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Retired Superior Court Judge Carmen Lopez has become a stick in the eye to the Finch administration.

She has filed a complaint with the state claiming the Civil Service Commission violated Freedom Of Information laws when it dumped Ralph Jacobs as personnel director last month. Jacobs is appealing the termination in court. It’s the first time the city’s non-political personnel director has been canned and opens to door to Mayor Bill Finch to fill civil service slots with political supporters.

City Attorney Mark Anastasi has own take on freedom of information: freedom from information. We’ll see how this plays out. Lopez complaint to the FOI Commission:

Dear Commissioners

On August 21, 2009, the Civil Service Commission of the City of Bridgeport, held a meeting at Bridgeport City Hall. The purpose of the meeting involved the status of Mr. Ralph Jacobs, who was the Personnel Director of the City of Bridgeport.

Upon information and belief, the Civil Service Commission voted to enter Executive Session, for the purpose of discussing Mr. Jacobs performance, and possible dismissal. It entered Executive Session without giving Mr. Jacobs an opportunity to discuss the matter at an open meeting, as required by Section 1-200(6)(A) of the General Statutes. Following the Executive Session, the Commission voted, without comment, to dismiss the Personnel Director.

On September 1, 2009, the undersigned communicated via email with David Dunn, Bridgeport’s Acting Personnel Director. (see attached forwarded email)

I explained to Mr. Dunn that the minutes of the August 21, 2009 meeting were not available for inspection, and had not been posted on the City’s web site. This was, and to my knowledge remains, a violation of Section 1-225(a) of the General Statutes which reads:

“the votes of each member of any such public agency upon any issue before such public agency, shall be reduced to writing and made available for public inspection within forty eight hours and shall be recorded in the minutes of the session at which taken. Within seven days of the session to which such minutes refer, such minutes shall be available for public inspection and posted on such agency’s internet web site, if available….”

Mr. Dunn informed me that the minutes “are being prepared,” and asked that I request a copy, “in writing.” I expressed to him my belief that an email is “a writing” and satisfies the requirements of Section 1-212(a)of the General Statutes, which requires a person to apply for a copy of a public record “in writing.”

In addition, Mr. Dunn informed me that the City Attorney would review the minutes before they were made public. The taking of minutes would seem to be a function of the Commission’s secretary or Clerk, and not the City Attorney.

To date, I have received no response from Mr. Dunn, or from the Office of the City Attorney concerning my request for copies of any minutes which may have been prepared, despite a second communication on September 10, 2009. (see attached forwarded email.)

I am therefore requesting that the City of Bridgeport be found in violation of the Freedom of Information Act, due to its failure to compile, post, and make available, minutes of the August 21, 2009 Civil Service Commission meeting.

I also believe that there has been a violation of the Act, upon information and belief, because the Executive Session was illegal, and the public should not have been excluded.

Furthermore, requesting a document from the City of Bridgeport via email is a “writing” as that term is used in the applicable statute.

I believe that some or all of the above referenced violations of the FOI Act were committed without ‘reasonable grounds’ in violation of Section 1-206(b)(2) of the General Statutes.

I therefore request that a civil penalty be imposed.

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Gee, could that really happen? One third of votes that  City Council candidates Lydia Martinez and Manny Ayala received on Tuesday’s Democratic primary came as a result of absentee ballots.

That doesn’t happen in Bridgeport, does it?

It has me thinking, and that’s never a good thing, about an autumn day in 1991 when a young Joe Ganim, Democratic candidate for mayor, expressed concern about political operatives for Republican Mayor Mary Moran running up an absentee ballot count.

“I’m worried about them cheating,” Ganim told a wise old political hand who had a quick reply.

“Don’t worry, Joe, all the cheaters are working for you.”

(Check out my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)

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Superintendent of Schools John Ramos says don’t listen to the media, ignore those blogs! Well, since I’m in a good mood today and in the spirit of fairness and goodwill I present for your reading pleasure the school chief’s explanation of how he missed $2 million that could have been spent on the kids. Here ya go, without sarcastic rejoinder…

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT

The Budget Surplus

Good Afternoon. Last week we shared with the Board of Education the fact that the budget balance for ‘08-’09 was $2 million higher than expected. In what was a highly complex budget year, the reasons for this development are multiple and include culpability on the part of both us, the Board of Education, and the city. Once this information became evident to us, we immediately brought it to the attention of the elected Board of Education and the public. Further, we are continuing to salvage whatever portion of this surplus that we can, and working to ensure that any missteps are not repeated. I’m sharing this with you at this time so you will have heard it directly from me. I urge you not to draw your conclusions from the media or local blog. If you have questions, please call me. Most of us work hard. We need every dollar that we fight for. The additional surplus is painful, but we will continue to fight on in every venue for our scholars.

Sincerely,

Dr. John J. Ramos, Sr., Ed.D., Superintendent

Bridgeport Public Schools

 

MEMO EXPLAINING THE BUDGET SURPLUS

MEMORANDUM

To: John J. Ramos, Sr., Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools

PC: Board of Education Members

Robert Henry, Chief of Staff

From: Julio Molleda, Director of Finance & Business Services

RE: FY08-09 Bridgeport Public Schools Operating Budget Report

 

 

Date: September 9, 2009

The information presented below intends to provide additional factors contributing to the increased surplus.

As of 7/24/09, a modified budget surplus of $2,370,664 was being projected (see attached budget report). As of 9/4/09 and after all outstanding purchase orders were closed and year-end accruals were finally posted, a modified budget surplus of $4,571,922 resulted (budget report also enclosed). This surplus is $2,071,922 over the BOE committed surplus of $2,500,000 to assist the City in addressing the projected fiscal deficit.

Below is a summarization of variances by major account categories:

$ 546,115 In planning for fiscal year 09-10 MUNIS implementation the City stated that the payroll for July 10, ‘09 would be charged 100% to fiscal year 08-09 to allow for a “as clean as possible” transition into the MUNIS system; however, the reversal of this decision by the City generated the additional surplus by charging three days of salary to the fiscal year 09-10.

$ 123,000 Unanticipated Special Education Revenues received during July and August and crediting the out-of – district tuition line.

$ 147,646 Year-end pre-buys moved to FY09-10 as a result of vendors not being able to deliver goods or services together services with invoices prior to June 30, 2009 as required by the City related to the MUNIS system implementation. In prior years, goods needed to be encumbered by 6/30 and merchandise could be received and paid against the open purchase order once the goods had been received. Services had to be rendered by 6/30 but invoices could be processed till the end of mid August.

 

$ 363,016 Special Education Transportation savings and gasoline.

$1,028,670 Facilities Maintenance and Repairs including Custodial Supplies, Utilities, Landscaping Services, HVAC Equipment, Maintenance & Repairs, etc. The entering and approval of invoices into the financial system is centralized under the Accounts Payable function in City Finance. The experienced staff turnover due to City wide lay-offs and the delay in replacing positions, negatively impacted the Department’s ability to perform routine financial functions. Some past-due invoices in Utilities and Cleaning supplies have been incorporated in this latest forecast. The process of identifying other past due invoices by the Facilities Department continue at the present time.

In Summary, control over some basic financial operations functions residing in City Departments does not necessarily address the operating needs of the school system. MJLM report addressed, among several recommendations, the need of a single line budget item approval by City Council that was not adopted by the Education Committee of the City Council even though this recommendation was approved in full by both the BOE and the City Council in previous meetings. Some of these functions, like the posting of payrolls, journal entries, purchase order creation, etc. are examples of items currently handled by City Finance.

Some of the current procurement issues deal with the lack of approval for “standing” orders also known as “blanket” purchase orders. This means that individual lines have to be entered in the requisition stretching limited personnel resources and delaying the creation of purchase orders and therefore the delivery of goods and services on a timely manner. It is not uncommon in the Education field to have purchase orders with multiple lines.

Regarding the Internal Service Fund, cost projections were not shared with our Department during Budget Development despite our request. Attached please find copy of City Ordinance regarding the Internal Service Fund. Attached please find FY08-09 and FY09-10 Summary information regarding the Internal Service Fund. Please note that the projected expenditures FY 09-10 are fully funded by our requested increase of 6.5% and meets the $40 million obligation.

All the above illustrate the manner in which the financial management of the BOE affairs are continuously handicapped in the performance of its duties, which in most school districts is a given. Furthermore, this was an unusual year in which we were first approached regarding a $7 million dollar contribution to the city to assist in eliminating the larger deficit of $20 million. This continued to manifest throughout the year causing employee lay offs, furloughs and bumping of staff into positions that required training and upgrading of skills.

 (Check out my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)

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Mayor Bill Finch and city labor representatives are moving closer to resolving the pay dispute between city school nurses and  Superintendent of Schools John Ramos. (See prior commentary for details.)

Nurses had worked out an agreement that called for zero pay increases for four years in exchange for summers off with a 52-week pay period. Ramos rationalized he didn’t have to pay them this summer.

Finch on Thursday urged Ramos to make good on the deal and it appears Ramos has told his people to implement the pay action. As a result nurses are expected to hear officially in a letter to be distributed on Monday the process for making good on the pay. Stay tuned.

(Check out my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)

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Hey, does anyone care that Democratic primaries in four City Council districts will take place in less than one week? Yup, mark your calendars, Sept. 15. Polls open at 6 a.m.

What will the turnout be? Probably 10 percent, maybe a little more. Me, I love voting. It’s a great chance to get even, or actually support a candidate you like. Primaries are strange birds. They’re all about identifying friends and dragging them to the polls. “What do you mean you’re getting a pedicure! I need your vote.”

Sometimes a candidate can have more support going into primary day than a challenger but lose because of a stinky get-out-the-vote operation.  So lots of phones will be ringing in the next few days from candidates dialing for votes. And who knows, maybe a few votes out of St. Michael’s Cemetery? Nah, that doesn’t happen in city elections.

Bridgeport has 10 City Council districts with two members per district. A quick recap of the candidates:

District 135, North End, Whiskey Hill: Peter Clarke and Mary McBride-Lee will challenge incumbents Warren Blunt and Richard Bonney. Isa Mujahid is also in the hunt running solo.

District 136, the Hollow, portion of Noth End and East Side: Mark Trojanowski, running solo, will take on incumbents Angel DePara and Carlos Silva.

District 137, East Side: Maria Valle and Christina Ayala versus endorsed candidates Lydia Martinez and Manny Ayala. Valle is an incumbent City Council member who was dumped by Democratic Town Committee members.

District 138, Upper East Side: Andy Fardy and Ann Barney are taking on incumbents Bob Curwen and Rich Paoletto. So too James Morton and Tyreke Bird. Endorsed candidates listed on the top line, followed by Fardy and Barney and then Morton and Bird.

(Check out my daily blog at www.onlyinbridgeport.com)