June 14, 2007

Zoppo criticizes Stortz on Federal Hill security issue

One thing about this little blog is that the news moves faster.
Here we are, only an hour after the mayor issued his press release calling for a police substation, and already the responses are starting to come in.
Councilor Ellen Zoppo, a Democrat running for mayor, said that is "unfortunate that the mayor is using this very serious issue, which has been festering for years, as a written press release, as opposed to having a constructive dialogue on this issue Tuesday night."
"Leadership is needed when the issue is at hand, not when you have a few days to compose a written press release," Zoppo said.
Zoppo, of course, is unhappy that Mayor William Stortz failed Tuesday to support a move to at least consider buying the 303 Main St. house that library directors had asked the city to purchase to start cleaning up the problems in that area of Federal Hill.
With Bristol Hospital asking for help in improving the area's security as well, some city officials, not just Zoppo, were surprised that the council did nothing at all at its meeting to lend a hand.

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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well isn't Zoppo the kettle calling the pot black. The Mayor composes a letter, to at least address this issue and you complain? You compose "SCRIPTS" for certain members of the council and thats okay? Just because the Mayor, Ward, Rimcowski and Nicastro vote not to purchase a house with our tax dollars does not mean they don't care about the issues on Federal Hill. Why should the city buy more property, to buy the problems? The city can address this serious issue without buying up properties. Sounds to me as if your toes got stepped on because the Mayor is speaking up without one of your "scripts."
For the cost of buying this so called house, the city can hire more police and address the issue better then becoming a landlord!
Finally after 2 years of sitting on the counciland agreeing with the Mayor, NOE you speak out against him? Yeah, election year is coming, now we all know the reason for your sudden speaking out.

P.McGlory

Anonymous said...

I think Ms. Zoppo needs to practice in front of a mirror repeating - "Don't throw a tantrum!"

Anonymous said...

How about reversing it? It appears the mayor can't do anything without having time to rehearse it or write it down. And the script thing is really getting tired - she prepared a written agenda and picked a really bad word to describe her procedure. Enough already - the silence from her future opponent Artie Ward on Tuesday night as to how he would work to solve problems on Main St. was deafening. He didn't even look up. Maybe he could have used a script since he clearly was at a loss to jump into the fray and offer solutions.