Mayor Bill Finch has gone where no mayor has gone before, and former Mayor Jasper McLevy, the father of Bridgeport Civil Service, is barfing in his grave.
Finch won a power grab for jobs Friday afternoon when his nemesis, Civil Service Personnel Director Ralph Jacobs, was fired by CC commissioners.
Jacobs was dumped, at the urging of the mayor, for daring to tell a lawyer representing a city employee to seek arbitration if the employee could not work out differences with the city’s labor relations department. Jacobs bosses, the commissioners, had upheld her seniority rights following a layoff, but labor relations did not follow suit.
The commissioners told Jacobs he should have cleared the letter with them even though they never issued him a written declaration that all correspondence had to be cleared. Finch argued that Jacobs breached city loyalty. Jacobs said he was merely defending commission action.
The stated reason for Jacobs firing is a bunch hooey. He was dumped because he would not play ball with Finch in filling civil service positions, and Finch persuaded commissioners that Jacobs was a pain in the ass who had to go.
This was a big, if short term, political win for Finch who has filled Jacobs slot with his own person in an acting capacity to help fill some civil service vacancies with political supporters. Finch appointed David Dunn, former director of labor relations under Mayors John Mandanici and Tom Bucci. Dunn meets the City Charter qualifications for a personnel director, he’s smart and will serve the mayor well. Finch can appoint Dunn on an acting basis pending approval of the Civil Service Commission that torpedoed Jacobs. Theoretically, commissioners can order that a new test for a permanent personnel director take place. I don’t see that happening for a while.
Where Finch and Chief of Staff Adam Wood misfired badly in Jacobs’ termination was not making it a first step as part of a civil service reform package that includes a Charter Revision Commission that explores and sends to voters recommendations for a modern testing system such as a rule of three than a rule of one.
Meanwhile, this a nice time for Finch to take care of his political peeps.
Jacobs’ lawyer former Mayor Tom Bucci calls Civil Service Commission President Eleanor Guedes’ decision to oust Jacobs gutless. And while this is a political win for Finch, governmentally it remains to be seen. Jacobs will take this fight to court and it will undoubtedly cost the city tens of thousands of dollars to defend this move, and possibly hundreds of thousands if Jacobs court challenge is successful. Bucci remarks below:
It was plain and simple a political hatchet job - (Jacobs) did nothing wrong to justify his termination. The commission president was gutless, and the other commissioners, plain and simple, spineless.
Their efforts to disassociate themselves from Jacob’s conduct after taking a vote in January, and never rescinding it to the present day, would make them just as culpable, if Jacobs had done something wrong. They went in executive session, to hide from public view, despite our protests, in violation of the FOIA, to carry out their execution.
Obviously, they couldn’t discuss their reasons for firing Jacobs in the open because their own misconduct would be evident. This is simply wrong, HE DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG!
I don’t fault the Mayor; I fault the cowardly commissioners who have taken an oath to defend the civil service system. After the charade they conducted on Friday in which they trampled on Jacobs’ rights and made a mockery of the core principles of the civil service system – judging an individual on merit, not politics, they should all resign in disgrace. They have truly disgraced good government.
For more on this check out my daily blog www.onlyinbridgeport.com
The good people of BPT really need to come together,get out and VOTE and rid themselves of this man ,if ya want ta call him a man that is…..I say give Joe Ganim another go round,even Johnny Fabs was a better mayor,way better than Finch the grinch!!! DUMP FINCH!!
That just shows you how self-serving and selfish Finch and his minions are. They do NOT care about the good and welfare of the City of Bridgeport. They ONLY care about themselves and their salaries, perquisites, their jobs, and the jobs of their friends and relatives.
If the City of Bridgeport were to be run as a business and not a personal cash cow, the city would be in the black within a couple of years. But, unfortunately, most municipalities of all sizes are run by career politicians. They do it with YOUR money, not theirs. All they know how to do is get elected and re-elected, and to keep their cronies and relatives in office.
Just saw this post on your OIB website. Very interesting:
“Judge Boosts Award To Fired Secretary”
A New London judge says the town of Griswold should pay a former town hall secretary $1.3 million for her wrongful firing. The ruling in New London Superior Court comes after a jury ruled last August that Griswold (violated) the state’s whistleblower act and the right to free speech when it fired Andrea Charron in 2006. The jury awarded nearly $837,000 last year. On Monday, the judge added attorney fees, punitive damages and interest to bring the total award to $1.3 million. The town says it will appeal. The jury found that Charron’s letter to former First Selectwoman Anne Hatfield criticizing Hatfield following a fire that destroyed the old Town Hall was written in good faith. Charron, who was fired in 2006, was fired after sending the letter.–Associated Press
Hmm. Does this sound familiar. Could cost Bridgeport a boatload, especially if Jacobs takes this to trial.
I think Finch/Wood have barked up the wrong tree this time! This will be the ruin of you both. Mr Mayor, when the heat turns up, all these so called loyal supporters are going to turn on you faster than you can blink an eye. In the end you are going to be all alone. Decisions you made to help so many idiots who have claimed to have helped you and your administration for the better of Bridgeport. Mayor, these people are playing you like a fiddle to their advantage, not your’s or the city! This is really sad because if you can just put the politics aside and run this city like so many people believe you can, Bridgeport, and you would be so much better off. What a disapointment!
Mr Jacobs, All the best to you during this difficult time. You will prevail in the end. It is really sad when you have to experience these attacks for doing a good job!
Sorry for the misspelling and faulty grammar.
Yeah and he still donates to Finch’s campaign coffers.
The minorities in Bridgeport who keep leeches like Finch in office are doing so in order to keep their city jobs. There is a lot of economic pressure foisted upon them to “tow the line” or be fired or demoted, or have a relative fired or demoted. Jacob’s firing is just another way of perpetuating the same cronyism and neportism that has been in existence in Bridgeport since the Mandanici era. While Mandanici himself wasn’t directly involved, the minions who worked for him set up such methods of getting re-elected and it has continued through Bucci, Fabrizi, Ganim, and now Finch. Paoletta, who was Republican (2 terms) and Mary Moran (1 term) tried to do something. Paoletta was actually shot on the East Side (and had his life saved by an alert Chris Caruso). Mary Moran was a 1 term mayor who tried to have Bridgeport bankrupted to bring in the State of Connecticut and void the overpaid union contracts to no avail. The Democratic Party under the guidance of Mario Testa got her out of office with do-nothing, no-nothing, nice guy Tom Bucci who allowed Bridgeport to further wallow in economic decay, but allowed Mario and his minions to “earn” for themselves.
The key here is that there is NO ONE who can stand up to the Democratic Party machine (Nancy DiNardo, state chairman (Sal’s sister). If the Republicans could push themselves away from the bar stool and stop drinking for a month or 2 they might have a chance. There are a substantial disenfranchised voters who have had enough, but nowhere to go. And I’m a member of the Democratic Town Committee who got elected to start the dismemberment of the current rubber stamp system.
Hey does Bill Finch’s Buddy Sal DiNardo still have a tax bill of $12 million.
There is so much stated dissatifaction with Finch yet few people are willing to enter politcal races to unseat his support structure. I would have liked to see more challenges to council seats. The people of Bridgeport refuse to vote. Without more voter presence at the polls the current political influences will prevail.
I am also really disappointed in the CONN POST and Jim Buchanan. Not one word from either. That’s shameful.
A political win, I disagree. Maybe in the short term this appears to be a political win, but I assure you that this will be a case of “careful what you wish for”. Mayor Finch now has full control of hiring. He can say “yes” that’s the easy part. When he has to say “no” he has absolutely no cover. The requests will be coming left and right….most will be people that the Mayor will not need or want…no more Ralph Jacobs to blame.
The Mayor should have developed a working relationship with Ralph, it is possible. Ralph would have worked with the Mayor on most things and the Mayor could have had cover when he had to say no. This is going to be a very expensive situation. The money to defend this action in court can not be underestimated (let alone the energy that could be put to much better use). The cost of hiring to please. There is a cost when the hacks can’t get the job done–you either have to replace them or hire someone in addition to get the job done.
I just don’t see an up side to this for Mayor Finch at all. In the end it appears underhanded, petty, and the opposite of transparent. It does not appear to be in the public interest and I predict this will end up hurting the Mayor much more than it helps him politically and governmentally.
Come on Lennie…the people of Bridgeport have gotten what they illegally voted for, Bill Finch. Can you imagine the heads that would have rolled with Chris Caruso in charge? That’s why they stole the election with the (at the time) new balloting system. Even the Secretary of State refused to wait until a minor election to try out the new system, despite pleas to the contrary.
270 votes in that primary gave Bridgeport an unqualified, inept, manipulatible(sp) mayor. It was Stafstrom’s minions that pulled off the result using every underhanded way possible. I was at one of the polls in the rain when the machine couldn’t read 82 ballots. Those ballots were put aside until a replacement machine became available with no one guarding them. The result was a 41-41 split when the sense of the balloting was at least 60-40% for Caruso. This wasn’t admitted into evidence during the judicial appeal that didn’t succeed.
Enough is Enough already, but then again, some people just don’t care they go with the flow until it’s their jobs thats on the line, sickening, awful and disgusting!
who is accountable here? OMG – can the FBI get involved? Something had to stop this train wreck.
This is typical of the way the City of Bridgeport is run. Finch and the rest of the political hacks have already driven the city into the ground; now they’re pissing on it!