During JG1 Joe Gresko served as a media spokesman. The former newsman for WICC, now an elected official in the State House, has returned in a part-time role. CT Post scribe Brian Lockhart has more:
Say what you will of ex-Mayor Bill Finch’s time in office, he put this old manufacturing hub on the map in the new “green” and environmentally sustainable economy.
Old industrial sites are now occupied by recycling and other businesses and generating jobs and taxes.
Now the man who ousted Finch–returned Mayor Joseph Ganim–is making a modest gesture toward maintaining that momentum. And he is simultaneously putting an old friend back on the city payroll.
State Rep. Joseph Gresko, D-Stratford, Ganim’s spokesman from 1999 to 2003, the final years of his first administration, started work last week in City Hall. He will earn $35,000 as the part-time special assistant to the mayor for green energy and economic development initiatives.
“I’m pretty much the contact point” for the city’s efforts, on its own and with partners, to continuing luring green businesses to town and to mount projects aimed at conserving energy and saving taxpayer dollars, Gresko said.
Full story here.
“Special assistant to the mayor for green energy and economic development initiatives.” What a crock of BS, spending more money on BS jobs. Hey Joe, we need this job how?
How much of what was going on under Ganim 1 did this guy know?
Congratulations Joe.
Andy, Joe is a good man. Gresko came in on the back end of G1 and was doing his best to clean up the mess.
$35,000 a year is not $90 – $100K with benefits, now is it?
Bobby, there has to be one Bridgeport resident in a city of 144,000 who pays these high-ass taxes and is educated enough to do this job for that $35,000.
Donald,
You are correct, but do I think Joe is “buying” some insurance up in Hartford for important votes impacting Bridgeport without a quid pro quo? Probably so.
Don, the Bridgeport City Council can do something about giving a $35,000 position to someone who pays no taxes in Bridgeport instead of a City resident. The City Council can do what Hartford does and that is City jobs go to City residents and we can give the Hartford’s City Ordinance to them to research and put into place. “Bridgeport First.”
Thumbs up to you, Ron!
How many more useless patronage jobs will we have to support?
Seems Bill Finch might actually be the Shadow Mayor in G2’s Bridgeport. Is Joe channeling Kermit to make BPT seem greener before an onslaught of more environmentally contraindicated, region-serving development, such as more regional waste storage and processing Bridgeport! Doesn’t smell good. Smells a lot like regional sewage, construction debris storage and recycling, and region-serving transit development routed through Bridgeport waterfront property. Or maybe more dirty, obtrusive regional power infrastructure on our waterfront or valuable commercial-industrial land.
Suzanne Harrington
KEY CONCEPTS
1. Environmental Racism: The intentional or unintentional racial discrimination in the enforcement of environmental rules and regulations, which leads to the singling-out of minority and low-income communities for the siting of noxious facilities. 2. Environmental Justice: Seeking to redress inequitable environmental burdens, oftentimes borne by minority and low-income communities.