Assistant Chief James Nardozzi’s position has been eliminated as part of a Police Department reorganization to save money, according to a memorandum from Chief Administrative Officer John Gomes to Police Chief Joe Gaudett. Nardozzi was appointed the number-two top cop in November 2012. He was originally brought in to scale back police overtime, which has again become a financial issue.
The reorganization also includes the reassignment of the four deputy chiefs to ensure at least one deputy chief is on duty 24/7.
The assistant chief’s pay range, according to the latest salary structure of officers and unaffiliated employees, is $123,118 to $134,210.
Sources say Nardozzi could return in another capacity. Nardozzi was well-liked in the community but not so among some members of the police union that supported Mayor Joe Ganim’s comeback.
Ganim brought in former Police Chief Wilbur Chapman as a senior adviser to realign the Police Department.
Prior to joining Bridgeport, Nardozzi served as the Dean of Post College and Director of its Master of Public Administration degree program. He retired in 2007 as Deputy Chief of the Waterbury Police Department, where he served since 1989.
Gomes letter to Gaudett:
By the order of the Mayor, in order to improve the functionality, the operational and economic efficiency of the Bridgeport Police Department the following reorganization will be conducted. The position of assistant chief will be eliminated immediately.
Those duties currently performed by the assistant chief will revert back to the chief of police. The four deputy chief positions will be realigned to better coordinate the efforts of the mayor’s crime reduction program. One deputy chief will be assigned to A and B shifts while two will be assigned to C shift. Schedules will be adjusted to ensure weekend coverage. The duty chiefs will respond in uniform to major incidents while on duty and will work with the commanding officer of the mayor’s crime reduction task force to manage field resources. The commanding officer of the mayor’s crime reduction task force will have overall authority for strategic appointment and overtime allocation.
Captain A.J. Perez, a close ally of the mayor, is leading the mayor’s crime reduction task force.
While all this change of organization, management duties and personnel is ongoing, especially with one person identified as leader of “the Mayor’s crime reduction task force,” will the Mayor’s office direct the Chief to release the Crime Statistics Indicator weekly? If there is no press release scheduled let the statistics show up on a specific Police or Mayoral web location with attention directed to it. The public is paying for all this. Why not supply them with a way to see how individual stories that may or may not become part of media coverage total a weekly, monthly and 52-week reporting lens? What could be wrong with that assuming the stats are being prepared accurately and regularly anyway? Any more than what could be wrong with totaling all the individual assessments sent out by the City Assessor at the moment with the Taxable Grand List total for the previous year also. Time will tell.
From what I hear, Nardozzi is a good, smart, educated, highly motivated man, a true professional but was put in his place by a union that didn’t want outsiders.
He should return when Joe is eventually dumped.
I think Gomes sent the memo to the wrong guy.
Keep up the good work, John.
What goes around, comes around.
Don’t stop there. you have five more to go.
Chief and four Deputy Chiefs.
And by the way don’t forget Internal Affairs, they all have been there too long. I heard some of those sergeants have more than five years in there and some more than 10. They are too comfortable and making over $150,000 a year.
You should also take away their take-home cars.
The one cop who’s doing what he was hired for is let go. The police union was crying about him, TS. The city is going after small things in the PD. They should be going after the outside overtime. The outside OT they earn goes towards their pensions. Outside OT is directing traffic at construction sites and work like that. Let me give you an example, under the old contract a patrolmen with 25 years who retires would have a pension of approximately $32,000. Under the new pension contract a patrolmen will retire with the average of his/her three highest years. So if the patrolmen retires after 25 years he will get a pension of $50,000 per year. The more he makes the more we pay.
There is a simple way to stop this and that is rescind the ordinance that requires cops at these sites. It is not a state law but a city ordinance. Specially trained construction workers can do the traffic like is done in many CT towns.
The Mayor and his lawyers should re-read the sections of the Charter concerning civil service and the Police Department. He appears to be on pretty thin legal ice.
*** I have to agree with Andy; the guy who was doing a great job he was hired for gets the hook? And the reason many of the PD union members didn’t like him was he was doing the job too well cutting the fat in OT. Well the best he could, unless the Mayor and Chief stepped in to protect the OT at the Steel Point construction site to have it open by election time! Too bad, Joe could use a guy like that right now. ***
First, the retirement package under the MERS plan under the state saves the city money. It allows the city to apply a fixed budget number based on an actuary study for the members inside the pension. The calculations or costs are fixed so when the market goes south the city is not responsible for make-up payments, so Plan A fire and police who sold out the new generation are just jealous and angry a real pension with a COLA is now available. Wasn’t police who had parity with fire who chose to take bonuses over raises or defer overtime to straight time costs. Don’t hate the player, hate the game they say. That said, Nardozzi is the smartest guy in the room who would have probably fixed Bridgeport I’m told rather than hurt it, but union and certain factions wanted him out. Can’t get rid of the cancer who is the chief so cut off the arm that can scratch the itch. Absolutely nauseating. No direction. Chiefs answering to a captain. Also why all the hate for the Chiefs? Sounds like civil service people who can’t pass a test hating the intelligent who can and chose to move a career forward. How many assistant chiefs wearing bugles are in the fire department? No hate for them, only Rooney, I constantly read about from the glorious Firebirds.
The amount of money the city pays into Merf is based on salary and overtime figures submitted by the city. The payment to the Merf plan is not standard every year.
“Plan A fire and police who sold out the new generation are just jealous and angry a real pension with a COLA is now available.”
Wrong in application if not in name. The Plan A escalator acts as a COLA.
“Wasn’t police who had parity with fire who chose to take bonuses over raises.”
Wrong again. Those bonuses were never agreed to. After an arbitration panel decided on a fair contract, the City voted to refuse the arbitrated contract and sent it to a second panel.
Been told this SOB took a healthy cop off the road for over a year to be his personal secretary. The guy who was supposed to stop overtime was helping to create it by not having this person in a car on the road. Hypocrite also took care of his entourage with OT.
Ganim jumps out on a limb. How long before it crashes down around us all? Again!!! By law, PD reports to the chief who has authority for all assignments, not to the mayor who has many, many debts to pay and isn’t above putting patronage before citizen protection. By all accounts, Nardozzi was a capable guy. Ganim’s move even surprised Chapman. Watch ruefully as crime rates go up as Ganim works his mysteries. Needed new officers won’t be hired, patrols will become more sparse. Ganim will blame Finch and Gaudett, then he’ll move some more buddies into key positions they are ill-equipped to handle. Gee, it all sounds so familiar!
Your point about the Chief’s authority is well taken.
Seems like Phantom likes that phantom OT.
Like a good union member he complains when Nardozzi takes a cop off of control and would complain if we hired a civilian instead of a cop. Seems like you can’t satisfy this union at all.
Joe is between a rock and a hard place.
Back in the day when I was on the City Council a few of us had a nickname for all of the council members who could never be satisfied. It was Seymours from the “Little Shop of Horrors.”
The Venus flytrap plants who would chant “Feed me. Feed me.”
Seems like there are a lot of Seymours on the BPD.