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The Bridgeport City Council’s Planning and Economic Development Committee Tuesday tabled a discussion and vote on a proposal by the Port Authority to seize a vacant 11 acres in the South End using eminent domain and lease it to controversial developer Sal DiNardo.

Colleague Keila Torres Ocasio reported the details last month.

The stated reason for the tabling? Councilwoman Denese Taylor-Moye, D-131, who represents the neighborhood, was unable to attend Tuesday’s committee meeting and asked the discussion be postponed so she can participate.

The council’s been in a particularly inquisitive mood recently after being left in the dark over a decision by Mayor Bill Finch’s administration to spend $400,000 on a driveway for another controversial developer – Manny “Manuel” Moutinho – and hire his construction company to install it.

With that in mind, it’s hard to believe the DiNardo deal isn’t in for a fair amount of scrutiny.

And it will be interesting to learn how the Port Authority can seize anything when that entity is broke.

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“The 5K Motion,” a 30-minute film about the personal price of gun violence, will be shown June 20 at 6:30 at the Klein, 910 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport. The film is a collaboration of 4Peace, a Boston rap group that advocates for peace on the streets; The Reach Foundation, a Farmington-Conn. based organization; Stop Handgun Violence, a Newton, Mass.-based organization whose mission is self-explanatory, and the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s office.
Actors in the film are young men and women from the neighborhoods of Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven, many of whom have lived the reality of violence in their world. They earned their spots in the film through a series of auditions held in the three cities.
This film specifically focuses on the role of young women caught in situations of street violence, and is a companion piece to an earlier film, titled “Mandatory Sentence,” that focused on the actions of young men.
The film is available to outreach programs and other service providers, educators and law enforcement agencies as a way to reach a target audience and defuse certain circumstances before violence erupts.
Admission is free.

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From a Norwalk couple that have been circulating “lost dog” fliers in Bridgeport trying to find their pet after she got away from a friend’s home.

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Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton are from different parties – Finch is a Democrat, Boughton’s a Republican – but they agree their cities do not get enough money from the state of Connecticut to help offset local property taxes.

Now they’ll have a chance to make a little bit more noise in Hartford.

From the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities…

CCM elects new officers and board of directors for 2013-2014

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), the statewide association of towns and cities, elected its Officers and Board of Directors for 2013-14 at CCM’s Annual Meeting on June 13. Five officers were elected and 19 directors were re-elected for another year. They join with  six past presidents of CCM who continue to serve on the board.

Here are CCM’s officers for FY 2013-14:

Bill Finch, Mayor of Bridgeport, was elected CCM President. He had previously been CCM First Vice President. Before becoming Mayor, Finch served seven years as a State Senator from the 22nd Assembly District. As a state legislator, he served as Assistant President Pro Tempore, Senate Chairman of the Environment Committee, and Senate Vice Chairman of the Transportation Committee. Prior to becoming a state senator, Finch served as a Bridgeport City Council Member for nine and a half years.

Finch serves on the Advisory and Nominating Committees of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and is Co-Chairman of the organization’s Climate Protection Task Force.

Prior to his election as Mayor, Finch worked as Director of Regional Growth and Membership for the Bridgeport Regional Business Council (BRBC). He has also served as a member of the Grow Bridgeport Fund and the Connecticut Zoological Society.

Mark D. Boughton, Mayor of Danbury, was elected Second Vice President. He had previously been CCM Treasurer. Prior to becoming Mayor, Boughton served as a State Representative from 1998 to 2001. He served as a member of the Education Committee and ranking member of the Environment Committee. Boughton was elected Mayor in 2001 and has been re-elected five times. He was the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor as the running mate of Tom Foley in the 2010 gubernatorial race.

Boughton previously served in the United States Army Reserve where he achieved the rank of Sergeant. He previously worked at Danbury High School as a social studies teacher and served as a member of the Danbury Planning Commission from 1995 to 1998. He also serves on the Alumni Board of Directors of Western Connecticut State University.

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Colleague Keila Torres spotted Don Eversley, Bridgeport’s ex-economic development chief, downtown Thursday afternoon.

“At the corner of Main and John (streets), in a blue rain jacket and jeans, talking to Ben Henson, the city planner,” Torres reported.

Eversley went from Mayor Bill Finch’s economic development chief to trying to help Finch revive a private/public economic development partnership to quietly moving on when the latter didn’t work out.

Last we knew, Eversley had landed on his feet in New York City – where he’d been living while working in Bridgeport – and was trying to settle scores with some local online critics.

Henson just helped to found the B:Hive downtown.

Finch, left, introduces Eversley as his new economic development chief in 2008.

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Due to inclement weather, this week’s Downtown Thursdays concert featuring Mystic Bowie and the Anthem band will be moved to Two Boots of Bridgeport at 281 Fairfield Avenue. The concert is free and open to the public. It will be held from 6 to 8 p.m.

Mystic Bowie (left) and band, with special guest Renard Boissiere (right) perform at the SoNo Charity Concert series at 50 Washington Street, Norwalk last July.

Since the 1980s, Mystic Bowie has been keeping the art of music alive – entertaining audiences from New York to Japan with his vibrant music and high-energy performances. From humble beginnings in Jamaica, Mystic has become one of reggae’s hardest working independent artists, compared to musical legends Jimmy Cliff, Lucky Dube and Toots and the Maytals.

Weather permitting, the concert will move back to McLevy Green next Thursday, June 20, with Natural Wonder and The Chords performing.

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Shhhhhh. Can you keep a secret?

I’m not supposed to know this under city statutes, but Wednesday Bridgeport’s Ethics Commission took up the conflict-of-interest complaint ex-U.S. Comptroller General David Walker filed last week against City Council President Tom McCarthy, D-133.

Walker thinks McCarthy has a conflict-of-interest serving on the council and working in the city’s labor office.

You can read his complaint here at the Only in Bridgeport website.

The commission entered into executive session around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday to privately discuss an undisclosed complaint (Walker’s. Shhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!).

City Attorney Mark Anastasi and John Bohannon, a lawyer who does some work for Bridgeport, were there to defend McCarthy’s and any other municipal employee’s right to serve on the city’s legislative body.

Technically the charter forbids it. But the charter, Anastasi has said repeatedly over the years, is trumped by Connecticut law – a law that state Rep. Jack Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, with Walker’s support, tried unsuccessfully to change during the just adjourned 2013 session of the General Assembly.

After executive session the Ethics Commission voted to table the undisclosed complaint (Walker’s. Don’t tell anyone!!!!!).

What happens now? Well, under statute Walker won’t have a chance to appear before the Ethics Commission in person. He filed the complaint and the city got its day in court to respond.

It might be interesting if McCarthy was asked to show up at some point.

But as critics of the Ethics Commission have pointed out, that body does not have the resources to conduct truly thorough and independent investigations. In fact the commission is staffed by Anastasi’s office.

In this corner … Daaaaaaaavid Waaaaaaaalker!!!

And in this corner … Toooooooom McCaaaaaaaarthy!!!

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Last August Christina Ayala, 29, a Democrat running for the House of Representatives, was fresh off of winning the party primary (which in Democrat-dominated Bridgeport means she also won the general election) when she blew through a traffic light, hit another car, left the scene and was arrested for a hit-and-run collision.

It was the kind of thing that perhaps in other municipalities might have ended Ayala’s career.

But in Bridgeport Democratic leaders like Chairman Mario Testa and Ayala’s father, Tito, either made excuses for Christina or, in the case of Mayor Bill Finch, declined to say anything.

When I asked Finch at the time if Ayala should exit the race for the Legislature, he said: “I don’t have any comment on that.”

But last week an emotional Finch issued a public plea for motorists to drive more carefully in the wake of three recent hit-and-run accidents in Bridgeport. All involved children. The two that caused very serious injuries remain open.

“We know people are not stopping at stop signs and traffic lights,” the mayor said following the June 3 City Council meeting. He also said motorists who follow the speed limit force the cars behind them to do so as well.

Finch recalled his recent visit with 6-year-old Diamond Battle, who, with her aunt, was struck down along Washington Avenue on Memorial Day.

“I don’t want to have to go visit any more children in the hospital, struggling for their life,” the mayor said.

He said he wanted the perpetrators caught soon, “And we can make an example of them.”

Jump ahead one week.

On Tuesday Ayala was sentenced. She was fined $350 and lost her license for a month. Luckily for her the General Assembly’s 2013 session in Hartford adjourned June 5.

Considering his impassioned plea last week, I reached out to Finch on Tuesday evening for a reaction.

“Mayor Finch has no comment on this case,” the mayor’s spokeswoman, Elaine Ficarra, wrote in an email.