Well, well and more wells. Effen yew thought the silly season was gonna be restricted to the time we git closer to summer, yew were totally wrong. It seems the silly season – what we call the campaign around here – will begin way early, and will have what we thought: a three-way race come Hades or the flood. That was made abundantly clear when Deb Collins did what had been rumored around the berg for at least three or four weeks. She’s makin’ a run for it.
This is very interesting. Sammy Bluejay jest a couple weeks before had said that he thought the three factions that make up the ruling party in this berg — the Picard, Borer and Morrissey factions – would be at peace for this go-round. The thought was the Morrissey/Borer was so taken apart in 2017, not only with the loss to Rossi, who is supported by the Picard faction, but then got shelled in the Town Committee primary a few month later in 2018.
But like it said to Sammy then, that was then and this is now. Things around here don’t last that long, and whilst one or t’other faction might concede defeat on the short term, they somehow git their dobbers up and live to fight another day. In this case this means that Collins will now try to put together a campaign to git as many town committee votes as she can.
I forgit what the threshold is, but I figger that once the town committee goes for Rossi, Collins is gonna hafta git signatures on a petition – always an easy thing – and put herself on the primary ballot. Then the fun can really begin. But, we hafta say, we weren’t disappointed by Collins last week when she made her announcement.
Neither she nor the mayor are ones for holding back their comments or their barbs. Both are known for having tongues that are on the acidic side, and they use them rather perntedly. It’ll be very interesting how this kind of plays out.
Ed O’Brien, meanwhile, is gonna mount his own independent campaign, and he really doesn’t like herroner. He hasn’t held back his own barbs concerning her, and she hasn’t exactly been a box of chocolates to him. With three candidates in the race, and none of them really havin’ much respeck for t’other it’s gonna be a rather salty campaign, methinks,
As Bette Davis said, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
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And as if that ain’t all, now we have the news that the city was in the black by 3 million kopecks in the last audit, and both herronner and Ed O’Brien are tryin’ to take credit for the surprise. How in heck does that work?
Tennyrate, right on cue the two got entangled in a war of words and had an exchange that just warmed the cockles of our heart. We get a kick outta these two. Don’t think this is over, we got a feeling that the politicos in the City Council and the Thoid Floor and the former administration are gonna have much, much more to say about this news.
We, on the other hand, are jest happy that for the foist time in more years than we wanna count, the city wrote its books in something other than red. The knock on it now is that it is because of the state putting in the money that was promised. Well, yeah. So, I guess the legitimacy of the surplus is what is in question.
What we hafta remember is that effen the state came through with its funding like it was supposed to, wouldn’t that be considered part of the budget. Why is this contribution that was planned any different? We’re jest askin’ not tryin’ to git involved in the back-and-forth
Speakin’ of the budget, we’re getting very close to the new budget being presented. I would think within the next week or two a public notice is expected to go out and the City Council will be summoned to its special session so that Mayor Rossi can present her second budget. One thinks the entire thing will be a rather moot pernt. With the MARB (Municipal Accountability Review Board) having all but veto power on the spending plan, and with all we know about the five-year plan that it pushed, there will be a tax increase, and austerity budget.
The council should have a very easy time with this legislation as it will have very little input as to how it all comes out. One wonders what the attendance will be at this year’s study sessions.
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The wag was in here jest now and saw that the state is gonna kickoff some folderol about early voting. Y’know it is SUCH a big deal, cuz we hafta make sure everybody votes. Sorry, like the wag I ain’t buyin’ it. This whole “early voting” thing is just a way to have more fraud.
Methinks the wag had it right when he posited this query: Does early voting mean that we won’t haft extend voting hours in a certain Bridgeport polling place anymore because of the long lines that happened to show up after buses pulled in? We won’t have the lines anymore cuz the people on those buses will just get a form.
If voting is supposed to be such a privilege, why are we treating it like a right? That’s Cobina’s question. If they don’t show an ID, they shouldn’t be allowed to vote. It’s that simple. Of course, with the current leadership here and elsewhere, they’re gonna do anything to maintain the status quo. It’s jest too bad local politicos are involved in the fraud of this and other attempts to poison the voting well.
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Whilst all that is going on, Nelly Nuthatch has let it be known that the Charter Revisions Commish has all but finished its review of the charter and is in the process of tweaking its recommendations. The commish chairman, who is Ed Granfield, sent in an update this week, and yew can read it elsewhere. The long and short of it is, the report of the commission ain’t required until July, but this group has worked its collective tail off.
It will be interesting to see what happens once the City Council gits the report. This group has looked at every aspeck of the charter, has sliced and diced every paragraph, and has come up with what are rumored to be some very interesting proposals. I know one proposal, term limits, is nixed by the state. So, that ain’t gonna go anywhere unfortunately. We’ve seen even in city government after a while people get bored with the positions, but still are loathe to give ‘me up.
Still, it’s nice to know that one group in the city has really done outstanding work throughout the more than year-long time it’s been operating. Not many groups can say that.
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As far as the plan by the governor to enact tolls in the state: does anyone really believe him? He lied about it, so why should we believe anything he sez about anything else for the rest of his term?
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With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this week till next, mitt luff und kizzes,