Yikes, they’ve just been sworn in on the Board of Education and the screeching is louder than a third-grade classroom.
BOE members Bobby Simmons, who wanted to be BOE president, and Sauda Baraka and Maria Pereira who also wanted him to be BOE leader, have jointly fired off letters to Board President Barbara Bellinger expressing outrage about her handling of a recent meeting and discussion regarding a job interview to fill the director of Building Operations and Facilities. They also claim City Attorney Mark Anastasi has taken an intrusive role in BOE issues.
Board member Pat Crossin, a target in the letter rhetoric, says the three board members are making up stories after the fact, and he questions their motives.
“It’s a blatant, sad and shameless attempt to grab headlines when all of this had already been resolved,” Crossin, the finance chair, told OIB. “Somewhere, along the way, they have forgotten it’s about the kids. The lady who said she’s not a politician is playing politics. I’m putting together a budget so that the kids have the tools they need to develop in our education system.”
Crossin is referring to Pereira, the self-styled non-pol, who says she decided to run for the BOE on the Working Families Party line after her daughter had nine teachers for one class.
What’s this all about? Ben Barnes, most recently director of operations for the City of Stamford, is poised for the building operations and facilities position. The BOE will meet in a special meeting Thursday to act on a request by Superintendent of Schools John Ramos to hire him. Crossin, like Pereira a new board member, says that he had simply asked that John Marsilio, former director of Public Facilities for the city, be considered for the position before Crossin was informed that Ramos had settled on Barnes. Marsilio’s job experience is a fit for the position, and Crossin wanted an experienced hand that could step right in to the role. Crossin served as budget chair of the City Council during Marsilio’s time with the city. Crossin says that he had already acknowledged that the hiring process had moved too far along to switch gears when his three peers on the board issued the letter.
Is this about personalities and power struggle? Or passion to do the right thing? Clearly, early alliances have been established on the BOE. How long will they last? See a letter below that Pereira provided OIB. Reads to me like the three board members have received an assist from a lawyer. Don’t ya just love politics?
January 19, 2010
Barbara Bellinger, President
Bridgeport Board of Education
135 Brooklawn Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06604Dear Ms. Bellinger:
The undersigned, duly elected members of the Board of Education, are writing to inform you of our dismay and outrage at the manner in which you presided over the Board of Education meeting on January 11, 2010. In addition, we are deeply troubled at the manner in which you led the Board into an Executive Session in violation of the Freedom of Information Act of the State of Connecticut.
First of all, when the Board made the decision to go into executive session, you did not state the reason for such executive session in violation of CGS section 1-225(f) of the General Statutes.
Secondly, without consulting the other members of the Board, you invited City Attorney Anastasi to participate in the meeting without setting forth either the “testimony or opinion pertinent to matters” that he would be providing to the Board. Furthermore, in violation of CGS section 1-231(a), you failed to limit his attendance to the period for which his attendance was purportedly required. Indeed, what you did was surrender your gavel to the City Attorney to preside over the meeting.
Notwithstanding Bridgeport Board of Education Bylaw 9125, General Statutes Section 1-231 states that an executive session may not be convened to speak with an attorney, to receive oral testimony, unless the executive session is called for a proper purpose.
Although there are times, when certain informality at Board meetings may be in order, the meeting in question exceeded any sense of informality and was transformed into a chaotic free for all, where the City Attorney essentially ran the meeting and was allowed to continually interrupt the elected Board members. We are profoundly concerned over your refusal, or perhaps inability, to rein in the City Attorney by reminding him that he is there only by invitation and is not an elected member of the Board.
Third, based upon information you received privately from Board Member Pat Crossin, you unilaterally tampered with and allowed the Superintendent to cancel the previously scheduled job interview of a candidate for the position of Director of Building Operations and Facilities. According to the published agenda, the Board was scheduled to interview Candidate X (for the sake of privacy, the name is omitted). In a sudden and dramatic move, the Board was informed that the interview of Candidate X was canceled and replaced with the interview for the preferred candidate of Pat Crossin.
It is inconceivable to us, that as Board Chair, you would permit the Superintendent to add the name of a “friend of Board member Pat Crossin” to the candidate pool for this position long after a finalist for the position had been selected and an interview scheduled.
It is a long accepted principle in matters dealing with children that the ‘best interests of the child’ controls in all decisions. We fail to see how changing the rules, succumbing to favoritism and capitulating to the whims of political operatives promotes the best interests of the children of the City of Bridgeport.
This letter will also serve to remind you, that each member of the Board of Education is elected by the voters of the City of Bridgeport to their position. Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-220 sets forth the Duties of Boards of Education. Among the many duties outlined in the said statute is the proper maintenance of facilities. See C.G.S. §10-220(a) (3).
We consider your interference with the orderly process of candidate interviews for the position of Director of Building Operation and Facilities to be a direct obstruction to our statutorily imposed duties.
We demand that the interview process proceed as originally established prior to your unilateral action.
Please be assured that it is our intention to take whatever action is appropriate in our attempt to ensure that the integrity of this Board is not compromised.
Very truly yours,
Sauda Baraka
Maria Periera
Bobby Simmons
Brown Makes Dems Frown
The perfect storm that elevated underdog Republican Scott Brown to a special election U.S. Senate win in Massachusetts is giving Dems the heebee-jeebees. Just 14 months after Barack’s historic win voters in the bluest of blue states said hold on a minute, we don’t like this. The pendulum has swung back. Barack went into Massachusetts to appeal to voters that had voted for him and many said no. Bill Clinton made adjustments after the 1994 GOP blowout, now we’ll see what Barack does heading into the midterm cycle. Dem incumbents such as Congressman Jim Himes must be very clear about their message. Meanwhile, Republican candidates will try to take advantage of voter trepidation.
Statement from Richard Blumenthal
The following is a statement from Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Democratic candidate for US Senate, on yesterday’s special election in Massachusetts:
“The lesson of Massachusetts is the need to listen to voters and to campaign aggressively — and I will continue to do both. This result shows people are angry and frustrated with Washington D.C. and they should be. I understand that people want change in Washington. I will be going to every corner of Connecticut listening to people and showing that I will fight for them tenaciously and tirelessly every day and working hard to earn their support and trust as I have done as Attorney General.”
News release and video from Rob Russo
Web Video – What Did Jim Himes Give Us for Christmas?
Russo campaign releases second web ad
Fairfield – Today, the Rob Russo for Congress campaign released its second web video. This ad asks the question, “What did Jim Himes Give Us for Christmas?” Click here to view the ad.
According to the Washington Post, Jim Himes votes with Speaker Nancy Pelosi 95.2% of the time. This Christmas, Jim Himes voted to give billions of dollars to bank executives, special interests, and politicians.
“We deserve a Congressman who will focus on creating jobs right here in Connecticut, not a Congressman who votes in lockstep with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the special interests in Washington.” said Rob Russo.
This is the second web video released by the Russo campaign. The first video “Great Followers in History” received national attention on Politico and has been viewed 5000 times.
Below is the script of the ad:
Jim Himes Nancy Pelosi and the liberals in Congress gave out presents this Christmas, but not to us. Jim Himes voted to give out billions of your tax money to bank executives, special interests and politicians. Himes even voted to spend your tax dollars to study ants. That’s right, ants. Rob Russo wants to stop them. Stop the madness. Stop them from wasting your tax dollars. Join the fight. Russo for Congress.com”
Ha. BS politics as usual, a crony from Stamford. Qualified, oh yeah no doubt. Set up from the get-go but at least a qualified person, better than the kiss-up custodian they have in the job now. Friends I have in the BOE say they’d rather have Marsilio than the custodian or Ramos’ bud from Stamford. Only in Bridgeport LMAO
I would like to say Congrats to the one-term sen Scott Brown enjoy it while it lasts. Coakley ran a horrible campaign up there. What was a great shock was Coakley won every town she should have won and she won them with big margins. Boston, Cambridge, Springfield and so on went big for Dems and had high turnout. What killed her was the suburban vote of small towns in MA. They went huge for Scott and when I mean almost every small town went for Brown I mean it. With Coakley getting 70% in urban areas I would have thought she would have won. Dems got out the vote in large cities but the on.com/news/special/politics/201suburbs just killed us. We do not have to win suburbs but we must must must run better in those small towns aka the ‘burbs. At the end of the day I say Coakley is to blame exit polls had Obama with a strong approval rating. Results are all here town by town in MA
www .boston.com/news/special/politics/2010/senate/results.html
This is just too funny … I tell you, if this city doesn’t have a strong neutral candidate in 2011 we are in big trouble …
With a weak City Council and a dysfunctional BOE we are certainly heading in the wrong direction … Maybe I should borrow Scott Brown’s green truck and run for Mayor …
Btw, Kudos to Carolanne Curry, fight for that unemployment, don’t let them get away with what they did … Sad part is, that posting of the PAC Finch and his wife draw reimbursements from, brings to light that they don’t pay for much out of pocket … And Adam Wood is drawing a City Salary and Consultant fees at the same time … Hmmm …
So to Curry, Gomes, Jacobs and the rest of you, fight to the end, DON’T SETTLE and teach Finch & Assoc. a lesson!
This certainly shows the true character of those running the city. They double-dip and overfill their pockets but want to deny Carolanne her earned unemployment compensation.
So Ned Winterbottom is back along with Dennis Murphy. I have nothing against either one and applaud Finch for bringing in some competent people for a change. What I don’t like is the double payroll. Please bring in the competent people but get rid of the unqualified ones first. What happened to the budget deficit? Looks like there’s plenty of money to go around for everyone.
Marsilio as a last minute candidate in BOE? Looks like all those meetings in Testo’s kitchen paid off. Or NOT!
Celia Cruz, Scott Brown is going to be very busy with the truck. You can borrow my Green van!
I’m not surprised to hear that the Finchs are drawing reimbursements from the PAC. They did it for years with the State Senate campaign funds. Check the reports to see if you find some consulting payments to Emerald Consulting at 70 Crown Street in Bridgeport.
The message from Massachusetts was clear and concise. This state has a 3 to1 Democratic majority but its independent voter registration is bigger than both parties.
The vote exceeded all expectations as to numbers of voters. There were more than 2 million votes cast.
There is a message here for Bridgeport if people stop and think about it. If a candidate emerges that is divorced from big-city politics and that candidate goes after the independent voter they can win here in Bridgeport. There are enough disenfranchised Democrats that would vote for such a candidate and the Republicans will go along.
Bridgeport is not much different than the state of Massachusetts. We have an overwhelming number of registered Dems and a weak Republican party. People are fed up with politics as usual.
Brown’s message to the people of Massachusetts was a simple one THIS IS THE PEOPLE’S SEAT. WELL CITY HALL IS THE PEOPLE’S ALSO.
I urge those standing on the sidelines who have the heart and a message for the people to step forward, now is the time. People are fed up with politics as usual. We have seen it in New Jersey, Virginia and now Massachusetts.
Donj You are right Obama is still popular but his policies are not at least not at this point. One other thing my friend. There are 7 big cities in Connecticut and 162 small towns do the math. BTW Boston voters did not show up.
Somebody out there take up the baton and get in the upcoming fight. The time is now.
But TC, this isn’t what you did last year. You ran in a Democratic primary and as soon as you lost you backed the primary winners.
So you are calling on someone to do what you dared not do.
Well I got a real unpleasant surprise when I read the CT Post this morning. We hired another consultant at $125 per hour. AMAZING. Here is a guy (Winterbottom) who was forced out by Fabrizi for a series of screw-ups who is now back on the city payroll as a consultant to civil service department where he has no clue.
To the civil service commission which is presided over by a Finch puppet who lives out of town should all resign. To the employees when the next election for employee rep on the commission comes up please get rid of another Finch Puppet McBride.
Hey Finch tell us where all this money is coming from. You have been crying poverty and sold the city employees a bill of goods yet you keep hiring.
Let’s see We have Debbie Simms in the PD, Murphy as a per-hour consultant, Dunn in civil service, Winterbottom in civil service, Larraquente soon in weights and measures. Potentially Clemons somewhere, Councilmen Bonney at the airport, a new female employee in your office just to name a few.
Bill do us all a favor Resign before you really do drive us into bankruptcy. To the civil service commission RESIGN.
TC, you consider Winterbottom’s firing of Fabrizi’s brother to be a “screw-up?” I considered Fabrizi’s brother to be the screw-up. You are right about the hiring but please don’t try to make your friend John Fabrizi a hero here; as with John, everything was always personal.
What I was referring to and should have explained was the FD contract. I have no idea about Fabrizi’s brother.
You mean you don’t know that Fabs’ brother cost the city $250,000 on a sexual harrassment suit filed by a female firefighter?
43% is pretty high for an urban area. Note Boston had the same amount of voters as the 2006 midterm vote.
donj that is true 43% is high what were the totals per candidate? Even in Boston there are more independents than party registered people.
*** C.H.S., answering your question from a few posts back. “Yes” the same person that was part of a small group that started S.A.D.A. back in the early “’70s” & could have made it a statewide agency or as politically sound & fed. accepted as Mr. Tisdale’s A.B.C.D., but never did! However, the agency lasted for about 25yrs.(?) in Bpt. with the last 10 years of its existence ending in “$” problems & Fed. investigations, etc. also the place was just not really helping anyone in the community like they used to back in the day. *** If Tom Lyons is going to replace Ray on the P/D commission in Bpt. I think it’s a good sound choice! He’s down to earth & level headed also best of all has a mind of his own, I wish him & family well & good luck on that tough P/D commission’s board. *** Last but not least, “GO JETS!” *** You see C.H.S. you’re a much better “OIB” blogger when you’re nice & straight to the point & not stalking the same people with the name-calling & basically being disrespectful. You seem to have a lot to share but tend to get too carried away @ times with simple opinions or comments! ***
Mojo, I cleaned up my act a bit. Glad you noticed. I won’t stalk the incompetent politicos anymore. We all know who they are and what the story is.
Is the rumor about Larracuente true? Bad move if it is.
Gerry Garcia is running for Secretary of State in Connecticut. I guess he will really be able pull out the “Dead” vote!
He just received the endorsement from Ben and Jerry’s and the Mushroom lobby. They say he is a Funghi!!!
This just in! The Bridgeport Kid!!!
The kid has entered the cyber-building.
I had a meeting with Mr. Mojo last night. He apologized for the insensitive remarks he made about my recently deceased mother. We shook hands, like gentlemen, talked over our differences, like gentlemen, and left it at that. If you want any more information you’ll have to wait until I’ve worked out a book and movie deal.
I heard that the reason the fight was canceled was because OIB boxing promoter donj did not have the proper permits and had sluggish ticket sales. Now the bookies are out looking for Mojo and The Kid. Mojo is a gentlemen no matter how mean he may sounds here.
I was outside with the camera, Kid. It looked like someone had notified the Police. I even got some video footage.
From yesterday:
city hall smoker // Jan 19, 2010 at 9:24 pm
The time is not yet right. Carolanne needs to wait a year, pick her candidate and then spill her guts. I hope she made copies before the shredders arrived.
So Carolanne Curry is ready to expose government corruption and waste for a price? That is so precious.
Maybe if she lived in Bridgeport and not Westport she would be concerned about saving B-port tax dollars rather than using it to leverage for a new job. Not necessarily good credentials going forward.
Grin, you misunderstood my post. Carolanne is picking a better time to expose the corruption when it will do the most damage to Finch. If she waits until it’s closer to the 2011 election, it will have a bigger impact and be fresher in the minds of the voters. I didn’t mean she would trade it for a job. Although I guess she could.
I guess the other Grin is saying that, “You Reap What You Sow!”
U had to “Sow” that one coming. Too easy.
Grin; I did the best I could to win the primary. Ann & I worked every day campaigning. I was worn out and saw no chance of running as an independent candidate. That would have made 3 sets of candidates the same scenario that beat Ann & I in the primary.
The atmosphere in the country has changed a lot in the last few months.
I am calling for someone a lot younger than me and a lot smarter than me to take up the charge to lead this city. In my own way I am still trying to inform people with what is going on. Just because I am still active does not mean I am a go along to get along person. Just ask around. I hope I have explained my reason for not running as an independent.
TC Boston results Brown 46,468 and Coakley 105,289.
donj: Interesting numbers. She won there by almost 60,000 and it made no difference statewide. That’s the problem Bridgeport faces in statewide elections. The vote could come out in Bpt but the ‘burbs outnumber us.
TC yup you are on the money with that. Dems have to do better in the ‘burbs. They do not have to win there but they have to at least put up decent numbers. I think Himes will put up decent numbers in the ‘burbs with the exception of those two Republican towns to the max. Bpt Stamford and Norwalk will go for Himes. The big factor will be turnout and margin of victory. Anything in the 60% range in Bpt then Himes will lose. He has to get 70% or more. Diane in 2006 got 66% of the vote. That is not enough we need 70% or higher.
Rob Russo is turning me off with his ads for real he is going too right. Like I said before I am a moderate Dem I do not support gay marriage I am against abortion and stand for family values. If there is one Dem I can say I cannot stand and never liked, it is Pelosi, but I have not forgotten what GWB and his Pepublicans did to this country less than a year and a half ago so Republicans do not get no type of vibes from me. Being too liberal and too conservative is not good. I hate when they try to push their values on me. The issue of Gay marriage is one that I hate when Democrats try to make you accept it. For Republicans I hate their stance on abortion even though I’m against it I still say it is the woman’s right to choose and everybody else should butt the hell out.
“… Being too liberal and too conservative is not good.”
Read your own writing. Obama, Pelosi and Reid are extremely Liberal.
As might be guessed, the Massachusetts senate race has consequences for Connecticut.
The causes for Republican Scott Brown’s win and the loss of Democrat Martha Coakley will be debated for days, if not weeks. Some of the reasons might even be true.
For our purposes it is enough to thank the Unknown Political Op, the guy/gal who took a look at the race and decided to toss the poker chips at it.
Democrats no doubt were too busy celebrating the winter solstice to notice. After all, it was Massachusetts and Teddy’s seat: Democrats could never lose there.
You don’t think that Connecticut Democrats don’t know this? They told you on the Only in Bridgeport webzine this morning.
Democratic Attorney General Dick Blumenthal released a statement saying he understood voter frustration and that he will work hard to earn their trust and support for U.S. Senate.
As well he might. The suspicion here is that Blumenthal has no shadow. He has name recognition, yes. But for years he has stood behind the more charismatic state-wide candidates running for governor or senate. The attorney general in Connecticut is like one of those anonymous men in the big overcoats at the May Day parades in Moscow waving as the missiles went by. Who is he? If the Republicans water away their nomination on that goof from Greenwich McMahon, Blumenthal will have a shot. Against any semblance of a real politician Blumenthal may evaporate.
Likewise Democratic Rep. Jim Himes cannot be too happy. The Fourth Congressional District naturally leans moderate to conservative politically. Bridgeport leans at least moderate, if not conservative. Bridgeport is not the dominant community in the district. Himes has to figure out a way to preserve what he won in Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford. The narrow Democratic losses in many suburban communities cannot be allowed to expand.
Barack Obama’s election was a false dawn for liberals. After years of being pummeled, they saw the election of this president as a repudiation of all things conservative. No, it was a repudiation of many things George W. Bush.
Consider the sins from the perspective of your average independent or moderate Republican voter. There is a presumption that conservatives (however flawed) will be more prudent fiscally and sober in foreign affairs than Democrats.
By the end of W’s administration Republicans were spending like drunks and acting like global street toughs.
By the end, voters did not care if Barack Obama was a liberal. He was intelligent and well-spoken. He wasn’t George Bush (or any Republican).
Voters didn’t give Obama or the Democrats a blank check. Results Tuesday seem to indicate they are still impatient. That’s the mistake the Democrats have made. They thought they had more time.
Americans mostly want a better economy. (I sure do, I got whacked from my newspaper job.) You would think Democrats, of all people, would know that.
Coakley and her supporters gaily went into the race apparently as the supposedly anointed successors of Ted Kennedy. That’s stupid American politics. That’s even dumber New England politics. Voters like to kick the tires of their pols up here. Coakley came up a Yugo.
Let’s compare Connecticut and Massachusetts.
· New England.
· Overwhelming Democratic success in recent years.
· Large numbers of independent (unaffiliated) voters.
· Lousy economy.
· Elitist pols. (It’s unfair, but no Dems allowed. OK for the right Republican.)
There is a cultural factor at work. Right now is not a good time for a Republican in cowboy boots saying y’all to be campaigning for a New England Republican. They don’t need any Republicans equating the Bible with science, or some of the more yahoo rantings of the right. In Bridgeport, for example, I can’t picture the Billy Sunday-type preacher getting much of a hearing in the North End – let alone the South End.
Fiscally conservative Republicans are fine. New England has had plenty of them over the years. (Cranky pols also allowed: New England voters have a high tolerance for independents who they like.)
Right now, I am a happy Connecticut Republican. I got something of a roadmap. I am not an unhappy Connecticut Democrat. I got some months to put a match to the map.
(tc and donj are kicking the Mass. vote analysis in the right direction. Coakley was dead in the ‘burbs in any case but coming out of Boston two to one doesn’t cut it, I bet. The guys at the Boston Globe are pretty good at nit-picking this stuff when they get to it.)
Good post.
The people in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey all voted for change. It may be that they voted for Republicans but it wasn’t the party that elected these people, it was the independents who had previously voted for Obama.
Obama is still popular with the electorate but his policies have not been. If the Dems want to commit suicide let them ram through health care then they will see the wrath of the voter.
What I don’t understand and if Himes falls for this he will be out is how Dems can blindly follow Nancy Pelosi. She may be safe in her reelection bid but if the congress rams health care through against the wishes of the majority of Americans the Republicans can take over the majority in the house. This is not what the polls are saying as they expect the normal turnover in an off-year election maybe 20-30 house seats. Pass health care and it will be open season.
If I were Himes or any other Democrat up for reelection I would take a step back before I blindly followed Pelosi.
The Dems should get the house to pass the senate version of the bill tomorrow. Get it done and get it behind them.
Then they can tinker with making improvements that will sell well.
Restructure the plans to save money. At least let votes take place to try addressing the abortion portion if conservatives want to and give a little if they can to make them look good.
Get the bill passed and then the Dems and Republicans can work together to modify. If the Republicans balk at that then they will really look like obstructionists. This is not the time to cut and run.
Just run right at the goal line while it’s in sight.
Grin that’s the reason the Democrats lost NJ, VA, and now MA. Keep giving them your advice.
This is the e-mail I got just a short while ago from Sen. Bob Menendez:
Grin that letter from Sen Menendez is pure campaign swill. The voters that are leaving the Democratic party as such are the independents. There are not enough Republicans to beat the Dems in the 3 most recent elections.
You say pass the health care bill. What health care bill? Do you know what’s in the health care bill? I don’t. I know that special interests have been protected. Unions don’t have to pay any tax on their health care until 2018. Nebraska doesn’t have to pay Medicaid increases brought on by this bill and Big Pharmacy has their sweetheart portion of this bill.
What is in this bill for the 85% of Americans that already have health insurance?
This bill is a pork-barrel-filled piece of crap and that opinion is based on how little has been released on what the bill contains.
No one gives a damn ’bout BOE. You write about it and no one cares enough to comment on the corrupt losers running this place and the new puppet coming in.
Little guys like me can’t buy a computer and have to wait ’til my supper break to read what goes down in the world but nobody cares about it. All rich suits and ties making all the money like Ramos making $230,000 and the 14 dollar an hour suckers who clean toilets had to give 2 weeks last year and no one will ever care ’bout us or the kids.
I care about you and many others share your point of view. The 2011 election will get here before you know it.
*** It’s not that no one cares about the “B.O.E.” it’s only that like the city government side, it’s just been so long that they have continued to overspend & mismanage money in general that after a while it actually seems normal! Kind of frightening & sad but seems true to a certain point? You can play “devil’s advocate” & say that 50% of what’s blogged here on “OIB” is just based on rumors, disgruntled employees’ past or present opinions, politics & media-twisted city government stories not actual facts but how about the other 50%? Makes you wonder sometimes, and some of the events seem like things that you would write about for books or TV series! It just may be a sign of the times with things like the war, economy & world events in general but make no mistake, ROME is “burning” & it smells like smoke to me! ***
Night Janitor, with your post one would assume you are writing these comments on a city computer which isn’t a very good idea, especially seeing as you are bashing all the powers that be. You should also look on the bright side of things a bit, and thank the good lord you are able to maintain a job with a good benefits package. I would bet there is a long list of people who would love to have your job. Whether you clean toilets, pick up garbage, whatever, take pride in the service you provide for the kids/taxpayers. Everyone has a role. Be proud of your role, as with hard work and some effort, you too can someday wear the expensive suit, and make the decisions. Hang In There, things can always be worse.
CTCITIZEN I hear what u r sayin’ and I do agree with u but u have to also know that when I started I had 12 others helping to clean my school and now we r down to 6. It also seemed like if u screw up and u call in a lot u get rewarded while the workers get shafted all the time.
We get threatened a lot and now we got cell phones that we get threatened about and and told it’s 6 cents a minute so why would we want to carry them at all?
You make good points but things are way worse today than 8 years ago when I started and we go through bosses like water and each one threatens more than the last one and and the latest one plays favorites and I have no faith in the BOE. I had hoped for a while when a nice mechanic’s wife was gonna be the boss but that goes down the drain to politics and BS as it usually does around here.
With all the Finch bashing (most of it deserved) and tales of corruption and other shenanigans throughout the City and BOE by the elected and unelected partners in crime, the time may be fast approaching for an Independent Soul to announce an independent run for Mayor. A person with the style of Jasper McLevy’s financial conservatism, Sam Tedesco’s and Hugh Curran’s planning vision, and Len Paoletta’s professionalism.
Night Janitor aka SOB are you that nice mechanic? Aren’t janitors called custodians nowadays?
THE CHARADE IS ENDING
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
January 20, 2010
——————————————————————————–
In an April 11, 2009 international webcast, I had already identified that evidence, fact by fact, which indicated to me, with certainty, that unless President Barack “Narcissus” Obama took a virtual “Damascus Road,” he were already virtually as good as self-doomed to live out his brief tenure in the White House in a relatively short-term, staged reenactment of the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. Intelligent people who had doubted what I said on that occasion, should be now already blushing a very bright red.
Now, the point has been reached, with the recent Massachusetts Senatorial election, that this Nero is about to take himself down in way which will shock the world. I am not a predictor — I have contempt for simple predictions; but, I am, rather, a very good forecaster. Intelligent and well-informed people take my warnings in such matters very seriously, especially after what happened in Massachusetts yesterday.
Obama is about as intelligent as a pre-programmed wind-up toy; like the characters of Shakespeare’s King Lear, MacBeth, and Hamlet, his self-inflicted doom is written into his personal character; he is the fool who believes in his image of himself. It is the poor “Seneca” in the Obama story, whoever a pre-programmed Obama might choose for that predestined role in his dream, who might be worth your pity in this affair!
——————————————————————————–
It is important that you, among others, take the present moment of President Obama’s discomfiture very seriously. The destiny of not only our republic, but the present civilization as a whole, depends upon some very early second thoughts about the policies which many of you, in particular, had implicitly adopted up to this point.
Had President Franklin Roosevelt lived to launch the post-World War II world, the history of this planet, from April 12, 1945 onward, would have been far different than what has happened on this planet since that time. O.S.S.;s General Donovan, and probably his associates Max Corvo and Bill Casey would have agreed with me, were they alive today, that there would have been no nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and no “Cold War” had Roosevelt lived. The colonial system of the world would have been broken up soon after the war had ended, The United Kingdom would have become a prosperous nation, but no empire.
It is necessary to view such matters as that as the model presented at the close of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s A Defence of Poetry implies. It is Gottfried Leibniz’s notion of dynamics, as expressed by Shelley in those pages which do, in the guise of setting “the spirit of an age,” as great poets and Classical dramatists do. The moment of victory at the close of World War II was the moment of great opportunity from which the course of subsequent, post-war history would, hopefully, flow.
General Donovan’s grimly soft-spoken remark to Max Corvo, as both left the anteroom of a dying President Franklin Roosevelt’s Presidential office, was, “It’s over.” A great moment in world history was about to be lost at the moment the President’s death were certain.
At this moment in world history, we have come, once more, to such a dynamically defined, historical moment in a long wave of history since that time. If the United States, Russia, China, and India, can combine efforts on behalf of a new system of a nuclear-power-driven renaissance of today’s almost destroyed world civilization, the world has one brief moment of opportunity to resume the postponed destiny which had existed up to the moment President Franklin Roosevelt was about to die.
Unfortunately, the role of the special individual in history, is often badly misunderstood.
The truly great individual Classical artist, such as a J. S. Bach, a Friedrich Schiller, or a Percy Bysshe Shelley, radiates an aura of creativity, an aura which assumes an influence which existed before that artist had emerged, and which radiated in society’s culture more or less long after that artist’s mortal demise. Such figures of science or poetry, radiate an aura while they live, and after they are deceased. The image of the widow of Friedrich Schiller passing out snippets of her husband’s poetry to the volunteers marching to the Liberation war against the tyrant Napoleon, typify that principle, as I recall the image of a just deceased President Franklin Roosevelt as I told a group of fellow-soldiers coming to speak with me, in India, on the evening of that day we received the news of President Franklin Roosevelt’s death.
In science, Leibniz typifies this expressed immortality of the role of the extraordinary creative personality, as Bernhard Riemann did for such great geniuses of the Twentieth Century as Albert Einstein and Academician V. I. Vernadsky. In politics, for those of us of my generation, such as the O.S.S.’s Donovan, and such of his close associates known to me as Casey and Corvo, were bearers of such an immortal torch, a torch akin to Shelley’s notion of the spirit of an age.
Poor President Barack Obama’s greatest misfortune, is that he represents a quality of the worst kind of spirit of his time, a spirit of vassalage to an alien British Empire, a virtually treasonous, virtually Satanic spirit of the age of trans-Atlantic civilization’s decline. He could suffer no greater punishment than to be what he has come, in such a short passage of time, to represent the spirit of evil which his health-care policy represents today. He and all who share his destiny are, like Hitler’s surviving Nazi doctors in post-war trials, or Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair, foredoomed to infamy accordingly.
What happened in Massachusetts this Tuesday must be understood in such terms of spiritual-life reference.
The Erinyes are gathering for the storm!
Night Janitor, No one can always agree with what the higher-ups decide. A few words of advice:
If you are being threatened, then document and request a Union Rep. This does not sound like a problem of the whole entire BOE, maybe a bad Supervisor, or maybe some communication problems. Your opinion is important, and you to should be heard! However, respectfully, I think you should concentrate on how good of a job you can do to keep the school in a sanitary fashion, and let the higher-ups worry about the logistics of what, how, where, why and when are needed. If you should ever sit on the other side of the table, you may understand more about how difficult a role it really can be to manage a facility/school/municipality.
Always remember try to be part of the solution, rather than being part of the problem. Don’t ever cut yourself short of just how productive you can be. More important, do not find yourself following the negativity that has plagued the city/BOE for far to long. I have the confidence in you to be a productive employee. Be a Leader and not a follower. Choose your battles before you draw first blood. Good luck to you NJ, and keep up the good work.
Are you a Conservative? donj, this is for you.
www .lisa-richards.com
Here is another one donj: www .rightprinciples.com
Why wouldn’t anyone give the new President a chance to fix the 8yrs of ruining this Country of George Bush? Give Obama a chance and let him do his job! I never pick the Party, I always pick the person! Democrat or Republican. It is a bit shallow to always vote for the party because of the party, especially if you are a Republican in a Democrat suit, meaning turncoat of one party to the other.
Night Janitor, for all your “woe is me” complaints about the injustices of B.O.E. management and constant threats from supervisors plus the fact that you have posted 2 blogs during work hours on a school computer you are not authorized to be on I think speaks volumns. I can see how grossly overworked you are.