Former City Advocate: Say No To Joe

UPDATE: Editor’s note at bottom.

Joshua Nessen served as executive director of the advocacy group Greater Bridgeport Interfaith Action that was involved in city issues in the 1990s. In this commentary he “fears that a dangerous collective amnesia has descended upon the city” regarding Joe Ganim’s candidacy for mayor. Nessen’s commentary:

From 1991 to 1998 I was the Executive Director of Greater Bridgeport Interfaith Action (GBIA), a coalition of twenty Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic congregations which strove to put our faith into action for social justice. Though I no longer work in the Park City, my heart still beats for Bridgeport. I fear that a dangerous collective amnesia has descended upon the city, as even some veteran activists who fought against then-Mayor Ganim are jumping onto his bandwagon to get his pre-prison job back, now that the Connecticut Bar Association has refused to reinstate his law license. The citizens of Bridgeport also need to say No to Joe.

As Mayor, Ganim betrayed the public trust and replaced it with his own self-interest. His six-figure salary from taxpayers was not enough for Joe Ganim, whose strategic plan for Bridgeport was to allow in any business willing to bribe him and his cronies. During my seven years at GBIA, we put our faith into action on many key issues for neighborhood and city-wide improvements. While Ganim’s criminality has correctly been emphasized, there were three major political battles that GBIA had with Ganim that illustrate his politics were as bankrupt as his morals.

First there was the issue of how to dispose of Mount Trashmore, an illegal toxic waste site 40 feet high in Bridgeport’s East End, a Black residential neighborhood. The Mountain was full of lead, creosote and other cancerous material and with its daily smoldering polluted the air and damaged the health of residents. GBIA identified a dozen legal dump sites where Trashmore could have been placed. However, Ganim had already cut a deal with the owners of the incinerator in the South End, RESCO–public health be damned! In the dead of night, Ganim dispatched City trucks which loaded up piles of Trashmore and drove them to the RESCO incinerator. The illegal burning of Trashmore then spread toxic material over a densely populated section of the city and also directly into Long Island Sound where it may well have toxicated the fish food chain.

The second major issue that placed us against Ganim was the renewal of Police Chief Sweeney’s contract. Some Bridgeporters might yearn for the Nineties and Mayor Ganim. However, it was the actions of Bridgeport Police Chief Sweeney working closely with grass-roots groups, including GBIA, that brought about neighborhood public safety improvements, not Joe Ganim. When Chief Sweeney’s five-year contract came up for renewal, it should have been a no-brainer for Ganim to get it finalized before Sweeney entertained other offers. The problem was that on a disciplinary matter, the Chief had favored punishment of an officer who happened to be the son of Mario Testa’s girlfriend.

The contract was stalled for months in City Hall. We knew where to go. At lunchtime GBIA picketed the restaurant of long-time chieftain of the Democratic Town Committee, Mario Testa, blaming him directly for the failure to renew the Sweeney’s contract. We successfully de-cloaked the Wizard of Oz of Bridgeport politics, and by next morning the Chief had his new contract.

On the East Side, as a consequence of Ganim’s failure to attend a March for Public Safety, GBIA forced him to accept a Strike Force headed by Chris Caruso and comprised of residents and eight City Department Heads. The result of this collaboration was a strategic plan with Block Grant funding to tear down decrepit properties and put up affordable housing. Unfortunately, Ganim did not pursue this collaborative model on a citywide basis but did all he could to squash the community’s voice and power over the city’s ten-year strategic plan.

This plan was formulated under the regulations of the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for its Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community program.

Bridgeport was designated an Enterprise Community because of the involvement of nearly 1000 people in the creation of its strategic plan which built in a 50-member Community Collaborative to oversee its implementation. The plan prioritized resident planning for economic development in partnership with City agencies and private businesses (modeled closely after the East Side Strike Force). Primarily, because there was extensive grass-roots involvement at every stage, HUD awarded Bridgeport the vital designation as an “Enterprise Community” along with a $3 million grant and priority on all federal development grants.

What was anathema to Mayor Ganim, Paul Timpanelli of the Regional Business Council, and Democratic Committee Chair, Mario Testa was that there were too many community voices around the table of power they were used to monopolizing. The Community Collaborative of Bridgeport represented the culmination of years of organizing, and with GBIA, the NAACP and Puerto Rican Coalition leading the way, the Voice of the People was being heard.

The Establishment struck back. Ganim, and Timpanelli, with the knowledge and support of Congressman Christopher Shays met down in Washington DC with HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo. Ganim found a willing partner in Cuomo (as New York Governor the de-commissioner of an “independent” Ethics Commission when it began examining the Real Estate Board, one of his major contributors) who should have facilitated negotiations between the Establishment and the grass-roots organizations. Instead, together they hatched a plot to do away with the Community Collaborative entirely by having the City Council illegally vote it out of existence. In its place the Council approved a fake Collaborative to be appointed by Ganim, who was then free to pursue his personal strategic development plan of bribery and influence pedaling.

The election of Ganim would put a big “City For Sale” sign on the map. Bridgeport would remain permanently on the bottom of the regional totem pole: viewed as a corrupt backwater symbolized by the open hand of Joe Ganim, and functioning solely as a bedroom community for the development of Stamford, without its own viable manufacturing and commercial base. Bridgeport voters need to say No to Joe.

Editor’s note: response from Connecticut Bar Association:

While in most states, the issuing of law licenses falls under the ‘bar association’ that is not the case in Connecticut. Attorney licensing, grievances, etc. all fall under the Connecticut Judicial Branch. The Connecticut Bar Association functions as a membership organization for the legal profession in the state.