Hugh Bailey, assistant editorial page editor of the Connecticut Post, writes in his Sunday column that the city throwing in the towel and asking for state control of schools was a big act by Mayor Bill Finch and Superintendent of Schools John Ramos. Basically, he writes, they intentionally tanked the school system to force state control.
Finch, holding the line on taxes in an election year, did not pump additional city funds into the school system and we didn’t hear a peep from Ramos about dealing with another flatline budget until after the budget-making process was completed by the City Council. OIB speculated why Ramos did nothing to fight for more city funds. He wailed after the fact.
Bailey’s column:
A quick review of how this all happened before we’re forever in “Let’s look forward, not backward” mode.
Read more: www.ctpost.com/news/article/Too-many-questions-to-stop-looking-back-1920547.php
From the Ripley’s dept.
Paul Timpanelli made 190,000 large in 2009 according to the BRBCs public returns. Life is good, eh?
Bailey shows this move was a Three Ring Circus! What a bunch of clowns!
Steve Wright, a state board of ed member and the deciding vote for reconstituting the board, gave one thousand dollars to Finch in his ’07 campaign. I guess he didn’t feel the need to recuse himself. Attorney Wright was in the audience for the July 5th fiasco. He gets his marching orders from Nancy DiNardo as he is a Democratic board of ed member in Trumbull. Wright was Wrong!
Does this news really surprise and shock? We all knew it was a dog-and-pony show.
These revelations continue to seep into the campaign, along with the story about Bill Beccaro’s purseful of magic coins. Keep it coming, keep it coming. The more people hear about this stuff the more likely Bill Finch’s mayoralty will be repudiated on 9/13.
It’s about time the CT Post has revealed what it has known for some time. The first thing we need to do is fire Ramos and this time hire the most qualified candidate for the job. The selection committee for the last two supt. of schools has failed miserably.
The next thing we need to do (we are in the process) is get rid of Finch and his crew and that means Sherwood also.
These politicians who have been in office have screwed the kids of Bridgeport for years. They always have money for political jobs but no money for education.
It’s time for the BOE to clean house of all the old do-nothing administrators and principals and it does not mean hire them back for $500 a day like Ramos is doing this year (2011-2012) with six principal spots. It’s time to pay the teachers on merit and not on longevity.
After all that has been revealed so far I now understand why the BOE was late in submitting their budget to the B & A committee this year. I now understand why Sherwood said screw them, I am giving them the same budget they had last year (I am sure he was in on this BS). What amazes me (not really) is the B&A committee and the entire council with maybe the exception of Walsh & Baker said NOTHING.
The people of Bridgeport are getting screwed by this false budget but more importantly the KIDS are the ones who are really being hurt. Shame on all the people involved in this mess.
tc,
You have stated most accurately the BOE budget story up to and including the B & A charade with a pass on to the Council where little if any questioning of the adequacy of financial support for the school system was heard. Some of the City Council see themselves as a “financial check and balance.” From my observation this year, it would seem they have trouble balancing the City expenditure checkbook that is the annual budget.
Part of the reason is Sherwood and friends. Reports to the Council are regularly late per the Charter and without sufficient detail. Requests from those who do question are not met with full or timely responses.
And on August 12 the CT Post reported on page A2, “City Maintains ‘A’ Bond Rating” in which Bill Finch is quoted, “This is great news for Bridgeport taxpayers.” The Fitch rating pertains to general obligation bonds used for long-term borrowing. Does this apply to the special troubling situation of our Pension Plan A Pension Obligation Bonds, since they are not specifically ‘general obligation’ bonds? Do you guess that Bill Finch or your Council person either knows or cares about the answer?
You must know the person who knows about these specific facts is John Stafstrom. He has been architect of, steward for, compensated bond counsel professional, and Pension Plan Trustee. He is also a City vendor, who needs permission, I guess, from Acting Finance Director Norton to tell us what the facts are.
The Pension Obligation Bonds bear a high interest rate yet for some reason unexplained to the taxpaying public, they have not been refinanced. The totals expense for the annual POB principal and interest in the current fire and police budgets is higher than the reported financing by Bloomberg. Bridgeport Now is in pursuit of explanations as we all are. Big money annually from department budgets! And this money does nothing to solve the current funding issues for Pension Plan A Mayor Finch has ducked for four years courtesy of the State of CT accepting the wailing-wall stories by Finch and staff.
Finally, the Post said the Fitch rating was based “on the City’s ability to generate a $4.9 million surplus that helped bring up its fund balance to $15.6 million in the fiscal year 2010 budget … and to balance the city’s current budgets without dipping into the fund balance or depending on one-shot revenues.” (Has the City posted year end financial results in the past couple weeks for June 30, 2011?)
With the fund balance falling to the desperate level of $10 Million (from five times as much during Ganim days) that is the reason there was no dipping into it! And as far as ‘one-shot revenues’ like the sale of City properties, for instance, the attempts were out there but were grandly unsuccessful as reflected in the budget report of February 2011. One million of property sales were predicted and less than 10% of that was expected.
So wherever the CT Post staff gathered this reporting, did they take a look at June 30, 2011 numbers? I am talking about balance sheet numbers now, not income and expenses. What was the balance of Other Post employment Benefits (retiree healthcare)? Did it grow to $880 Million or more? And what is the number for the Internal Service Account compared to previous periods? What change occurred in our City debt including tax anticipation note balances during the past year? Lots of other info that good financial detailed reporting might reveal. Instead we get a grin, a “great news” statement from hizzoner, and incomplete info from the CT Post.
Folks, it’s timely to talk with your City Council persons. Ask them for their latest copy of the City financial report. Ask them if they have read the report and to list for you the three best things they understand from it as well as the three most troubling things.
Their answers will tell you about our Bridgeport financial check and balance system as it operates today. And your failure to ask them these questions and expect good answers will be simple but partial evidence of why we we find ourselves in trouble today.
I could ask my City Council representatives about the budget but it’s questionable if straight answers would be forthcoming.
Shame on Bill Finch.
I read some of the documents. One clearly reads in a teleconference communication/meeting, there was a good chance the minority on the board of ed. could gain the majority in the next election. They may just be right!
Maybe this was an exercise in preventing that from happening. You know, with Mario Testa and Bill Finch it’s always all about control and power, never about the right thing.
The Bridgeport Kid // Aug 14, 2011 at 12:10 am
To your posting
Kid.
… “with Mario Testa and Bill Finch it’s always all about control and power, never about the right thing.”
You’re absolutely correct. This is not the team that Bridgeport needs … get out the shovels, mops and brooms. We are about to clean house!
Hooverize them? Or give them the Electrolux chair?
Only in Bridgeport–where the circus still resides!
If we teach our children one thing it should be honesty–are we doing this with this administration? This is layered with lies upon lies. We are setting a fine example of doublespeak and bullshit for these kids–we had better look at the big picture here before it’s too late.
When are the people of Bridgeport going to realize the future of Bridgeport and the country is in the hands of our kids?
It’s not just the kids going to college, it’s the kids who will build our skyscrapers our highways and the people who maintain our properties. In an ever-increasing techno society we need to get ALL our kids ready.
I am tired about hearing the kids don’t give a damn because their parents don’t give a damn. In some cases maybe the parents don’t care or are dealing with other problems like how do I feed my kids today.
We have got to stop warehousing these kids in classrooms teaching them subjects that will not get them ready for the work world. I have never seen a job application that asks who fought at the Alamo.
We have got to get these kids ready for the work world with courses that teach them the rudimentary things involved in jobs such as nursing, nurse’s aides, the trades and such. We have to teach them how to sit for job interviews, fill out applications and such.
We have got to turn the present thinking about education of our non-college-bound students around. We know what we are doing now does not work as we have a 60% dropout rate.
What Finch, Ramos and the BOE have done should be a criminal offense and they should all be arrested; maybe even better they should be forced to spend 6 months in one of our high schools and listen to the drivel that is taught the non-college-bound kids.
town committee, well stated, I agree fully with what you said. (Andy, you’d better save my statement because you know …)
Ron, yes I know.
tc,
Perhaps now that we’re on the same team you are beginning to sound logical. You are correct, we need to realize we need a two-tiered educational system. Not all kids are college bound. We also must address those who are needed to maintain our infrastructure. More attention should be paid to training these kids for the real world. Should they be inclined to expand their own horizons after graduation they could attend community college.
Gobble! Gobble!!!
www .ctpost.com/local/article/PAC-probe-was-money-used-for-personal-expenses-1963802.php
This is better than the small mountains of cash in Maurice Stans’ safe at CREEP …
Isn’t it time for the proper authorities to have these shady things done by Finch and the worms?
Filing a grievance with a committee of Bill’s people seems a cry for attention more than wanting to remove corruption, no?
If Kelly feels so strong about this, visit State Street and then blog from witness protection.
And Joel, your classified documents should be released by real reporters, not a custodian coming off a suspension for email fighting … play nice with coworkers.
WINNING, they’re all in the same bed. That’s the problem. MJ and Tom Kelly have to keep this in the press, keep the pressure on so they’re forced to investigate.
WINNING–I think you need a GPS system. Kelly can change his social security number on State Street. Then enroll with the FBI at 1000 Lafayette Blvd. Who’s in your wallet? O & G willikers, I wish you “Manny” Happy Returns!
Don’t brush off the SEEC investigation. Mary-Jane Foster is a practicing attorney and there are other attorneys on her campaign staff. There is no question the formal complaint is carefully worded so as not to be dismissed. The commission’s credibility is at stake. The Connecticut Post has been giving this story a lot of coverage. Everyone I’ve talked to knows about Mr. Finch’s relationship with Attorney Beccaro and his purse of magic coins.
Headline ink ain’t a tattoo but it doesn’t wash off so easily.
WINNING or yahooy, Tom Kelly is an upstanding man. Any person can file an SEEC complaint (It’s not a “grievance”) as long as they take an oath attesting to their true identity–something you don’t know about–and the accuracy of their complaint to the best of their knowledge. Implied threats, “and then blog from witness protection” can get you a visit from the feds themselves.
My documents are public record and don’t need to be classified. If I file a complaint and feel like sending a press release, it’s my Constitutional right of freedom of expression and the press; I never said I’m a reporter. You obviously don’t know what you are talking about. However, you make it clear that City Officials are spreading confidential employee information from Labor Relations. Your comments are totally inaccurate and taken out of context. I don’t e-mail or blog from work and don’t have an e-mail account from work. Who told you my coworker are workers by my definition and example of what work is. I do the job of four men by my estimation. Cleave received layoff; Kennedy recently retired and I do the job both of them did with some complaining and nothing is done about it. On January, I threatened to file a grievance but didn’t file it. A month later, the person I threatened to file a grievance against, after being tipped off by his immediate supervisor, filed a grievance against me. Five (5) weeks later, I was suspended for four (4) weeks which I took to binding arbitration and in the settlement, I got paid for three (3) weeks. That’s like being punished with a three (3) week paid vacation. Not bad! So here it is OIBers, threats and intimidation of a City Employee. How’s this for a “custodian,” WINNING?
Folks in City Hall are now saying Finch will be cleaning his own house after the election–Wood, Nunn and Norton will be gone. A little too late Mayor–or should I say Bill.
After the election he will be cleaning his own house, not City Hall.
chs,
Remember a $600 tax break and no more Sherwood in 2007?
His worms know too much to be cleaned out by Bill.
People on this blog keep saying get the FBI involved; chances of that happening are slim if at all.
There is only one sure way of getting rid of Finch and company and that is get out and vote him out. It’s time to get your friends and neighbors out to vote on September 13th.
This is the first time in years we have a candidate who has a platform, has set out some very good plans for Bridgeport and has a diverse ticket.
I have worked many campaigns over the past 30-plus years and what I see at MJF’s headquarters is a great cross-section of Bridgeport’s residents working together for a common goal and that goal is to rid the city of Finch and company.
*** Nothing will come of this but a slap on the hand from any of the city or state investigations. Jepson’s office has washed its hands along with others chalking it up to nothing more than election mudslinging! *** DIG DEEPER ***
Jepson’s office cannot investigate unless and until the SEEC has made a referral to the State’s Attorney.
I stand corrected. Jepson’s office has other fish to fry. If the SEEC looks into the matter and determines the complaint has merit they will make a referral for possible criminal prosecution to the State’s Attorney’s office. The AG usually handles other matters.
WORKERS IN CITY HALL ARE CALLING FINCH OTB, ONE TERM BILL … WELCOME TO FOSTER HEADQUARTERS–WE WELCOME ONE AND ALL. MJF WILL RESTORE MORALE TO CITY HALL AND START PROMOTING BRIDGEPORT WITH HER ENTHUSIASM.
Steve, MJF has already begun restoring morale to employees in City Hall. Every time her team exposes Finch and his cronies, it puts a smile on their faces!!! Hope is slowing coming back to City Hall thanks to MJF!