Watch: City Council Meeting – Eneida Martinez Sports Bus To Support Drivers

City Council25 Comments

On a night City Council chambers was filled with school bus drivers, the legislative body voted to conduct a public hearing as it is poised to exempt bus drivers from a newly passed ordinance restricting large commercial vehicles from parking on city streets.

City Councilwoman Eneida Martinez sported a make-shift bus to rally support for school bus drivers.

1+
Share

25 comments

    1. I speak to the Council as well as others present at these public sessions and attempt to post them on OIB, where audiences may be attuned to problems, issues, or concerns in the city more than most residents, taxpayers, or voters. So JG, I don’t know whether Lennie tooke the other side of the bet or not, but you were accurate in your prediction. I have sent all Council members, the City Clerk who maintains such records of talks, the Mayor and a professional recording service the talk. See below:

      City Council Comments-Public Speaking September 8, 2026
      Neighbors, fellow citizens, and Council members who listen tonight, I report to you, in my comments at Public Speaking sessions. My words bring little or no result it may seem. They do have effects. What do I mean specifically you ask?
      • Two years ago, in October 2024 I presented an idea to you called Casual Civics Conversations: One-hour meetings monthly in places within each District where residents with Bridgeport questions can find answers. In 2024 this was to be an opportunity for a Council person to informally learn what their residents were seeking and feeling before the 2025 election. How many of you have been to one or more? One hour monthly. Twelve hours annually.
      • The Council is the local body that creates ordinances. Eight years ago, to prevent imposters who resided and were electors outside Bridgeport from serving on our Commissions, you passed an ordinance. It requires all elected and appointed officials to sign an official register in the Town Clerk’s office annually in January attesting to their residence. Five of your members have ignored their 2026 duty. They join seven current members of the Board of Education and most current Board or Commission members today except the Library Board. Why is that? What was your oversight and enforcement mechanism? Why hasn’t the mayor shown administrative responsibility?
      • Who speaks for housing? Where is the Fair Housing Commission 20 years ago? It died in plain sight, for want of members but leaves residents and seekers unprepared for affordable, energy sustaining, and responses from Bridgeport governance. Is the Fair Rent Commission operating as you intended three years ago with its rebirth by Ordinance? What information, currently available will you use to learn?
      Tonight, I can inform you that Casual Civics Conversations are alive monthly in six districts in pursuit of the Common Good. We are discussing locations in the other four districts to expand the learning about CIVICS, the study of citizen rights and obligations, not otherwise organized at this time in our schools. City Council elections will return in 14 months. Helping all neighbors to Become a Better Voter and use a City Council Accountability Scorecard will soon be available to encourage thoughts, actions, and pride among the 90% of eligible registered voters who seem voiceless in recent years. Time will tell.
      YOURBRIDGEPORTVOTE.COM
      Become a Better Voter and City Council Accountability Scorecards may be of interes to Lennie Grimaldi. Should that be the case, I am happy to make them available for better understanding along with why Casual Civics Conversations are important to Bridgeport residents to make authorized powerful people less abusive to their constituents. Time will tell.

      0

  3. Interesting, you have to assume these bus drivers who work split shifts park their buses for 3 to 5 hours each day, and these bus drivers are parking their buses by or near their homes.

    I get the convenience of keeping the bus. It takes at least an hour of their time to go back and forth.

    As for the CC/elected officials who run and manage city affairs, you have to ask why the surrounding suburban towns don’t allow their bus drivers to park on their city/town streets if it is such a need for Port bus drivers over the need for the city?

    Since this has been portrayed as Maria vs Martinze, / bus gate 🙂

    Maria is not wrong from a governmental standpoint in enhancing the Port’s quality of life and not allowing the bus to park on the city street between shifts

    That being said, you have asked why (I believe) those suburban bus drivers get paid more. I would bet that if the Port bus drivers were given the option not to park on the street and get paid the same as those suburban bus drivers who can’t/don’t take their bus home, they would take it.

    So it is perhaps fair to say that the convenience for the Port bus driver is based on lower pay at the cost of “inconvenience” to the Port and its quality. I mean, is anybody really going to argue that buses parking on city streets hinders the quality of the Port?

    That being said, give Port bus drivers a buck or 2 raise, and everybody wins. The buses are no longer a blight in the Port, and they, the driver, get paid for the “inconvenience,” which is nothing more than crumbs.

    I use the word crumbs because I have read many times about Port political elected officials and insiders going at it about how Port official/insider are willing to accept crumbs.

    I found it odd, to say the least, but telling. Because when politicaian/elected official run for office that are not “in it” for anything but bettering the city/communith, no? So what crumbs are they talking about that are being settled for? JS

    That being said, Port takes that abomination of money and increases the pay for the drivers and exchanges the crumbs of convenience for something more tangible. Enjoy the room.

    This sums up Port’s political puppet masters and that rat’s nest of double-dealing, backstabbing political system it has created.

    https://www.facebook.com/reel/906908782300284

    Good luck, Port/peope. Try to play nice. Does anybody really know if the soul is at play? JS

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUtnwcv-quE

    0

  4. Joel wouldn’t you think that if the residents and voters of the city are as impressed with the public speakings of JML one of them would take the initiative to record his words of wisdom and send it to all interested parties. I guess everyone will need to rely on JML to take care of that until he impresses just one resident of the city enough to do that.

    4+

    1. I got your back, John, not Port political style.

      Perhaps Joel, “wouldn’t you think that if the residents and voters of the city are as impressed with the public speakings of JML one of them would take the initiative to record his words of wisdom and send it to all interested parties.”

      But is it fair to say you were impressed by John’s public speaking to record your initiative words of wisdom and send it to all OIB readers? BAM ! 🤣

      0

  5. Joe, where do the residents of the city who vote come to share what is on their mind? Even the 10% who regularly vote these days do not come to PUBLIC SPEAKING sessions, where the Council Rules do not encourage “words or wisdom” to be attended to.
    But how will you know if you are an OIB reader who does not attend the meetings? That is easy. The City videos the entire process from PUBLIC SPEAKING, where all 10 slots were filled and makes it available. Nobody needs to rely on me for actual oversight of governance process. I enjoy learning and sharing. That is likely where we differentiate in activity. You enjoy ‘politics’ which is the practice and process of power. I enjoy listening and looking for good governance which practices Constitutional authority and laws for the Common Good, not party, business, or personal self-interest. I appreciate where I find values that are OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE, TRANSPARENT, and HONEST. Political process bears oversight and enforcement always. Yet it is ignored. We are human and make errors. We require better listening practices, as the basis for CASUAL CIVICS CONVERSATIONS. Check out the QR code for YOURBRIDGEPORTVOTE.com
    I do not see your name among the OIB Name Droppings below. Perhaps you need to express yourself more frequently for the public benefit? You perhaps are short of words at this time, and would have your celebrated image caught in a picture impressing those around you? What we require in Bridgeport is more informed voters who discover their Council representatives and participate with them in civic engagement. Did you expect that citizens will enjoy their rights without participating actively in their responsibilities?

    0

  6. Final thought in Bus Gate.

    It is very telling that the BBOE members are in support of this measure to selectively say what large vehicles are considered blight and decrease the quality of life in the Port.

    If the BBOE members and city elected officials paid the Port bus drivers accordingly to surrounding towns who don’t allow school bus drivers to park their buses on the city streets between shift there would be no need to offer the “crumbs” of parking on the back of Port, and it residents who have to endure a bus parked outside of their home for 3 to 5 hours daily

    I guess they want that money to go in someone else’s pocket more than the bus drivers’.

    I mean, based on Maria, being on the BBOE is not about making the system better but more than controlling the budget. I guess you can say the same about Port elected officials, for the most part. 🙂

    Burn the tapes, and free Maria. #7million overfund Port BBOE 🙂

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVzgXYGjJYs&list=PLLsjr_hqBHTISQ-j0iD0sCyK3ixS2AoHn&index=7

    0

  7. By the way, who gets the 250 ticket? It can’t be the bus drivers. So it is more than fair to say the bus company is making the drivers bring the bus back to avoid getting ticketed and paying the fine. Which, I believe, Maria stated is in their contract with the BOE: to bring back the buses.

    Which makes it extremely ironic that the BOE members are supporting the bus company to allow parking the buses on the street for extended periods of time when the BOE created a contract that states that will not allow the bus company to park its buses on the streets. 🙂 (I believe)

    Pencil box, what say you? Is it in the BOE bus contract that the buses must return to their lot after picking up and dropping off the students?

    So, in the end, this has nothing to do with anything but convenience for the bus driver to keep their bus and not have to drive it back to the company lot and pick it up again for their next shift, 3 to 5 hours, that the bus company allows (with no fines of course) and a contract the BOE is not enforcing on the bus company. 🙂

    So, in Bus Gates’ essence, it is the blight/quality of life that the parked buses make on the Port community that they are parked in vs. teh hour or so of time for the drive to drop off and pick up after shift.

    IDK Port, 🙂

    The prophet and or

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK-ahDBJ5Dg

    0

  8. JML it is notable that you claim to know what it is that I enjoy. That is typical behavior for a Know It ALL SUCH AS YOURSELF.
    In my opinion, what it appears that you truly enjoy is a couple good jelly doughnuts. ENJOY!

    1+

    1. Hello Joe McLaine. I Think JML should have stayed off the School Bus (Mc)laine on this one. Like a good Muslim, JML preaches CCC at least five (5) times a day. A blind man sitting in China could see the meeting was going to be long. You would think JML would have yield his time to another speaker in the spirit of Civics. Besides, his speech had nothing to do with the subject at hand. I attended in anticipation of seeing JML and his Red Rubber Boots in display. Instead, I got to see Eneida Martinez in a Rubber School Bus Dress. And McLaine, I think JML needs to learn to share those Jelly Donuts and throw in some coffee. Talking of coffee, Lennie when can I come over.

      2+

      1. Damn, John, you got some detractors here on the best ESL class ever. 🤣

        What’s up with that, Speedy?

        However, I’ll give you the praying five times. That’s a lot, people.

        That might be even getting on God’s nerves, praying five times a day. I mean, didn’t Allah, the God of Gabriel, rest on the seventh day when God created the Heavens, the earth, and all of existence? I’m sure Yahweh was like, ” I am tired, need a break.

        Besides, I’m sure he thought. I need my rest. I got a big day, flood, come up, going to kill like almost every living thing, being on knowing.

        Though, to be fair to my Muslim brethren of the God of Gabriel. It was a time before the iPhone / smartphone, and there wasn’t much to occupy the time, to say the least. There wasn’t much to do back then but to fight and fellatio. So praying five times a day was a positive alternative, for the time being, to say the least, per se. 🤣

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0cG11lTS1E

        It’s like Pergo, It’s in there. Read your books, people.🤣

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS1Aa-9VXNw

        0

      2. Speedy, with regard to your Michelangelo’s David. It’s pretty fair to say part of that hatred towards the female species is based on, ZOOMING IN. As well as the black racial “detractor” stereotype, speaking, John.

        PS There’s probably other aspects to that generate that hatred that resides within and is expressed outward at the female species, and across the board, for that matter, obviously.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9uBvoYLvYE

        Pivot people pivot. Read your books 🙃

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHa1OdNRQs0

        0

      3. The spirit of the bus debate that went off the rails, regardless of the vote, but interesting in revealing, to say the least. It pales in comparison to that hot thermal deuce that was dropped on the South End Community, that nobody/Judases of the port did anything about oh or gave a shits. Y’all know who you are. Thanks Steve
        😄

        Don’t ride the bus retarded.🤣

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6WHBO_Qc-Q

        0

    2. Joe M,
      I made an assumption when I said that you enjoy ‘politics’ as an expression of power.
      I made an assumption as we have not in recent memory discussed how you live your life. So, I googled and found information talking about your activities with the Bridgeport Republican Town Committee some years ago before they took official action, it seems, to keep you from their actions.
      What do you enjoy actually, if I missed the mark? Is it jelly doughnuts that you reference in my direction? Is it that I have started a movement, assisted by other residents who are supporters of democratic activity, to welcome all residents to sit down at a table where their words can be listened to and reformed into viable activity like actually becoming better informed? And subsequently, regularly voting?
      Whatever reason, folks who are eligible to vote and register, have for not voting would be to ask why they remain voiceless, silent, and without casting a ballot? Come to a one hour conversation at a location in your district. They are listed currently at YOURBRIDGEPORTVOTE.com and it is a growing list. The conversations are about how governance works when it is pursued energetically and faithfully, more than about how ‘politics’ has earned such disrespect in the community when it relates to abuse of authority by those in power. Where is community response? And ethical action? Or increasing results in November this year from ballot totals? Time will tell.

      0

  9. Ok, fellas, try to play nice 🙂 I guess you can say this is playing nice. Good Job. 🤣

    John, you said, “I enjoy learning and sharing”. Please share what you have learned from our friendship.
    😂

    P.S. Correct me if I am wrong, but Port school start and ending times are as stated: High schools typically start at 7:53 AM, while elementary and middle schools start at 8:50 AM, and high schools dismiss at 2:30 PM, and elementary and middle schools dismiss at 3:10 PM

    So it is more than fair to say the Port school bus ends at 8:50 and starts at 2:30 from a parking standpoint, right?lI mean the latest drop-off is at 8:50 for the Port schools, and the next earliest pick-up is at 2:30. That would mean that buses are parked for 5 hours and 40 minutes. Right people

    Assuming there are no outside activities unrelated to Port drop-off and pickup of its students.

    That’s a long time for a bus to be parked on Port’s streets, no People.

    It is perhaps fair to say there are more moving parts to those 5 hours and 40 minutes with extra runs. So it is perhaps fair to say most bus driver bring back their bus at 9am and pick it up at 2pm, between shifts.

    I would add the word “privilege” to the word “convenience” in this debate on quality of life and standard of living in the Port.

    I say use the word “privilege” because I assume those extra run/hours are a privilege if it’s anything like how the Port’s police overtime hours are doled out. 🙂

    So, in essence, we are perhaps really talking about the convenience and privilege of the privileged, between gigs, at the cost of the quality of the Port and life in the communities where the privileged bus drivers reside.

    I would think🙃

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmU9FAZP-Sk

    The Prophet and/or, bus be driving in reverse 🤣

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpSZ6CirVnk&list=RDVpSZ6CirVnk&start_radio=1

    0

  11. Well JML I’m sure you know what is said about people who assume. It’s half correct you do make an ass of yourself. As for the Bpt RTC it was my choice to leave it, I did not seek to remain or be renominated. And the then Chair was quite pleased because he did want be out because I exposed him for what he is. However Mike Garrett had no success in keeping me from my chosen pursuits. Garrett stood in front of the city council during the public speaking session and told a series of outright lies to try to derail my appointment to the zoning board of appeals. All he did was delay it for a couple of weeks while it went back to committee and it was discovered that all his claims were lies. I was appointed and went on to become chairman. So please don’t assume that you know anything about me and enjoy your jelly doughnuts. Maybe eat them while wearing your red rubber boots. ENJOY!

    1+

    1. John, I got your back.😂

      Joe, clearly it’s not just an assumption if you’re on this political page chiming in, and we’re part of the RTC. Besides, what’s wrong with a few jelly donuts? BAM 🤣

      IDK John.

      “Is it that I have started a movement, assisted by other residents who are supporters of democratic activity”

      Perhaps you started something; perhaps it is a movement, but I will debate whether it is “disingenuous in some form,

      Though, to be fair and kind to our friendship, you do work hard at it, and are dedicated, and your public speaking.🤪

      However, I get the assumption that there might be a story that’s going on in this discussion. It’s on the surface. Pivot people, pivot 😂

      For an answer, click on the link 🤣

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4qzPbcFiA

      In the spirit of jelly— the prophet

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UZ2EGcgAMY&list=RD-UZ2EGcgAMY&start_radio=1

      0

Leave a Reply