Three weeks from today the Democratic primary for mayor between Bill Finch and Mary-Jane Foster begins at 6 a.m. The road to the primary has taken a bizarre route, but what’s a Bridgeport mayoral election without a judge involved, eh? Does anyone think we’re done with controversy involving local and state election officials? Look for the Foster camp to fire off letters to city and state officials demanding accountability. What assurances can Democratic Registrar Santa Ayala and Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, the state’s chief election official, give the Foster camp that an election will be honest, clean and transparent? Don’t hold your breath. Not after the madness from the past year and personalities involved.
Foster’s campaign manager Jason Bartlett was at the center of the Foster court complaint against Ayala who denied Foster a ballot spot, she claimed, over one too many candidates for Board of Education. Bartlett and Foster’s lawyers say they’re right on the BOE candidate issue and Ayala was wrong. Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis in ordering Foster on the ballot ruled Ayala’s actions had misled the Foster campaign. When Merrill had the opportunity to step in on behalf of democracy and show leadership, she hid behind her lawyers and watched as a dramatic court battle played out. After the judge sided with Foster, Merrill issued an ass-covering news release claiming she is “committed to working with election officials in Bridgeport to ensure that ballots with all the candidates are printed and delivered on time and that we have smooth Primary Day on September 27th without any major difficulties.”
Bartlett was the campaign manager for Gerry Garcia who challenged Merrill in a testy Democratic primary for Connecticut secretary of the state last year. Given Merrill’s conduct in this matter, does she have an axe to grind with Bartlett? Did she stick it to the Foster campaign because Bartlett ran a campaign against her? Will Merrill continue to hide behind lawyers when additional election issues pop up in this race? Stay tuned.
What Do City Employees Tell The Campaign Camps?
It used to be city employees were a force in city elections, particularly fire and police personnel, when a majority lived in the city. But city employees can still be factor. Which way are they leaning? The Finch and Foster camps are now identifying voters in earnest for a primary day pull. Many city employees appear on the call sheets. For the past several weeks a number of city employees have claimed when the Finch camp calls and asks if they can count on their vote they say yes–even if they’re not supporting Finch. Why? “Those guys in City Hall keep score.” So some city employees are fibbing to the Finch camp because they fear retribution.
Another city employee said, “I’ve instructed my family, if they get a call from the Finch campaign to say we’re all for the mayor. And then we will vote the way we want.”
Do Finch operatives really keep tabs on city employee support? They wouldn’t be the first to do this. It’s the nature of the beast. If you work for the city we want to know your alliances.
Some city employees say they’ve been battered into submission by the mayor and his labor negotiators without spreading around the pain to the mayor’s discretionary appointments. And then the mayor, they claim, cut a selective deal with a union affiliated with the Board of Education for two years of job security as the city positioned itself for a state takeover. Many of those union members do live in the city. The mayor trumpets union concessions as a major administration accomplishment.
So if you’re a city employee whom are you supporting for mayor and what do you say when the phone rings?
I need to fill out my ab ballot asap.
Let’s just hope it gets counted.
My dad always said, “When someone tells you they are honest the first thing you should do is zip up all your pockets.” This applies to MJF’s candidacy … if Santa Ayala and Denise Merrill are assuring an honest and transparent election you’d better have certified and aggressive poll watchers and make sure the ab’s are as honest as possible. Because it isn’t the people who vote who have the power, it’s the people who count the vote who have the power!!!
Amazing the amount of obstacles this lady has and will have to overcome including her own people. Don’t know Mr Bartlett, hope he’s worth it.
This primary will be as dirty and slimy as it can get–and MJF will be on her own–do not expect any assistance from Mary Poppins aka Denise Merrill.
Mr. Bartlett better make sure Denise Merrill does not throw in a Supplementary Ballot.
Foster/Fox and Hughes for the 130th. Go Team Foster!
I can tell you with utmost certainty who the majority of City employees are supporting: Mary-Jane Foster. The only ones still supporting Finch are the ones who benefited from his mayoralty.
The common opinion is Finch is not a bad guy. However, he has left the day-to-day running of the City to people like Adam Wood, Andy Nunn, Larry Osborne, Tom Sherwood, Charles Carroll and Dawn Norton (Mike Feeney’s replacement). These people are dangerous. They are for the most part incompetent. But beyond their incompetence, they are evil, mean and vindictive. A few have been described as “the devil himself.” Employees have been devalued, disrespected, written up, disciplined and forced to leave. All the while, the political favorites continue to get raises and other preferential treatment. These “dept heads” are the main cause of employees hating Bill Finch.
The employees are quietly hoping for a clean sweep of MJ into City Hall and with that a swift housecleaning throughout City Hall and the Annex.
I can tell you with absolute irrefutable certainty who those city hall employees who depend on Mario Testa for their jobs will support in the primary.
This message is for every one of them. An MJF Primary victory is far from being an absolute irrefutable certainty. But I wouldn’t bet against her.
If any of you are actually qualified to do the job you are doing and you genuinely aspire to contribute to the restoration of our city by maintaining an attitude of skill, efficiency and effectiveness, then march on down to MJF and tell her that. It’ll take balls on your part just as it is taking balls on MJF’s part to stand up to Testa. We are on the brink of prosperity, promise and prominence. It’s going to take more than MJ to do that job. We need dedicated citizens who will do their work with honor, with courage and with skill.
Wow–sounds great–where do we send resumes? lol.
It is sad the morale in city hall is so low. Some of these people I have known for years and work hard. I know many who are so unhappy. It is terrible to have to work under such conditions. On the other hand let’s get real. There are a few who are total slugs and need to go. Some need to learn the Home Depot type of customer service. For 11 years I treated my customers like they were the center of the universe. Some associates at city hall and the board of education treat the taxpayers like garbage. That would be the clean sweep I’d like to see happen. The other employees, golden and respectful and should be revered for their knowledge and talent. I have worked with some of them and I know. BTW, the debate this evening was low key and uneventful. Finch again had to leave 5 minutes before the end to go to another meeting. I think the signs throughout the North End for MJF are making him nervous. There was some outburst from a City employee, Finch loyalist, that was beyond vulgar and disrespectful to MJF. It is good one City employee who has been there for 25 years was supporting Finch. She would represent the individuals who need to go!!! She worked for Larry Osborne for 25 years. Figure it out.
Hey Lennie, I love your Finch Doomsday Clock.
Finch sealed his fate with several of the unions when he made that two-year no layoff sweetheart deal with AFSCME. Other unions made more significant concessions, and although they asked for job security, were given none. Tom McCarthy himself said no union was getting “no layoff” language. Then he turned around and gave AFSCME not six months, not a year but TWO YEARS job security. This in exchange for political support. Hope it was worth it.
In 2007 many city employees were afraid of a Caruso mayoralty. Now they are afraid of another four years of Finch.
Lennie, I’m still undecided. I guess I’m suffering from the yahooy WINNING syndrome. Two weeks ago, I spoke with 5 different city employees and they told me there is a group among them passing out voter registration cards during working hours. They were not instructed or assisted in filling them out and were only told negative things about Mary-Jane Foster. I took their info and passed it on to one of MJF’s volunteers. Out of that group of five, we came up with a total of 11 new registered Democrats and I’m making sure they show up to the pols well informed and trained. The best any city employee can do is to bring their families and friends to vote–I made up my mind–for Mary-Jane Foster and the entire ROW B.
WTF is the yahooy/WINNING syndrome?
Go see your doctor.
You’re scary.
OFF TOPIC:
What most politicians on a national level don’t realize is what the American people really want. Take away the BS from both the Republicans and the Democrats and it comes down to one thing. JOBS.
For the past 3 years congress has handled a variety of BS projects such as bailing out banks that did not need to be bailed out, supporting big labor, a health care policy the majority of Americans did not want and the list goes on and on. But where are the JOBS?
Obama appoints the CEO of GE as the jobs czar and the first thing this guy does is build a factory in China.
Now after 3 years all of these assholes are yelling jobs, jobs, jobs. Putting money into the infrastructure is fine but it only puts a small group of people to work (construction workers). What about the majority of the unemployed who are not construction workers?
We need to give businesses the right incentives to spend the money they have been holding back to put people back to work. We need to take away incentives for businesses that operate overseas. We need to charge them the same rates for importing their products to the USA that American companies are charged when they ship their products overseas.
Locally we need to hire only Bridgeport residents for city of Bridgeport jobs. That means all city jobs including police and fire. We did it that way for years and had the best police department and fire department in CT. We had the best employees at city hall when we hired Bridgeport residents only. Why the hell should we employ people from the ‘burbs?
If you are out of work and have lost your employer-sponsored health insurance, you will thank God for that new health care policy. I agree, though, not enough focus has been paid to the economy and creating jobs and with a divided Congress, it is not about to happen any time soon. The Republicans have made clear their goal is first and foremost to see Obama is not re-elected and the Democrats–well, I’m not even sure what their goals are anymore. They used to be for a strong and robust middle class but now it seems both parties just do what’s in the best interest of corporate America and the top 2% of wage earners.
“The Republicans have made clear their goal is first and foremost to see Obama is not re-elected …” Looks like the Republicans aren’t the only ones thinking this way. Great speeches aren’t enough to penetrate and cloud the realities we face. Is Obama on Political Death Row? If he is, his mouth got him there. Can anyone say Jimmy Carter?
www .washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-ratings-sink-to-new-lows-as-hope-fades/2011/09/05/gIQAIytZ5J_story.html
My point was neither party is looking after the middle class anymore. And I wouldn’t count Obama out yet. You can argue he doesn’t deserve a second term, and you may be right, but Rick Perry as the Republican nominee would be a tough sell to the independents who decide general elections.
Interesting. Do you think all the experts we are going to need live in this town? I don’t. Right away, we need a Finance Director who has had actual experience in restoring functionality to a trouble municipality. To support that person we need an absolute expert in Information Technology. In the past 40 years both of these roles have been filled by patronage causing a virtual stall in any prospect for effective and efficient city management.
And yes … let’s restore the influencing voting block by requiring all city employees to live in the city. That worked out well in the past.
I hope our candidate understands we need the BEST in key roles, not the most helpful.
Well, that 20 and Out policy the police union jammed down Panuzio’s throat worked out well when cops had to live in the city. He got reelected that year … didn’t he?
yahooy I was talking about the civil service type jobs and the other jobs in public works. I also did not say anything about living in town after people were on the job, contracts cover that.
These are the nuts and bolts jobs. The IT jobs and jobs like that should go out as a national search thus hopefully filling jobs like that.
Cool.
Tonight at 8pm on “Bridgeport Now Live,” insight into the Mary-Jane Foster court case. She is back on the ballot. But what really happened? Two lawyers are special guests and will provide insight into the case, background, and implications for the city.
Then at 8:30pm, historian Charles discusses the history of the Washington Park area of Bridgeport, which was circus leader Barnum’s neighborhood. On commercial-free TV channel 88.
Who are the lawyers?
Today at 4 on WICC, discussion about Mary-Jane Foster and the LAWSUIT–CALL IN!!! 6 PM NORTH END LIBRARY DEBATE.
Someone please pass whatever tc is smoking. Only Bridgeporters for civil service jobs? What do you base that on? Can someone tell me why Finch is allowed to spend our taxes on what essentially are election lawn signs? The green “streetscape” crap. Why isn’t he buying real lawn signs with PAC kickback money and not huge taxpayer-funded signs?
Finch must be a Red Sox fan. Those are Green Monsters of signs at the taxpayers’ expense. Foster still batting for Bridgeport. I think she will be batting it out of Puglio Park at this evening’s debate.
Hey Phantom, what’s so bad about tc’s suggestion?
If Finch can get only certain people to take Civil Service exams in order to hire them, why can’t only Bridgeport residents be hired? Councilmen Richard Bonney was given a Civil Service exam and then given a maintenance job at the airport. The same position he filled was held by several laid-off NAGE members–any of whom should have been called back to fill the airport position. Residency requirement doesn’t have to be a written policy, but a practice.
Wow, I was thinking the same thing. The first Mayor in 40 years to put a sign wherever he paved a street. At the taxpayers’ expense mind you. Noise pollution!!! Three weeks to a primary. Can we really be that stupid??? If I didn’t spend all those millions on the Auerbach Library at the Wadsworth Atheneum, I’d BE PUTTING UP MARY-JANE FOSTER BILLBOARDS FROM Hartford to Stamford. Only kidding!!! JUST WANTED TO SEE IF YOU WERE READING. IF I HAD IT I WOULD.
Phantom: Bridgeport has a higher unemployment rate than any of the ‘burbs. These are Bridgeport jobs, why shouldn’t they go to Bridgeport residents? At one time the civil service jobs were only open to Bridgeport residents and somewhere along the way that changed. These are hard times and we should take care of our own.
Thanks tc, I can respect that position. What do you think about the shameless “green monster” taxpayer funded signs as opposed to legit lawn signs?
These are a way around campaign law and save the Finch campaign a ton of money. It is my understanding these green monsters cost $500 apiece. A perfect example of this bullshit is on display at Glenwood Park. They painted the tennis courts and I guess made some repairs and lo and behold a sign with Finch’s name and the names of the 2 council candidates in the 138th. They are doing this in every district. Lawn signs are cheaper but smaller and require a volunteer instead of a city worker, go figure.
johnb, neither of the two lawyers appearing on the TV show tonight worked on the case.
town committee, you are 100% right about Civil Service jobs like police fire and they should be Bridgeport residents. The only time the mayor can provide jobs to our residents is when there are open positions in the police and fire departments. Mayor Finch and Fire Chief Rooney have changed the requirement for physical ability test by adding something new, the Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT).
Andy, the test cost is $150 plus you have to drive to Windsor Locks CT to take a pretest and the CPAT test. There are right now over 1,500 people who have CPAT certification in Connecticut. In fact you should just google CPAT and watch their training video and you will see the test is a firefighter test for those who are already firefighters. CPAT will eliminate Bridgeport residents and the flood gates are wide open for out-of-towners who are volunteers to be Bridgeport firefighters.
There was no need to change the physical ability test; in fact Hartford had CPAT then they got rid of it.
Rooney is and will always be a SHITBAG!
DonTito, you are too kind, but true.
Ron I have posted in the past I am against CPAT testing. I believe it gives volunteer firefighters from the ‘burbs a distinct advantage over Bridgeport residents.
I would prefer a good physical agility test and let the firefighting training be handled by our training division. I would also use a maximum age limit for rookie firefighters.
town committee, we both agree on the same thing, those new firefighter jobs going to Bridgeport residents will allow those new firefighters to pay taxes here, do their grocery shopping here, allow them to purchase homes here in Bridgeport. It’s a win-win for Bridgeport plus you’re hiring people who really care about Bridgeport because their family and friends live here and they are not just working to get a paycheck and take that money to another town.
Jim Fox and Jill Hughes for City Council from the 130th district.