The tight-fisted former chairman of the city's powerful Board of Finance, John Letizia, said Monday he's interested in running for city treasurer this year.
I phoned Letizia this afternoon to find out if the rumors were true -- going to the source is almost always the best avenue -- and found, a bit to my surprise, that they were.
Letizia said he told city Democratic Party Chairman Dean Kilbourne on Thursday that he's interested in the party's backing to take over the part-time treasurer's slot that Patti Ewen is giving up this year.
"I've always had an interest in it," said Letizia, one of the most prominent accountants in the area.
Letizia led the finance board for about five years in the 1990s, and served on it much longer, guiding the panel with a passion for holding down spending and a wariness of the new projects and programs that various politicians pursued.
He stepped down after then-city Councilor Gerard Couture threatened to punch him in the midst of some long-forgotten funding battle. Letizia said he didn't like the personal attacks he suffered during his stint on the finance panel.
But he's remained community-minded, holding the Greater Bristol Chamber of Commerce's top volunteer position and helping the Bristol Boys and Girls Club for many years, among others.
Letizia is well-known by the political community and at this point is the only candidate from either party to express interest in succeeding Ewen.
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