In response to the latest gun violence, Mayor Joe Ganim on Wednesday announced city, state and federal officials as well as community leaders will conduct a round-table discussion with regional organizations to “determine gaps in services and collaborate on prevention, intervention and legislation to decrease incidents of youth gun violence in Bridgeport.”
The meeting will take place Thursday at 9 a.m. in the Mayor’s Conference Room of the Morton Government Center.
Media will be invited to attend at 10 a.m.
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Another feel good meeting that will result into nothing, a lot of venting, tears, demands but nothing at the end. They will setup another committee of citizens and city officials.
Speaking of meetings. Can I just tell you how dumb my colleagues on the school board are.
We received a Special Meeting Notice after 4:00 PM for a meeting for tonight although we have our Regular Meeting scheduled for Monday.
Chair John Weldon, Vice-chair Jessica Martinez, Hernan Illingworth, Chris Taylor, Dennis Bradley and even Sybll Allen have been plotting with our attorneys, Berchem and Moses who are huge Ganim donors, to change ever single bylaw that governs the school board. Berchem and Moses works for the Board, not a faction of the Board.
John Weldon appointed himself Chair of Governance in December 2017. He has only held two meetings in 15 months. He has referrals in his committee since August 2018 that have not been addressed. Now we know what he has been so busy with.
All of this was done secretly out of the public’s view which is a violation of the FOIA. So I call Sybll Allen and mention I was somehow recording the call because of a malfunction on my phone. I get her to admit that she has been involved in “discussions” and “consulted” on the Bylaws changes which is a major violation of the FOIA.
There are violations of state statute in these proposed Bylaws and major errors. More importantly they have a six to three majority and the Bylaw changes are solely about giving incredible power to John Weldon and the majority. This only serves to prove their weakness.
I was cracking up yesterday. Little John Weldon wants to be a King and he thinks we are his Subjects.
Some highlights:
An elected school board member has to ask him permission to place an item on an agenda and he has sole authority to deny it. In the legislature any member can introduce legislation which cannot be denied.
He wants to serve as ex-officio of every committee.
If you are not on a committee you will no longer be able to participate in the meeting unless the Chair will allow you to.
We have to ask the Superintendent permission to visit a school when she works for us. We have always scheduled visits directly with the Principal as to not disrupt their day.
We have always had to inform her if we would like to speak to her staff and give her the reason as a professional courtesy which I agree with. I have always followed this policy . Now she has to authorize your contacting staff and that staff member has the right to have a union representative present. I am not kidding.
John Weldon has the authority to contact our attorneys when ever he wants , iinvite them to meetings, ncurring any costs he sees fit, and he has the authority to allow any board member to consult with our law firm as if our law firm represents individual board members instead of the Board. And he has sole authority to appoint our attorney as a parliamentarian at any meeting. You’re the Chair. If you can’t run a meeting you shouldn’t be Chair. I will have so much fun with that!
They created a new regular agenda template with timeframes for each topic. I am not kidding. Like Call to Order :6:30 PM. Roll Call 6:31 PM, etc. Oh, the fun I will have with that!
They made a detailed policy on censuring, yet Christopher Taylor has never once been publicly reprimanded for calling for employees to be terminated, threatening the employment of those that offer a different opinion, calling our teachers “bad rubbish” , calling me foul names, sending me an email that stated “don’t get your panties in a bunch,” assaulting me with video evidence and more.
I wonder who they are going to try to censure. Hmmm…
The funniest part is they have been planning this “coup ” for weeks, however John Weldon sent the notice to the staff as late as he could to give us only the minimal notice. Therefore, it did not make it onto our website with 24 hours as required by state statute. Now tonight’s meeting has to be canceled.
Dumb to Dumb Dumb.
Mayor Ganim, Mario Testa and John Weldon all suffer from the same complex. The Napolean complex.
When you are a man of small stature and you know the first thing someone thinks when they meet you is how short and tiny you are, you attempt to over compensate in other areas to somehow prove your worthiness.
That’s our “little” John Weldon. 🙁
Maria’
I totally agree with you that these meetings should continue. I don’t have your perspective of the rest of your analysis. The meetings must continue.
Round table. Good. Let the progress begin. This of course will work. Someone please call me when everything seems better!
Does anyone really believe that the politicians really care? I took some courses in political action/media when I was police union president. Hank Sheinkopf from Sheinkopf communications. Look him up, he ran Bill Clinton’s media campaign for the re-election. He ran a great series of seminars as well. Of all the great info garnered the one thing that was most important and drove the point home was this: ‘the single most important thing to any politician is the first Tuesday in November.’ I.E.: they will do and say anything to make sure that nothing gets in the way of a win on Election Day.
So what happened in Bridgeport? Ex FBI guy installed to keep an eye on things. How’s that working out? Politically correct body cams. How’s that going? Etc. etc. etc. ….. Bridgeport politicians are more concerned about getting street directions changed for their own reasons, getting their properties re-zoned for personal reasons (liquor store), appointing friends on boards to do their bidding, etc etc.
Fortunately for them the voters are either blind, dum, or just plain stupid and they can retain their corrupted political power.
So bring in the “round table” and let me know how that works out for you. Cheers.
BINGO!!!! That’s why I said nothing will happen, just make people feel good like you are doing something.
I blame the Mayor the Police Commission and the City Council, every time someone gets shot!
We need police protection every hour of the day.!
We need Police Precincts in all twenty districts!
We need cops on foot-patrol everyday 24/7!
We need road blocks and car checks every day!
We need a City- Curfew!
It’s time for a change people!
What would happen if they held a square table? Mayor Finch did the same crap which led to no significant changes
It’s for the press and to make us THINK something is being done.
Might be a better idea to issue Kevlar vests to all taxpayers.
This ought to do some good… NOT.