Anyone read CT Post scribe Tim Loh’s Sunday profile of Democratic Town Chair Mario Testa? Loh chronicles Mario’s zest for power, even making meatballs for Vice President Joe Biden. Alas, Mario’s meatballs never made it to DC. OIB readers often debate the apathy that plagues voters. Dave Meslin is a Toronto-based lecturer on civic engagement. Inspiring voters these days requires special political talent. Perhaps they’re not apathetic, just misled. So says Meslin. Grab a cup of joe and check out this seven-minute video.
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“Perhaps they’re not apathetic, just misled.” We’ve been misled in Bridgeport, which means we are not apathetic, we’re antipathetic. That ain’t no semantic hair split …
Let’s not over philosophize voter apathy. The blame for the shithole Bridgeport has become rests totally in the hands of those who could do something about it and didn’t. Neither MJ nor Gomes (if he ever opens his mouth) can win without a proactive plan to get the non-voters to the polls. PERIOD.
Mary-Jane Foster has some big things going for her, any one of which is enough to sway an undecided voter. She has made most, if not all of her positions clear. If you’re ignorant of them, I suggest you pay a visit to her website and Facebook page.
• She comes from outside Bridgeport’s established Democratic Party system. Unlike Christopher Caruso, who turned out to be a one-hit wonder (“The Corrupt Political Machine!” was his greatest hit), Ms. Foster has broad appeal.
• She has a record of creating jobs for everyone, not just those with party ties.
• She is a fiscal conservative, which is not out of keeping with Democratic Party principles. We’re in Connecticut, not Eastern Massachusetts. Christopher Dodd, an old Kennedy coat-holder, was the last bleeding-heart liberal in Connecticut politics to hold elective office.
Let’s see. Do I vote for an accomplished professional woman who walks to raise awareness of sexual assault and donates the proceeds of the walk to the Center for Women and Families (CT Post 4.16.11)? Or do I vote for a mayor who has terminated or forced out MANY professional female employees and who condones the sexual harassment of other female employees?
The Finch administration’s first reaction to any crisis is usually “Hey, it’s not our fault.” Remember when a woman and her children died of smoke inhalation during a fire at P.T. Barnum? The city’s representatives went out of their way to put the blame on the victim. The fire escape routes for those buildings are impractical. For that woman and her children to have survived the fire they would’ve had to climb out onto an overhanging roof slanted at a 45-degree angle. This was approved by the Bridgeport Housing Authority and the Fire Department, a choice of two evils: do I die of smoke inhalation and/or third-degree burns or do I fall from the second story, risking broken bones and/or paralysis? All city agencies responsible for this horrific oversight, including Mr. Finch, pretty much stayed with the party line of “It’s legal so it is not our fault.” When the tenants demanded changes be made regarding fire safety at the apartment complex Finch appointed a panel of “experts” that did not include any representatives for the tenants. The meetings were held in secret until popular outcry forced them out into the open. Then they held no more meetings.
A few weeks ago a fire in Black Rock left 8 families homeless. Mr. Finch arrived on the scene, all dressed up like he was going to play badminton. He spoke at length with one of the business owners affected by the blaze, a man that also happens to be a City Councilman. He spoke with a few of the tenants, but only briefly.
Kid,
Don’t forget to mention the level of intoxication of Ms. Black and the fact she was drunk while caring for her kids. The apartment may not have had a fire escape, but her recklessness would have prevented her from saving her children regardless.
I understand that. Many of the apartments at P.T. have only one proper means of egress. If there was a back door they might have survived.
It’s not apathy, it’s stupidity, with a Judas goat leading a parade to the slaughter.
*** MISLED, SELFISH, STUPID & LAZY sounds like about 70% of the Bpt Town Committee, voters and their political choices, no? *** CHANGE? ***
We are supposed to have a voice in how our governmental institutions are operated. This is not the reality on the ground. The local Democratic Party has been in the hands of a select few individuals who care more for privilege, material gain, power and politics as sport. The concerns of the city’s residents, the quality of our lives, is little if any concern to Mario Testa, Bill Finch and Adam Wood. Our voices haven’t been heard for a long time because none of the men noted above really gives a shit. Our voices have not been heard through the ballot box, the last line of defense against tyrannical rule.
This year will be different, much different. We have practical alternatives to more of the same mediocrity. Thank God for democracy, at long last.
I attended the B & A overview of the budget hearing Friday evening.
Meeting started late while waiting for council people to show up; This was an overview of budget proposals submitted at previous hearings. First up was the Registrars Office. This started a downhill spiral for the hearing as soon as it started. Instead of discussing various items in the Registrars budget it quickly got bogged down in minutia. Brannelly got hung up on the formula used by the registrars office to determine the number of ballots needed per election a good deal of time was taken up on this subject.
The other problem with this meeting was there was no stenographer present and all questions that were asked had to be written in long hand by DePara thus stalling the hearings.
There was a discussion on bringing back the board of education for a series of questions on questionable items such as gasoline purchase formula, The $30 Million allotted for updating Harding & Central and why there has been very little done on this project.
It must be noted after attending several of these hearings many of the council members become emotional over various items rather than looking at these items from a business point of view. An example of this is Travel expenses this is a subject that had a lot of discussion and could affect the council and their training trips to Washington DC. The committee while they understand to a degree financial times are difficult they are having trouble cutting travel expenses for conferences that are all over the country. All in all this meeting was chaotic, ill-managed and really had no agenda.
Welcome to Bridgeport, have a nice day …
This is not just limited to Bridgeport. The two political parties make it impossible for any person other than those they choose to get into the campaign. The rules they set up for a third party to get on the ballot are virtually dictatorial. These career politicians should realize the greater they stifle populace participation, the greater the probability of revolution.
“Dictatorial?” You must be high on airplane glue. Keith Rodgerson, a former City Councilman, ran for mayor as a Bridgeport First candidate four years ago. That party had candidates for City Council, City Sheriff, etc. The party line was on all ballots.
Why do you think I didn’t cut my right-hand trigger digit?
To stop picking your nose?
Last night I had an interesting conversation with family who live in Trumbull and are activists in Trumbull politics, especially the development of the budget. They had some interesting things to say about the consolidation of town and BOE health programs putting these employees under one umbrella.
Typically BOE unions are paper tigers. Trumbull received little or no resistance. The benefits are exactly the same with the town hall employees getting a more favorable co-pay and a slightly better drug reimbursement plan. The savings to the town under the next 3 premium cycles will be 18%. A lot of money.
The freaking unions in Bridgeport should take careful notice. Once this news of huge savings without benefit sacrifice gets around, the voters are going to demand union concessions. It never made sense to me why firemen should have a different plan than cops; maintenance workers different from administrative folk, etc. The Carroll family owns an insurance agency in Bridgeport, don’t they?
yahooy, you are placing blame in the wrong place. The City has a benefits manager who is supposed to work with the unions on ways to contain the rising cost of health benefits. There is a health benefits committee that was established under Ganim for that very reason. The committee never meets. The City again accepts the status quo and blames the unions. If management and labor worked together, there are ways of reducing costs by mutual agreement. But if the City refuses to think out of the box or meet with the unions on equal turf, all you have is a blame game where nothing gets accomplished.
I read Tim Loh’s profile of Mario Testa. From what Judge Carmen Lopez had to say it would seem that, according to the Theory of Mariocracy, a potential candidate for any elected office in Bridgeport must declare his or her fealty in order to receive endorsement of the DTC.
More and more information is coming out, information that portrays Bill Finch as a puppet, a marionette, a man unable or unwilling to think for himself or the people of the city of Bridgeport.
You beat me to the punch, Kid. I was thinking the same thing–Mario denies a qualified respected woman like Judge Lopez simply because she refuses to do his bidding. The Post article explains in depth exactly what is wrong with Bpt politics and that is Mario Testa. In sharp contrast is the opinion piece by Mary-Jane Foster, a woman with a true vision, whose mantra is: we need to change the culture (of City Hall) so that it is driven by competence, not political connection.” Truer words were never spoken.
The following was one of the most revealing portions of the article:
The underlying critique of Testa is that he throttles talent out of Bridgeport politics.
One example involves Carmen Lopez, a former state Superior Court judge, who in late 2009 walked into his wide banquet hall hoping to land a spot on the Board of Education. She sat for an interview with the DTC’s 10 district heads.
“It was almost like an inquisition,” she said.
She brought reports she’d helped write on the drop-out rates and achievement gaps in Bridgeport schools.
But the half-hour interview, she said–and Testa confirmed–centered on a much narrower question: Would you help strip the provision from Superintendent of Schools John Ramos’ contract that extends his tenure each time he gets a positive performance review from the school board?
When Lopez answered that she hadn’t read his contract, that she feared legal retaliation for trying to, that she couldn’t agree to this here and now, she said she felt eliminated from consideration.
“Not one person,” she said, “had an interest in learning about the merits of what a person has to do with the Board of Education.”
Independent political thought, she concluded, has no place in Bridgeport. Either someone tries for change and gets broadsided by the system or, worse yet, someone who might otherwise volunteer his or her energy thinks better of trying.
“I am seeking the Democratic nomination without the support of the party apparatus that is so entrenched in government decision-making. If we’re going to change how Bridgeport does business, we must reach beyond the party regulars and build diverse neighborhood coalitions from the bottom up.”
Them’s fightin’ words, got me inspired …
city hall smoker // Apr 17, 2011 at 11:54 am
to your posting
CHS,
The line that jumped out to me from the Mario story is a line that should galvanize our top-flight individuals challenging Bill Finch to the Office of Mayor on September 13, 2011.
Mario says that his Town Committee members once used to think about Bridgeport, now all they think about is their jobs …
Find it, read it and re-read a dozen times …
The City is a feeding farm to the DTC membership et al.
Get us names of people to call to become candidates for City Council …
I’ve met a few of the district leaders. They’re the ward heeler class. Their only job is to get out the vote. Why they were interviewing Judge Lopez for a position of great import is beyond me.
I’ve gone over Tim Loh’s article. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots. This man has too much power:
• … By 2007, more than 80 percent of the DTC either worked for the city, had relatives who worked for the city, collected city pensions, were former city employees, held elected positions, or served on influential boards or commissions.
• Ordinarily, a town chairman is responsible for the nuts and bolts of the political party: calling meetings for party members, overseeing the endorsement of candidates, raising funds for their campaigns, bringing fresh ideas and people into the fold. Testa readily admits he’s exceeded that. In the 1990s, he said, he put people on both the city and Board of Education payroll. To circumvent what he considered unfair hiring standards in the civil service commission — such as not being allowed to hire ex-felons, he said — he placed people in jobs funded by grants. One focus was the school custodial staff. He’d frequently get phone calls from school-board members, asking for names of people who might fill an opening. He’d forward the names given to him by the DTC’s 10 district heads. “Ninety-nine percent of the people I suggested,” he said, “I never knew.” Occasionally, that led to problems. When the employee failed to work out — or failed to show up for work altogether — the employee’s supervisor, at least on the city side, would phone Testa to complain. “And I’d say, ‘Get rid of him!'” He said. Wait a minute. City supervisors need Testa’s permission to fire an employee? “As a courtesy,” he said of the phone calls. “You’re the chairman, and they do have some respect for you.”
• If getting Ganim nominated for lieutenant governor was one of Testa’s high points, then the mayor’s conviction a decade later on 16 federal corruption charges was the bottom falling out. After the conviction in March 2003, Testa told the New York Times he would step down as party chairman when his term expired because the Democrats weren’t heading in the direction he wanted.
• The investigations against him were reportedly extensive. He told the Connecticut Post in 2001 that he had been wiretapped by the FBI. But he was never indicted. Why? “He was very close to some very corrupt people for a very long time,” said Michael Sklaire, the former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the Bridgeport corruption case. “But that’s where it ends.” How could he have stayed clean in that environment? “Look at Bernie Madoff’s wife,” said Sklaire, referring to Ruth Madoff — who was never implicated in her husband’s Ponzi scheme but of whom questions have been raised about what she knew — “There’s your answer.”
Sieg Heil!
None of the committees meet, not one, unless they’re heading up to Mario’s for a bowl of pasta. A committee was formed to “look into” fire safety at P.T. Barnum after a woman and her three children died of smoke inhalation. The tenants weren’t represented and the committee’s first couple of meetings were held in private. After the public demanded the right to speak the committee stopped scheduling meetings. This is typical of the Finch administration. He needs to be put out to pasture, for all our sake.
It takes two to tango. This dance will never make it to dancing with the stars because the dancers have their hands in each other’s pockets.
Carrie Ann Inabba 1
Len Goodman 1
Bruno Tabioli 1
Here’s a man who actually gives a damn about the people of the city of Bridgeport, his neighbors, his friends:
www .ctpost.com/news/article/After-the-fire-Varsity-Barber-goes-mobile-for-now-1323910.php
Looks like MJF has hit the ground running. Radio ads, billboards and well written opinion pieces. She has a well organized campaign with competent staff that is getting the word out. Imagine what she could do in the mayor’s seat.
Amen!
Gomes!!!
Gomes!!!
You out there, Gomes?
What do you think?
Gomes!!!
yahooy // Apr 17, 2011 at 1:02 pm
to your posting
yahooy,
I know you are already aware the opportunity for voters to choose either one of two candidates who are not DTC-machine-made now represents an historic turning point for this City, come September 13, 2011.
Candidates like John Gomes, who have re-directed their lives to campaign against Bill Finch and candidates like John Gomes who are first-time candidates for the Office of Mayor on the Democratic Party ticket.
Consider what these two individuals have to go through from here on in, you have to commit, yahooy, and give one or either your support …
It’s Sunday … yahooy … and all good candidates out visiting Sunday sites?
And then he’s walking.
I’m not committing until I hear from both. You don’t count. Get your boy talking.
He has a point, Ms. Curry. So far you’ve done a lot of advance work for Mr. Gomes, informing OIB readers and contributors that he is the best choice to lead Bridgeport away from the abyss, etc. & so forth. Talk is cheap. We’ve heard from Mary-Jane Foster, direct from the horse’s mouth so to speak. When is your horse going to canter up to the post?
“Candidates like John Gomes, who have re-directed their lives to campaign against Bill Finch …”
Well, Ms. Curry, you make it sound as if he’s become a martyr for the working class. We have a few questions for your man. I do, at the least. My fellow OIBloggers might be interested in a little more detail to support Mr. Gomes’ claims that he will:
• Build a legitimate and consistent relationship with the Superintendent of Schools.
• End the abuses of the current tax program, including the abuses of the boot program.
• Return the greatness of a deep-water harbor to Bridgeport.
I’m glad he is being proactive, spreading the gospel of his mayoral candidacy by going door to door. That’s no major feat. It is expected of everyone running for public office.
Thanks, Kid. We should have lunch. I know this Tofu joint in Black Rock.
My menu of choice includes red meat …
I find it rather amusing that Mario gave that interview, bragging about his political prowess as DTC chair. He spoke his mind and he revealed himself for who he truly is. Too bad he didn’t consider how it would look to the educated public. He provided MJF with several quotes she can use in her campaign literature. I am looking forward to it.
CHS,
Me too. He has exposed the “corrupt political machine” for what it truly is, a “corrupt political machine” (to Chris Caruso’s everlasting chagrin).