS MUST PAY ATTENTION TO THE THREE MAJOR, ACTIVE, UNDECIDED ISSUES FACING OUR CITY AT THE MOMENT. O&G MOUNT STEAL POINT/RECYCLING-CONTAMINATION PLANT AT SEASIDE PARK; SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY LAND-GRAB/NEIGHBORHOOD TAKEOVER; TRUMBULL SEWER (SMELLY) DEAL. WE MUST WATCH CLOSELY AND GET INVOLVED, OR WE WILL BE, PER USUAL, “SOLD DOWN THE RIVER” BY THOSE ENTRUSTED WITH OUR WELL-BEING.
This is just another example of the secret, rush it through deals Ganim and the rubber stamp City Council have been doing. This is a VERY MAJOR CHANGE and the fact the details of the “deal” have not been made public makes it so evil. Timmy Herbst did not like the price Bill Finch wanted Trumbull to pay, the Herbst and Ganim families have known each other for a long time, Timmie Herbst “happened” to be in Testo’s Restaurant on the night of Ganim’s victory in the Democratic Mayoral Primary, and Herbst is a regular at Testo’s Restaaurant (he likes the sauce). Add that all up and you know what that means. Residents of Bridgeport will get screwed.
Frank Gyuere,
Bridgeport has a D Mayor and rubber stamp City Council.
Trumbull has an R First Selectman and rubber stamp Town Council.
D or R, it doesn’t matter, the people get screwed.