I'll save the detail for a news story, but I want to get on here as quickly as I can that city Councilor Art Ward denied pension considerations played any part in his decision to run for mayor.
When I read the text of Democratic mayoral nominee Ellen Zoppo's press release to Ward over the phone, he took a deep breath at the end.
"Wow," Ward said. "Is this desperation? My goodness gracious."
"This is the first time I've ever heard of the statute" that would bolster his state veterans counselor pension if he wins the mayor's office, Ward said. He said that in his talks with personnel officers "that was never, ever mentioned."
He said, though, that his pension wouldn't double because he makes more than $60,000 now and the mayor's pay is about $100,000 in the coming year.
Ward is already entitled to the medical benefits that retired state employees get because he is vested as a state worker after a decade working with veterans, he said.
"If my motivation was the quality of life for Art Ward, I would have run for mayor a long time ago, like my sixth year" as a councilor instead of his 14th year, Ward said.
He said his interest is purely in the quality of life for all of Bristol families, including his own and Zoppo's.
Ward also, again, denied any role in the leak of emails that showed city department heads complaining about Zoppo's treatment of them. He said he had absolutely nothing to do with the leaks.
Instead of complaining about them, Ward said, Zoppo "needs to, as she suggested to the mayor, look in the mirror."
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
34 comments:
I should say here, to be totally clear, that the email about Francine Petosa and the 2005 letter from the five department heads were sent to me anonymously. If I had reason to think Ward or his campaign was behind them, that would have been the story I would have written -- because it's a better story.
Steve, why did you author Art's response. Isn't he capable? The reason that both he and Couture waited to run for the Mayor's seat is that they both knew and still know that Nicastro would have destroyed them. Couture was a train wreck for this city and Art was right there with him. Now Art want's his chance to finish the mess that Couture started. Good lord Art show some spine and author your own response. What a joke!
Steve, How come Craig Minor claims to know when the emails were sent? Maybe they came from ELLEN's camp, to make people think Art's playing dirty? Or maybe they're just from someone who's fed up with the way she treats people.
Steve, Bristol is lucky to have someone like you, a man with intelligence, guts and integrity, covering the political scene. Too bad the rest of the city doesn't get such attention. The foibles at the police department come to mind.
Steve. You've said you don't get extra pay for doing this blog. Why then, do you put yourself through it, getting slammed in the process? I doubt it's to give your thick skin a workout.
It must be hard to deal with all these jokers, especially after having to write a hard-hitting story. On behalf of Bristol, thank you for doing it.
When is Zoppo going to get it, no one likes her it's as simple as that.
I don't think Mr. Ward is behind this at all.
Steve, you are a true watchdog, let freedom of the press ring!
Hello? Just because Ward said the emails didn't come from him or his campaign doesn't mean they didn't. Who else but an Art Ward supporter would leak to Steve these emails? Common sense, people.
Steve, you say you don't believe Ward or his campaign was behind these emails? Are you serious? Maybe not Ward himself, even though he was dumb enough to get caught DUI I don't think he'd be foolish enough to give these emails personally, but be realistic, obviously someone close to his campaign leaked these.
And where is that Ward DUI court article, Steve? You have enough time to gather leaked emails and complaints and guide Ward through his response to Ellen but you can't get an archived article from July 1997 that gives more insight into the guy's character than anything else out there.
I do not have easy access to the DUI story. To get it, I would need to go to the library and do the microfilm thing. I don't have time. If someone wants to get it, copy it and provide it to me, I'll post it here. I remember it was an interesting story.
As to who leaked the Petosa email and the "Fab 5" letter, I have no idea. Surely it was someone who doesn't like Zoppo. But that doesn't make it a campaign dirty trick by Ward or his backers.
If someone has evidence, let's see it.
Steve, maybe you can get Ms. Petosa to handle the microfilm archive thing for you at the library. Since you have showed everyone how unfairly she was treated, she should only be too happy help you get the truth out there.
Of course Steve you can pay for the Hartford Courant article online and quote parts of it here without betraying copyright. I'm sure the Press gives you a research fund to use.
Actually, I don't trust the Courant's story on the arrest. I remember we had an excellent one. I don't know what they had, if anything. I trust ours, on this one anyway.
I don't have time to do the research. I only work 40 hours a week, believe it or not.
Ellen is attacking Art based on information that was leaked to the press regarding her inability to work with department heads. It isn't Art's fault she is lacking in people skills and it isn't Art's fault that Ellen has created so many enemies.
The person that gave the emails to Steve could be from the Johnson camp trying to eliminate Ellen as competition. The possibilites are endless, however it doesn't change the fact that these things really did happen. Ellen's just unhappy that the public found out about it.
Doesn't the Bristol Press have a staff that can get an article for you from it's archive? I find it hard to believe that a newspaper's head political reporter can't easily get an article from it's own archive.
If not, how much time would it take? You go to the library, tell the nice people there which dates you want, and they bring them to you. While you are waiting you can continue blogging and editing your day's stories. While you're there perhaps you can even get Ms. Petosa to comment on her ordeal and see if she has recovered from the trauma Ellen allegedly inflicted on her.
The letters came from someone who does not like Zoppo and they are a Johnson supporter! Ellen needs to stop obsessing about Ward, get over it, grow up and realize that your character for vindicitveness, backstabbing and being just plain rude is coming back to bite you in the butt. Please someone, Steve, anyone dispell the rumor that Public Works budget, which Ellen chaired, is over $300,000 in debt.
I heard this week at city hall that the public works budget has been taking money from other accounts to pay for overtime!! If this it true how the heck to you budget a city? Zoppo is clearly not the person to lead this city. I know first hand how rude and condscending she can be. By her coming out in the paper today stating its "all Ward" are lies!
Steve Collins FOI the emails and the emails are from Ellen - not made up, but true colors of Ellen.
So deal with it Ellen! Stop your poor me. Stop finger pointing. Stop crying my signs were taken and grow up!!
City Haller!!!
So Art's already vested, so it isn't lifetime health insurance he's looking for, already has it.
Makes $60K, so the difference between that and the Mayor's salary is only $40K, give or take, so he isn't doubling his salary.
He didn't know it, but he can contribute to his State pension. He'd be smart to do so.
Ellen needs to do her research before she fires her gun. Typical Ellen, Ready, Fire, Aim.
Within an hour of the "Zoppo Blast" this blog contains a response from Ward initiated by Collins, yet all those juicey pieces about Ellen's personel problems went hours and days without a response. Was Ellen given immediate opportunities to respond to those pieces? If yes I'm surprised Ellen wouldn't take advanatage of the opportunty to respond.
With the Petosa letter, I sent a copy to Ellen at 12:33 on Thursday and posted the first draft of a story shortly before 2 o'clock, almost an hour and a half later. As soon as Ellen responded, about 3:30, I posted her answer. When she responded in more detail a couple of hours later, I posted the entire response immediately.
With the "Fab 4" letter, I sent her a copy at 8:31 in the morning on Tuesday, Aug. 21. She wrote back to me at 11:08 with a detailed response, all of which ran in the paper and was posted on this blog. I also took her advice about some further calls to make about it, which helped clarify the letter. I also called all five signers, four of whom said they haven't had subsequent problems with Ellen. I can't tell what time I posted the initial blog entry that same day, but by 10 in the morning I had already begun posting the comments of the department heads.
So it's an easily proveable lie to say that Ellen didn't get a chance to respond for "hours and days."
In fact, I asked her for a response before anything was posted even on this blog -- and nothing was printed in the paper without her in-depth response to it.
I am a fair journalist.
By the way, I did not "author" Ward's response today. I called him after he didn't respond to an email. It turned out that his home and office computers were both not working so he had no idea Zoppo had issued anything until I phoned him because I was desperate to get a response so I could go home for the day.
I wrote up his answer, as I do all the time, with lots of people. It's called journalism.
Both these candidates are petty, immature and quite nauseating.
Vote for Ken Johnson.
One more answer and then I'm done for today: The Press does not have any "archives" for 1997. Nor is there is staff to do any research for reporters. We do the best we can, but I think anyone who's looking at this blog and the paper can see that I'm hard-pressed to get everything done that I'm doing in the time I have.
The fact of the DUI that Ward got is well known in political circles, certainly among readers of this blog. I think I remember some juicy details, but I don't trust my memory for something as important as this. And I do not have the time to go find the old story in the microfilm at the library. To do that would mean not writing any sort of primary story for Sunday or Monday's papers. I know what duty requires of me -- and the research some of you want is not it. Sorry.
I can't believe everyone is talking about this junk. All this effort, all for nothing. No attention to the real issues. I don't know who is responsible for these things, I don't care.
But I do know that Art Ward dodged having a debate, and I am very disappointed in him for that. Debates are an essential part of democracy, and our system relies on debates to get a true sense about candidates, both in primaries and afterward for the general election.
I really am sick of all this name calling and innuendo and focus on personal things. There are always two sides to these stories and I don't think what we are seeing about Zoppo's personality or Ward's past mistakes is fair or useful. Reading press releases or websites about their positions and goals isn't very useful. But a debate is definitely something useful, and it's a shame we are not getting it before the primary. That failure falls squarely on Art Ward, I'm sorry to say.
What? No research department at the Press? I suppose you'll claim you've no aides fanning you while you work, Steve, bringing you tasty snacks to sustain you and freshening your Diet Pepsis?
Anyone who ever set foot in the Bristol Press newsroom knows it's a lap of luxury. God, Steve, why are you trying to hide all that?
Does the Bristol Press have any staff anymore, beyond a few reporters and ad reps struggling to maintain a presence in the Mum City?
A friend of mine used to work there, until recently. A very competent librarian (who was restricted to part-time hours and had to spend her time binding all the issues and getting bridal photos and the like, never doing any actual research) retired this year. The paper shipped editors to New Britain, where they now put the paper together (sort of) and there is only one editor in the office besides with any regularity. One of two photographers quit, and wasn't replaced. Same for the person who used to cover the school district. I think Steve and some other reporter have to do that now, too, on top of politics and everything else. The old timers who used to work in the back at the Press were fired or shipped to New Britain. On the business side, the classified ad staff, the graphics people and other business employees, some of them VERY long term (including my friend), also shown the door, my friend tells me. Steve probably won't post this, but it's true.
So for those of you who wonder why Steve isn't out there doing research, I say, get a clue! He probably has to buy his own office supplies.
Truth be told, the real reason Steve hasn't done anything about the drunk driving story is that he's working hard to get Art Ward into office.
Steve is going to sell lots of papers with stories about Art as Mayor. In fact, I predict that should Art become Mayor, Steve will suddenly RUSH to the archives
and Front Page story will turn Art's DUI into exposee. Steve, I think you're saving that story in the event that Art becomes Mayor as your opportunity to claim that YOU "brought down" the Mayor of Bristol.
Oooh, someone's onto me.
I'm going to win a Pulitzer by holding on to a 10-year-old story that's already been fully reported and then spring it on my readers after Ward wins so that he'll have to resign over a crime most people know he committed.
Makes sense to me.
Sounds as if the whole Zoppo campaign is getting desperate and lashing out at even you steve. Talk at the library is if Ellen gets in she si going to try and fire Francine. Ellen is a joke she has no clue on to manage personal or for that fact communicate in positive ways.
This whole personal attack on dept. heads and now on Ward has got to stop. Zoppo needs to mature, enough of the mud throwing Ellen.
K.C.
I can not help but wander back to the days when rome burnt while nero fiddled .
Bristol hasn't recovered from the couture/ward joint mayorship which fueled the fire , and ward has opposed all efforts to address the flames .
I look forWARD to the election to see if the voters want the fire to be addressed or if they chose to let bristol burn to the ground .
Lets put it this way, Ellen is going around making so many promises, which she won't be able to fulfill, just to get votes, that Bristol and its taxpayers will regret for years to come if she gets in.
There is a third choice!
what's the third choice? move out of town?
This does seem like desperation to me on behalf of Ellen.
As for Ward's drinking problems, the entire city knows about it and its old news.
Again, is the Democratic party in Bristol on the verge of an implosion?
I don't consider Ken Johnson a choice yet. He hasn't done anything but repeat the ideas that others have had before him - hasn't brought anything new to the table.
He also should have stayed out of the fights between Art and Ellen and he DEFINATELY should have stayed clear of Mocabee.
He will need to make some major changes in his campaigning before I consider him a choice.
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