Mayor Joe Ganim has decided to pursue a search for a permanent director of personnel currently occupied on an acting basis by Eric Amado who’s planning to apply for the position, then conduct a national search for police chief, supervised by the new civil service administrator.
This means Acting Police Chief Rebeca Garcia will likely remain top cop for the rest of the year given the timeline of a national search, something that does not sit well with Rev. D. Stanley Lord, president of the Greater Bridgeport Branch NAACP, asserting “It’s more important for us to have a qualified chief than it is a civil service leader. People’s lives are more affected by the leadership in the police department than (by) Mr. Dunn’s prior position. His leadership does not impact whether we live or die. A chief of police can.”
More from CT Post reporter Brian Lockhart:
“This is ‘Phase 1,'” Rowena White, Ganim’s spokesperson, told Hearst Connecticut Media. “Solidify personnel director.”
The city lost its police chief, Armando Perez, and Civil Service Director David Dunn after they were arrested Sept. 10. The pair this week was sentenced to, respectively, one-year-and-a-day and four months in prison after being caught by federal authorities collaborating to help Perez cheat to get his job during 2018’s national search for a police chief.
The city’s law department Friday confirmed it is working with the Civil Service Commission finalizing a contract with an unnamed independent consultant to recruit and test candidates. That takes the responsibility out of the hands of Eric Amado, the acting civil service head.
Full story here.
To Rev. D. Stanley Lord, president of the Greater Bridgeport Branch NAACP.
Ron Mackey says:
April 15, 2021 at 9:55 am
This is a no-brainer, the Bridgeport Police Department has been operating unfortunately with “Acting” Police Chiefs for years but the whole structure of the city charter and of testing is base on a permanent Personnel Director that can be trusted and respected. Bridgeport has just witness a testing company co-opt the police chief exam because of the Acting Personnel Director David Dunn so how does the city move forward without a permanent Personnel Director, that’s why there must a nationwide search to find the best person to serve the taxpayers base on merit.
Lol! Ron if he finds anyone of “merit” to fill the chiefs job, Ganim would have to worry about the new chief starting an investigation on the one who hired him!! Not to mention some of Ganims friends as well. He’ll have to find someone who’s comfortable with the “round” file!!!
Cheers!!!
BINGO!!!! Gamin needs people who are in positions to loyal to his first just like Dunn and AJ Perez, loyal to the point that Ganim doesn’t have to tell them what to do but give the mayor plausible deniability, “Plausible deniability is the ability of people, typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command, to deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by others in an organizational hierarchy because of a lack or absence of evidence that can confirm their participation.”
Both Finch ahd Joe Ganim don’t want department head who is smarter andmore likeable to the public than them.
Merit has very little to do with the mayor, here’s an example, Bridgeport Provisional Fire Chief Brian Rooney was “selected” as the fire chief even though the person who came in first place, Dan Andrus, who on the test scored 6 points higher than Rooney and where Rooney only has a high school diploma where Dan Andrus who placed number 1 has four bachelor degrees and two masters degrees within business and fire science, he has served in positions including district chief, fire marshal, and communications and emergency management director. He has serve in the Salt Lake City, Utah as a firefighter for 30 years. What happened to hiring the best person?
Without a doubt Joe Ganim doesn’t want a new police chief that he can’t control, if the police chief is smart and is respected and doing a good job would be political threat to run for office. Joe Ganim will have a hard time inding a new police chief that the public can respect after te last police chiefis now going to federal prison for cheating on the police chief exam. Remember when Ganim got charge and convicted and did time in a federal camp it was the same AJ Perez who hid a case of wine in his home for Ganim because Perez was Ganim’s driver while in was mayor. The rule is you must be LOYAL to Joe Ganim just like David Dunn and AJ Perez.
Here’s a novel idea. Why not do both at the same time. That is what private business does.
And doing both at the same time with a consultant in charge would eliminate some of the doubt as to what the hell is going on?
Immediately the is a cloud hanging over the process.
Why does Ganim want to select the Civil Service Director ahead of the Police Chief especially since he is a political person to begin with?
Do both positions at the same time. It’s a no brainer.
Bob, you have to do the Director of Civil Service first because right now you have a political appointee in that position who is also the Acting Department head of Labor Relations. By not having a qualified person as Director of Civil Service, who is not a political appointee you’re setup for more of the same. Autonomy is a prerequisite for the Office of Civil Service and it hasn’t been for 14 years!
Bridgeport got into all of this mess because the city had a Acting Personnel Director, David Dunn, who never pass a civil service exam who was allowed to stay in the poistion of Acting Personnel Director by Bill Finch and Joe Ganim for 11 years and now Mayor Joe Ganim has decided to pursue a search for a permanent director of personnel only because the FBI. The entire testing system for the city was being run by Dunn who never should beenin that position and nobody gave a damm.
After what Joe Joe has put this city through in his first go round,and again in this 2nd go round,the bid fixing,pay for play,tampering with the hiring of the police chief,etc,etc,etc,how could anyone ever trust the process of hiring a personal director & then another “National search” for a police chief(which by the way,I don’t think Joe will ever allow/get around to) again??…Again,joe needs to persoanl director and
especially a police chief that do what he them tells them,he isn’t going to allow a national search and chance hiring a chief who will question his “operation” here..
Harvey, that’s why it’s important that a new Director of Civil Service is chosen first because this last episode calls into question the hiring of Eric Amado another Mayor Ganim disciple!
Don & Ron
Why should we believe that we will go thru all of this effort to have a nation wide search for a Civil Service Director and end up with Eric?
And do not tell me that will not happen. You have no reason to believe that.
Again, why can we not run two searches at the same time? What better way to ensure independent than by ensuring competition?
And why must the city pick one over the other. Do both. Plain and simple.
Also include language that will truly hurt if they are found to be less than totally honest.
Not only will the city not pay but will asses penalties for up to a two year period.
And do not get bulldozed by the city attorney saying that would make it cost prohibitive. Pure nonsense.
Who is to say there won’t be other jobs that will needed to be filled in the mean time?
Will we have to take a number and wait?
Joe is good at this game when he wants to play. Putting one against another. Forcing you to make a decision and then suddenly coming up with his own solution. Don’t buy it.
Bob, you make some good points but a main concern I have are the testing companies that are being used and their ability to give exams where they have a good track record of hiring that has the make-up of Bridgeport. Dunn was using companies that were cheap with no record of hiring blacks and women like Randi Frank and Associates or I/O Solution. The City Charter says the City “shall” provide for all testing. Bob, think about this, David Dunn was able to get Randi Frank to give him the answers to the police exam, that’s not professional for any testing company. There’s no oversight which allows Ganim to play games.
Ron
I believe that the City Attorney will say that the City “shall” would encompass an outside company doing the actual testing.
You may not like this answer but it is what it is. And you can say what you want but this is the typical catch 22.
And the city will some how end up with naming Eric. The rule of three.
This is why I at least say run the test concurrently.
I think we should be more concerned with Eric Amado having his hands in who’s giving this exam, what criteria is being used and the methodology of said exam when he is a self proclaimed candidate for said position. This whole process reeks of impropriety and you can rest assured that Mayor Ganim will have a hand in this to insure that he gets the Civil Service Director that he wants which will insure that he gets the police chief he wants and that he can keep the Civil Service as a political patronage job cabinet.
Who in the city has the expertise and the knowledge to run the exam for the Civil Service Director?
Maybe you could bring back Elinor Guedes. She was the longtime Civil Services Commission president. Oh, that’s right, she moved to Trumbull.
Exactly……….
So what is one to do?
We hired one, Ralph Jacobs I believe, how did that process work?
He was by the book. How’d that happen?
Side bar, the Bridgeport Police department and the Board Of Education need to be on the alert when the Derek Chauvin murder trial decision comes in when high school students will walk out of their classes just like they did with the Rodney King verdict against those police officers.
Bridgeport feels that it is immune to that kind of thing……
Bob, it seems that New Haven is taking the Derek Chauvin murder trial decision seriously but Bridgeport is still Bridgeport, it’s like a city upsouth.
“City Prepares For Chauvin Verdict, Revives Deescalation Training” | New Haven Independent
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/nhpd_de-escalation_training/
Derek Chauvin found guilty on all charges but nothing has changed, this as on bad apple, it took the whole was George Floyd murder by Derek Chauvin and one year of protest around the world in order to find one white cop of killing a black man the same system is in place here in Bridgeport and around America.