Pundits Turner, Ugly, Rawls-Ivy.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office faces a dilemma in the wake of Tuesday’s elections. That dilemma begins with the letter B.
As in “Bridgeport.”
The office prosecuted Joe Ganim when he was mayor of Bridgeport, sending him to jail for seven years for taking $500,000 in kickbacks. Since then the office has created a special unit to investigate corrupt officials.
This week Joe Ganim was elected mayor of Bridgeport again.
Meanwhile, the office has promised to put violent gangbangers in jail. It has a special program dedicated to the effect called Project Longevity.
It alleges Project Longevity has slashed violent crime in New Haven. But violent crime out of control in Bridgeport. Friday it was reported that shootings are up a full 200 percent this year in Bridgeport—even though the U.S. attorney has its Project Longevity program running there.
The dilemma for the feds: Do they focus on keeping watch on Ganim, whom many believe has never really owned up to his crimes, so he doesn’t steal from the people again? Or does it become a full-fledged partner with Ganim, trust him with money and other resources, work closely alongside him, to try to get that gang violence under control?
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has a similar dilemma. He and Ganim are both Democrats. But Malloy didn’t endorse Ganim in this year’s campaign. Malloy appears to be among those who believe Ganim never really owned up to his crimes. Meanwhile, Malloy has promised to help cities. Bridgeport is Connecticut’s largest city.
In making painful choices about where to send limited taxpayer money, should Malloy trust Ganim with state dollars to address Bridgeport’s challenges?
That letter‑B dilemma was a topic on the weekly news-in-review “Pundit Friday” segment on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven.”
The show’s regular pundits — Babz Rawls-Ivy of the Inner-City News, Michelle Turner of WSHU, Joe Ugly of Ugly Radio, all of whom also host shows on WNHH — reached a clear consensus: Ganim is the mayor. The people elected him. Suck it up, governor. Suck it up, feds. Ganim did his time. You have to work with him.
The pundits also agreed that the police department was right to can an experimental effort to stem East Rock neighborhood car break-ins, which involved officers removing valuable items from unlocked cars and leaving notes behind for owners to retrieve them from the police station. Cops rolled out the program out of frustration that people ignore warnings not to leave valuables in full view in their cars.
“Let the people get their stuff stolen!” Raws-Ivy suggested, as the best way to teach them the lesson. Turner noted that these kinds of efforts dont’ take place in Newhallville.
The pundits took on the latest brouhaha at the Board of Education: Because of a law-drafting error, the newly hybrid board (part elected, part appointed) will have too many members when it is seated in January. The panel did not agree with a suggestion that the Board of Alders pass a law to expand the board’s size from seven to eight members just for 2016 (after which two appointed members’ terms will run out). Rawls-Ivy suggested that Mayor Toni Harp “is going to have to make a hard decision” and “sit down” a member to convince him or her to resign; Turner agreed. Ugly called on a “sleeping” longstanding member of the board to step forward and simply resign for the greater good. “There’s always a sleeper on the board,” Ugly argued.
Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full episode.
I DID NOT announce that I would not vote for an extension of the Superintendent's contract. I said that with the information I have now, I would not be inclined to do so, but I expect that if I am to vote on the extension, I will have by then more information with which to make such a decision. -- Darnell Goldson