Foster: Finch’s Education Testimony Offensive To Residents

City Politics, Education12 Comments

Democratic mayoral candidate Mary-Jane Foster is airing a radio spot on WICC in response to remarks Mayor Bill Finch made regarding state control of city schools. From Foster:

Foster: Finch’s State BOE Testimony Offensive; Calls for Mayor to Apologize to Residents

The Foster for Bridgeport campaign released a radio commercial today featuring Mayor Finch’s appalling testimony at last Wednesday’s State Board of Education meeting regarding the takeover of Bridgeport’s Board of Education.

Democratic candidate for mayor Mary-Jane Foster said, “I find Mayor Finch’s remarks at the State Board of Education hearing offensive. I would never characterize our city in such a negative manner. To dismiss the democratic process and to characterize the people of Bridgeport in the manner that he did is inexcusable. I believe in the future of Bridgeport. I respect our people’s right to determine their elected leaders and I think the mayor should apologize to every Bridgeport resident for demeaning the city.”

The radio ad features a young lady who graduated from Bridgeport schools this past June asking that everyone respect Bridgeport. She says that her peers asked the mayor, “Why a state takeover now, when elections are so close?”

Throughout his testimony Mayor Finch remarks that Bridgeporters do not vote, characterizes Bridgeporters as having criminal backgrounds and not being citizens, and states “I don’t see it as a great loss for a few years to lose the electoral process … democracy doesn’t work; it doesn’t work in all cases.”

Mary-Jane Foster’s administration will be about raising our City up and turning our city around. The ad ends, “I believe in the people of Bridgeport. I want our kids to have a fighting chance. As the mayor, hold me accountable for education.”

Listen to the radio spot here: {running time: 1:00}

0
Share

12 comments

  3. “… democracy doesn’t work; … it doesn’t work in all cases.” BILL FINCH, DTC elected Monarch of Bridgeport, 2011.

    And if you had given Mayor Finch a little more line to hand himself, you might have heard him say:
    “Democracy is not just about voting. We let people vote in Bridgeport, as a matter of fact my party has well established ways of getting politically apathetic folks to come to the polls and vote even when they are not particularly interested. It works.”
    “And democracy is not just about representative government, because a ruler needs to control all the parts of government that have a say in moving things along. That’s why we have such smooth operating with the City Council where City jobs for members or their family get folks to see how they need to vote. And we use a different but ultimately effective tool to keep members of boards and commissions to act in Royal line by terminating them if they ask too many questions or begin to think independently. Not perfect but it works.”
    Of course, democracy depends on a flow of information so we limit what the City Charter says is available in a variety of ways while making sure that my office, schools, police and others have people who know what to tell the public. For instance, the Charter indicates financial reports are due monthly on the fourth Friday following a month and will be available at the City Clerk. Well last fiscal year we packed five months of info (October 2010-February 2011) into one report. That’s the last anybody has seen. The less info we put out, the fewer complaints we get. Has anyone questioned the projected $2,100,000 deficit? And did members of the Budget and Appropriations Committee use our variances in revenue or expense (from this report) in evaluating the departments in 2011-12 budget hearings? You’re right. Not a word.”
    “I mean look at the Board of Education. Some members got themselves elected outside our system and right away they start asking questions … and expect answers … that’s not part of our Bridgeport culture, I mean to tell you. It slows things down. It gets people upset. ‘Open,’ ‘accountable’ and ‘transparent’ are good words, but seriously, you don’t really want to do those things.”
    “Would you like to know what ‘green things’ we’re doing? No … too bad.”

    0

  7. Do I have to remind this terminal dumb ass Finch that many, many Americans died so people could live in a democracy? Not a part-time democracy nor a democracy run by the whims of Bill Finch.
    I had a lot of friends who died in combat and they did not die so Finch could decide when he wanted to suspend democracy.
    He states that ex-offenders should not or do not vote, that’s total bullshit as are his statements about people from other countries. This man is a total idiot, he has got to go.

    0

  11. In an opinion article in the rag known as the CT Post, Judge Carmen Lopez wrote the following:

    The Unholy Trinity of power, arrogance and incompetence was prominently on display on July 5 during a special meeting of the Bridgeport Board of Education held at Cesar Batalla Elementary School. The president of the school board, the mayor and the superintendent of schools “strutted their stuff” in plain view for all to see. They showed everyone just how much power, how much arrogance and how much incompetence they collectively possess.

    Of course, only the female member of the troika made an appearance that evening. The other two members were busy hiding out in their bunkers, well behind the lines.

    The superintendent was reportedly engaged in the noble activity of moderating discussions for the Church of Christ, the religious organization with which he is associated. I couldn’t help but remember that when Jesus Christ walked the earth, his most severe condemnation was reserved for the religious leaders of his day, who he said “practiced their piety before men” while turning a blind eye to the suffering of the oppressed. Like Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, the superintendent washed his hands of the whole situation, while the right of the people of Bridgeport to elect members to their Board of Education was being crucified.

    The mayor also was otherwise engaged and therefore allowed his lackeys, minions and political handlers to make his presence known and to keep his six loyal subjects on the school board in line. It was very apparent that the mayor is so powerful that he can play the master puppeteer in absentia. Evidently, he did not want to be present because he would have had to listen to the justifiable outrage of Bridgeport parents, taxpayers and residents. However, by the next morning in the state Board of Education meeting in Hartford he had found his voice. He preened before the cameras 60 miles from the scene of the crime where there was no opportunity for local input or rebuttal.

    Six members of the Board of Education, a nine-member board consisting of elected officials charged by statute with delivering an appropriate education to all school-aged children, admitted that they were unable to perform their jobs. They voted, 6-3, to surrender their responsibilities to the state Board of Education, by adopting a resolution that admitted their incompetence.

    However, the real reason for the abdication of their responsibility lies in their pettiness and obedience to the dictates of machine politics. It all boils down to this; they don’t like the three-member minority on the board, because they don’t “play nice.”

    These three courageous board members — Sauda Baraka, Maria Pereira and Bobby Simmons — have taken their roles as public servants seriously. They have acted independently, and their first concern has been the education of Bridgeport’s public school students, and the efficient use of taxpayer dollars. As a result, the machine has decreed that they must be punished, silenced and banished.

    The charges leveled against Ms. Baraka, Ms. Pereira and Mr. Simmons are flimsy and fatuous; the evidence in support of the allegations is weak and anemic. In a court of law, anyone prosecuting charges of this type would be laughed out of court.

    This three-member minority is accused of being too inquisitive, as if seeking information was somehow anathema to serving the public. Furthermore, they are accused of effectively using Robert’s Rules of Order, the Bible of parliamentary procedure. The majority believes that knowing the rules, playing by the rules and adhering to the rule of law is a threat to their authority. This despite the fact, that with six votes out of nine, they can always call the question, thus cutting off debate on any issue.

    They also accuse these three board members of insisting that overpaid and incompetent school administrators be held accountable for their errors and omissions when they fail the public school children of this city.

    My, oh my!

    How dare these three board members upset the status quo in this machine-dominated city? How dare they insist on monthly financial reports? And, as Mayor Finch whined to the State Board of Education, how dare these members resort to the Freedom of Information law to obtain public records when the administrators obstruct access to public records which are available by law to every citizen and taxpayer?

    Obviously, when the going gets tough, the six-member majority quits, and throws a temper tantrum designed to blame the minority for their own failure to function and their inability to govern. They clearly prefer an official campaign of character assassination to engaging in a contest of ideas, which should be the object in a democratic society.

    Bellinger, Ramos and Finch, aided by their gullible “good government accomplices,” are engaged in a frenetic spin campaign. Despite all of the advantages that their power gives them, including the advantage of a surprise attack and the assistance of the Malloy administration, they were only able to muster a 5-4 vote from the state Board of Education.

    No wonder they had to act so quickly and use the Fourth of July holiday to cover their power grab.

    However, the historic parallel in this instance does not involve the Fourth of July, but Pearl Harbor. Like the Japanese attack that launched World War II, this attack on the voting rights and privileges of the citizens of Bridgeport “will live in infamy.”

    At least we can now say that this episode has spotlighted a culture of bossism and abuse of power in the city of Bridgeport. After Pearl Harbor, a Japanese official was alleged to have said, “We have awakened the sleeping giant, and we are doomed.”

    We can only hope that this naked display of the arrogance of power will awaken a slumbering Bridgeport electorate.

    Carmen Lopez is a retired Superior Court judge.

    0

Leave a Reply