Mayor Bill Finch has taken the brunt for the poor execution of the Public Works Department’s cleanup effort following a historic blizzard that paralyzed the city and trapped folks in their homes for days that resulted in loss of work. The community howling has been ear-splitting. It’s generally not Finch’s style to say pointedly we screwed up, we’ve learned from it and we’ll improve from these experiences. The mayor today, however, issued an eblast message thanking residents for patience and cooperation with a nod. “We learn from each of these experiences and continue to move forward as a stronger city.” Message from Finch:
Thank you to the residents of Bridgeport for your patience and cooperation during the past week. Our city was hit with a storm unlike any of us have ever seen, a record-breaking 30 inches of snow over a 24-hour period.
This extreme weather created unprecedented challenges for everyone. Cities across the state sought assistance from the state and mayors reached out to fellow mayors from as far away as New York and Pennsylvania for the resources necessary to clear our roads from this historic snowfall.
Weather events like this one are unfortunately occurring on a more regular basis. Our resilient city has recently endured a tropical storm, a hurricane, a tornado, a handful of Nor’easters and now an historic snow fall. We learn from each of these experiences and continue to move forward as a stronger city.
Thank you to everyone who assisted in our efforts: our community members who assisted their neighbors, the men and women of the National Guard, the crews who worked around-the-clock and the residents who contacted us at the BConnected Call Center to provide us with helpful information and feedback.
Waited for the but it is still our fault for parking on the streets …. spin doctor!
*** He should be thanking all the dopes who voted for him, not once but twice in the Mayoral elections. And if the city’s learning by experience every time it shoots itself in the foot, they must be out of toes by now! But stay tuned OIB readers, there’s much more to come during budget season; let’s see what city government has learned there. *** FORGETABOUTIT ***
Finch will never admit he was at fault. He needs to grow up and man up and take at least partial fault for this debacle. Isn’t he supposed to be in charge? If he’s not capable of accepting some of the blame, he shouldn’t be mayor. No one is right all of the time.
“We learn from each of these experiences and continue to move forward as a stronger city.”
Yeah, right. The people of the city of Bridgeport believe you are a dumb ass who cannot find his own asshole with a road map and a flashlight. City Hall’s response to the severe weather merely confirmed the belief.
<3 Head
Dear Mayor Finch,
While we have endured “wild weather” on multiple occasions, you have spoken mighty words (though financial support was not initially in your vocabulary) regarding your interest in education of Bridgeport youth and your wish to be accountable to the people for improving the schools. The Charter change you sought failed at the polls last November because more voters said NO to the Charter. They disbelieved your willingness, ability to become and record of accountability for municipal matters.
Regarding the weather experiences during your term of office you tell us, “We learn from each of these experiences.” What have you learned specifically? How will it be applied going forward and how will the public note the lesson? Can you look at these weather events like a “pop quiz” by Mother Nature? What’s your current score in that regard? Can you share the test results? These are all matters of ACCOUNTABILITY, aren’t they?
In Bridgeport, education, training and testing of the elected and those employed by the City seems very weak when assessment or performance evaluation or ethical training is the focus of a discussion. I have a suggestion for you. Why not post all “goals and goal status” reports from the Annual Budget presentation for every Department on the ‘department portion’ of the City web site? And direct them to the responsibility of keeping that info up to date by each department, at a minimum of monthly? Isn’t that what your Administrators do anyway?
That would be a good start for the taxpayers, voters, and citizens of Bridgeport to monitor “official Conduct and Effort” (those old Report Card categories) by those you lead, wouldn’t it? Then you can point to the subject areas like Roadway Management and demonstrate real learning. Time will tell.
‘WE LEARN FROM THESE EXPERIENCES.’
Bullshit. You should have had a contingency plan already in effect ANTICIPATING a storm of this magnitude. That’s what effective municipal managers would have done.
Off topic.
Would it be racist of me to suggest Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. is almost as stupid as Ernest T. Newton?
yahooy, why would you go there?
Ron,
yahooy has no more snow to shovel so he’s resorted to shoveling shit.
Ron,
Is it possible yahooy has run out of snow to shovel? Nothing more to do? Time will tell.
Every time I criticize Newton, you accuse me of being a racist. That’s why I went there. JML, I will never run out of snow. This stuff will last until next December’s blizzard.
I have to agree with the Mayor, it was all yahooy’s fault for parking all his cars on the streets.
Mayor Finch, we are sick of you and Mario. We are sick of Paulie Timpanelli. You are not Democrats … you are not progressives … you suck up to real estate interests and destroy this city and the livelihoods of the poor and middle class. You proved it during the blizzard. GO AWAY! And everyone else please sign this petition and repost the link:
www .thepetitionsite.com/434/722/360/bridgeport-mayor-bill-finch-must-resign-now/#
Bill Finch–your handling of the storm was inept and disgusting. You should resign ASAP, along with whomever is running DPW!!!