Jerry Baron, Former Finance Director

Late on this, but worth noting the death last month of the city’s former Finance Director Jerry Baron who served the city during the Joe Ganim mayoral years. He was 66. Baron was a gentle giant, 6’8″ and built like a vault door. He was recruited to Bridgeport from Providence, Rhode Island where Baron was director of finance for the legendary Mayor Buddy Cianci. When Ganim was elected mayor in 1991, the city he inherited was digging its way out of a federal bankruptcy filing by Ganim’s predecessor Mary Moran, the last Republican to lead the city.

The city was still operating under the authority of the Bridgeport Financial Review Board created in 1988 when Democratic Mayor Tom Bucci declared a financial emergency that required state intervention. As finance director Baron helped Ganim steer the city away from the review board supervision that was created to ensure city budgets were in balance. By the summer of 1995, the city had met the independent financial threshold, per state regulation, that eliminated the review board. Baron served the city during Ganim’s run of 10 consecutive budgets without a tax increase.

Baron was an intimidating presence both for his size and municipal financial knowledge. The big man had his supporters and detractors. As finance director he was in charge of the revenue-generating departments such as tax assessor, tax collector and treasurer. Officials in Mayor Bill Finch’s administration criticized Baron for his handling of city pension investment. Baron, of course, responded there was no comparison to the successful financial condition of the city during his years to the challenging state of city finances today.

Baron had the interesting distinction of having worked for three mayors who all posed for mug shots. Prior to his work in Providence he also worked as finance director in Waterbury. Despite his mayoral bosses’ issues with the law, including Ganim who was forced from office in 2003 following conviction on federal corruption charges, Baron himself was never charged with any wrongdoing. He remained friends with Ganim and resurfaced for a short time in 2011 commenting on the state of city finances when Ganim had considered making a mayoral comeback.

Baron was born in The Bronx, New York. Funeral services for Baron took place in Waterbury. He is survived by his wife Virginia “Ginny” (Henault) Baron and three children.

A graveside service will be held on Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 1 p.m. in the Hebrew Benefit Cemetery in Waterbury CT.