It’s a busy week for Mayor Bill Finch. Tonight (Tuesday) he’ll join a few hundred supporters for a blowout (suggested) $500 a head fundraiser at Testo’s Restaurant, hosted by Democratic Town Chair Mario Testa. Mario wants everyone to know whatever tickets were dropped at City Hall as enticement for mayoral appointees was done during lunch hour. Hey Mario, there’s no prohibition on you dropping tickets. Are you going soft on us?
On Wednesday the mayor delivers his annual state of the city address to the business community at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn. And then on Thursday he’s expected to march in the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. And who knows, maybe even fly down to DC late afternoon Thursday to join a bunch of other mayors for a St. Pat’s greeting from Barack. I wonder if former Mayor Joe Ganim will be around for the city’s St. Pat’s parade. He attended the annual Greater Bridgeport St. Pat’s dinner Monday night. Just like old times, eh Joe? From Mayor Finch:
Mayor Finch to Share State of the City Address with Business Leaders
WHAT: On Wednesday, March 16, Mayor Bill Finch will share his State of the City address with more than 300 local and regional business leaders during the annual Bridgeport Regional Business Council Luncheon to be held at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn.
“Each year, the State of the City gives us the opportunity to highlight the City’s successes and present our vision for the coming year to leaders from the business community,” said Mayor Finch.
Tickets for the luncheon are available through the BRBC by calling 203.335.3800.
State of the City Address at BRBC Luncheon:
WHERE: Holiday Inn, 1070 Main Street, Bridgeport CT
WHEN: 12 p.m., Wednesday, March 16
In the real world dropping off expensive fund raising tickets to city employees would be called extortion. In Bpt it is called paying to play. I find it amusing these political leaches who owe their jobs to the Democratic machine object to greasing the wheels. Damned if you do & damned if you don’t. Ironically they are damned either way. There is a poetic justice to that entire situation. If you lay down with dogs you should expect to get fleeced.
During Mayor Finch’s first term (or maybe second?) he gave his state of the city address to the employees first. He recognized their efforts and thanked them for their hard work. Some were skeptical but at least he made the effort. Now the employees mean nothing to Finch unless they have a $500 check.
Bridgeport Girl I assure you the Bridgeport Boys have their checks and cash in hand. Those city employees who have been allowed to reap tens of thousands of dollars in overtime will have no problem coming up with $500 checks and a little cash on the side.
Bridgeport Girl // Mar 15, 2011 at 7:35 am
To your posting
Bridgeport Girl,
HE spoke to the employees the first year because he still had everyone’s trust …
As the Mayor began to reveal himself, you can’t believe he would get any positive reception … even if employees were told to show up.
No, Bill’s too far gone on the betrayal factor to speak before the City employees as a whole group anymore.
Well for the five minutes it existed, it was nice to think we had made the turn from bad administrations to a good one. Who knew? Not me …
and then the hits began.
Hey. What’s new about political appointees and patronage job holders being asked to support the candidate who gave them their jobs? I’m surprised all El Squid did was drop off tickets. I thought he’d be sending out bills. Illegal? Shouldn’t be.
“Lunch Hour” my ass!
I guess every form of refuge has its price.
Is Mary-Jane a Fidget?
(Little Rascals)
I think she’s about as tall as Mario.
Lennie I can’t get that song out of my freaking head (ol’ 55).
Get your head together!
That song you can’t forget is the song you can’t remember: Lyin’ Eyes
(wink)
Message to Bill Finch
“Beware the Ides of March!” “The Die is Cast!!” “Et Tu Brute???”
Bill suffers from a bad case of “Greenish Envy!”
UnSub // Mar 14, 2011 at 4:20 pm
UnSub-to your post.
“Where’s Flounder, the Squid is cooked.”
Toga! Toga!! Toga!!!
This election is like a FOOOD FIIIGHT!
Speaking of Green … since Japan’s nuclear mess, we are focused on environmental safety here in Bridgeport.
And while Mayor Finch has promoted the city’s BGreen 2020 Greenprint, few seem to mention the elephant in the room. Greenpeace has noticed. Tonight, they will be calling into the “Bridgeport Now Live” TV show at 8:10pm to discuss the coal plant situation and what you can do about it.
CT Post reported Feb 17:
“This morning Greenpeace activists have scaled the Bridgeport Harbor Generating Station coal elevator and unfurled a huge banner reading ‘Shut it Down: Quit Coal.’ The coal plant is an aging, inefficient plant that endangers the health of Bridgeport residents, including the children attending the six schools located within a one-mile radius of the plant.
Nationwide, pollution from coal is responsible for more than 13,000 deaths per year – one person every forty minutes.
The plant’s owners Public Service Enterprise Group should protect public health and stop allowing the toxic plant to continue operating against the wishes of the people of Bridgeport.”
The coal plant did spend $170m recently, to reduce pollution, for example the amount of mercury that goes into the air you breathe.
Where did you get your figures on 13,000 deaths from coal plants that produce energy? How did they separate the other pollutants we face every day from vehicles especially trucks and buses?
Let’s assume they shut down this plant. Where does our energy come from and at what price? Now they will say we can convert this plant to natural gas which is fine but where do we get the natural gas from and at what cost? Remember we have a moratorium on drilling in the USA.
With the problems that are being faced by the people of Japan there will definitely be a moratorium on any new nuclear plants. So where are we? Are we back to the 1700s when we used fireplaces?
This group is to the extreme and does not care about costs or who will be hurt by such plant closings. Anything to the extreme cannot be good and Greenpeace is to the extreme.
Message to all city employees. Please don’t forget to check your city e-mail for your invite for this evening. Mario pulled a real Ralph Kramden throwing Mother Goose under the bus.
Grin Ripper // Mar 15, 2011 at 10:22 am
To your posting
Grin,
Why do that? Despite the DTC connection, this is a very fine woman … That’s three guys who have dissed her so far. She’s gonna get mad and stop playing if this keeps up … Mario … Bil .l.. John S.
Kudos to tc, you did a good thing.
Bill is a nit twit.
blog.ctnews.com/connecticutpostings/2011/03/15/mayor-bill-finchs-social-network-event
I know it is the week of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. And that extends a green stripe down the streets of many cities to celebrate the Irish heritage (often with alcoholic beverages).
I also know our Mayor has been sponsoring many laudable environmental initiatives during his tenure and therefore has become known by our community as Green Bill. So far, so good.
However it is the “green bills” from your wallet paid to settle local property taxes, spent or misspent by the City and obligated by City Council to future taxpayers in the form of Post Employment Benefits (retirement and healthcare) that concern me in this GREEN WEEK.
Yesterday I revealed the City has a split mind as to what is a reasonable, fair and prudent “investment return” to ASSUME for its plans. Pension plans currently assume 8 or 8.25% for pension funding and 5.5% for retiree healthcare funding (that is not currently done as we are on a “pay as you go” basis). Has anyone looked at the City Liability for this program? Is the City fully funding this annually? When it is not funded, where does the excess liability show up?
(Local Eyes encourages me not to end a posting with a question. So I have added this sentence that includes a request that you read pages 61-64 in the recently posted Bridgeport “Independent Auditor’s Report” and see what sense you make of this. Thanks.)
Vote for Foster and Save Some Green! And that’s No Blarney!!!
tc:
If you believe whiners in the Connecticut Post, the coal-burning plant casts a shadow on the P.T. Barnum Apartments and rains coal dust on those buildings. This means, I think, the coal dust bypasses the South End, the West End, Main Street, Park Avenue, Iranistan Avenue, Wordin Avenue, et cetera. Truly a phenomenon, particularly since all this coal dust described is traveling against the prevailing wind to bypass all these areas and land on P.T.
I don’t think Greenpeace wants anyone using electricity at all. With no electricity, there would be no loony cable shows denouncing electricity. That might not be a bad thing.
On the other hand, no electricity means no computers. No computers means no webzine. No webzine means no OIB contributers.
tc, are we onto something here?
I think we are. I hope after tonight’s TV show we will still have electricity so we can blog and we can take a warm shower. I hope they don’t expect us to go back to heating water on wood stoves and putting the warm water in a tub for the weekly bath.
I can’t spend too much time blogging as I am going out in the backyard and dig a hole for the outhouse. I have a question for Greenpeace, no make that two questions. 1. If I don’t have a yard where do I dig for the outhouse, and question 2. How did the coal dust only go one way to PTB apartments and never migrated to the East Side? I think Greenpeace is full of shit!!!
Not only is Greenpeace full of shit, so are the following:
1. Bill Finch
2. Adam Wood
3. Andy Nunn
4. John Stafstrom
5. 16 Members of the Common Council
6. Bob Curwen
7. Martha Santiago
8. Tom McCarthy
9. Ed Gomes
10. Larry Osborne
There are many, many more, maybe others can keep the list going.
tc, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?
Whew!
Here’s the good news: I didn’t make tc’s Top 10 list!
Yes, you did make the list. Point your Eyes to the top, where it says: full of shit.
Joel,
You are behaving in a clearly antagonistic and threatening manner.
However, my skin is too thick to be hurt by your weak barbs.
Refer to the OIB User Guide to meet your violations.
tc, you’re right, the list is much longer. Will your girl Mary-Jane rid the city of this deadwood (the city employees at least)?
In my many conversations with her the answer to your question is yes. She plans on doing away with all of these incestuous politicians who keep getting appointed to jobs for which they are not qualified.
Mary-Jane’s plan as I understand it is to make this an administration of inclusion. She plans on putting people in positions for which they are qualified. That does not mean qualified by party affiliation. City Hall I invite you to stop in at Vazzys on March 24th at 6 PM, there will be a meet and greet meeting there where Mary-Jane will take questions and give an overview of her positions. This is not a fund raiser and it’s free.
It would be nice if MJF would make the statements to which you refer publicly. So far, all we hear about her “plans” comes from her cronies. Don’t get me wrong. She may be a viable candidate. But the longer she pulls a Caruso and remains mute posturing for political correctness the more likely El Squid will be able to re-inject El Shithead back into office. She knows what we need to hear. Now kick her in the ass and get her to say it.
Give him time.
I believe he is just getting started.
Go TC! You’re like the firemen in Fahrenheit 451. You start fires instead of putting them out!
It’s a dirty job but someone has got to do it.
On a serious note there is an increasing cry for the US to get involved in the problems taking place in Libya. The New York times has come out that they want the US to establish a no-fly zone. There is a move afoot to send ground troops to Libya.
My question is how many times are we going to send the same troops into combat? We have kids who are going to Afghanistan for their 4th, 5th & 6th combat tour. These kids are getting combat weary and we are seeing more and more cases of PTS amongst our troops as well as an increase in suicide cases.
Politicians have to realize these are human beings and not machines. I support our troops 110% but we are asking too much of them.
If we are going to continue being the peacemaker or warmonger (depending on one’s point of view) it’s time for a draft and let everyone share the pain. Just a thought.
Is it too much to hope for that this will be a “clean” election where every vote was counted properly and everyone who wants to vote, does?
No winning on the “machine” but losing by made-up ABs?
UnSub,
I finally believe the Absentee Ballot vote is secure. The ABs are numerically embossed & signed out for by the candidates involved. This was recently proven in the election for Caruso’s vacated seat for the 126th District. The temptation to cheat will always remain in Bpt’s politics, but the glare of scrutiny should keep them in check.
Pray for Bridgeport, vote for change.
Another thought.
Does Gomes and or Foster know their donations are being threatened? I would be sure by now they do but can they do anything about it?
I have to feel Ganim isn’t dumb enough to put his family through an election (where he will get TRASHED) so he is just messing with Finch, and judging by his Sunday quotes, doing a good job of it. A lot of hate there obviously.
The voter in Bpt has been dumbed down long enough and is ready for change.
As Antitesto said, “Pray for Bridgeport, vote for change.”
tc, regarding the 13,000 coal plant related deaths above, that was verbatim text from the CT Post article. Take a look again, there are quote marks.
Now, today you can find pictures of Bridgeport’s great industry history, with huge factories and coal smoke going into the air. You got to believe our industry should have advanced better than still depending on coal 150 years later, right?
We need extreme solutions at this point, and there are serious risks out there we need to consider. Greenpeace said on the call-in last night they wanted a soft landing change from coal. I am presenting different points of view to the public in commercial-free TV. ‘enlightened’ you think it is loony cable where I oppose electricity. LOL. That is pretty funny! Not sure where you got that.
We need good leadership and courage to make positive change, locally and nationally. Why doesn’t Bridgeport take the lead and maybe have energy incubators at UB and at the Innovation Center on Stratford Ave? Meanwhile, I had a conversation with one of the people tc put on his list above recently after a meeting, not saying which one, but it’s between numbers 6 and 9, and this person said America owes Bridgeport. Yes, the city gave so much to foster the industrial revolution. Now its time to get federal funds to jumpstart real change. Not just money for paving streets or window dressing on North Downtown Middle Streets.
Look, the country is still wallowing in 9% unemployment and Bridgeport is close to double that. Trying unproven energy sources makes no sense. Listen, these environmental people are even against wind power.
As far as the country owing Bridgeport something because of the industrial revolution, that pure BS. The problem with the leadership (what there is of it) is they are also acting like we are entitled and that’s so much BS. Waiting for the Feds is baloney, we have unimagined debt right now and they can’t keep printing money.
We need our city leaders to get off their asses and start working to improve Bpt. You cannot have an economic development director who has been here for 3 years and still has no plan. The same could be said for this administration, no plan, no vision, no nothing.
Bridgeport has to get off its ass and vote in people of vision and people with BRAINS not the dumb asses we have been electing.
town committee // Mar 16, 2011 at 12:33 pm
to your posting
tc,
You’re on it. Couldn’t be a better summary of the current situation at 999.
The other thought for you to consider is that perhaps this economic director has been told to chill … that the front office would use him as a mouthpiece, but the economic director shouldn’t go getting any kind of name recognition advancing development in Bridgeport … I think that’s the story … otherwise how could he be so lame?
He was lame in Providence, remember his appointment was a favor to NYC Mayor Bloomberg.