Twenty months after his last term ran out, the city’s economic development director will finally get his shot at reappointment Tuesday.
But it remains unclear whether the City Council will back another four-year term for Jonathan Rosenthal, who has held the job since 1994.
Mayor Art Ward said he intends to bring Rosenthal’s appointment to the council on Tuesday but isn’t ready to say whether he will support another stint in the position for the embattled director.
“I’m still in the process of evaluating” the job that Rosenthal has done over the years, Ward said.
“I don’t have all the answers to all the questions at this time,” Ward said, adding that he’s casting a wide net to find out what he should do.
At least two city councilors said privately they plan to vote against Rosenthal’s reappointment and some others profess to be unsure. Only two have said privately that they’ll definitely vote for Rosenthal.
Mayor William Stortz, who served a single term from 2005 until last month, never sought Rosenthal’s reappointment or his replacement.
Stortz simply left the development director dangling, despite repeated protests from then-council member Ward that action should be taken one way or another.
A review of the emails that went back and forth between Stortz and Rosenthal through those two years shows an almost staggering lack of real communication between the pair. They spoke mostly through terse email comments or at meetings where their strained relations sometimes became comical.
Rosenthal said he’s speaking with council members about the appointment and hoping that a majority will support him.
He said that people should not draw conclusions about his performance or ability on the basis of timetables for projects that a mayor or the city attorney could delay through inaction.
Some of those questioning Rosenthal wonder why the new industrial park beside the former Superior Electric factory on Middle Street is taking so long to complete. Rosenthal is in charge of the project.
But Jack Driscoll, a banker and long-time Bristol Development Authority commissioner, said recently that he’s convinced the BDA has proceeded as quickly as possible on the project.
Ward said he intends to speak with Rosenthal about the industrial park and about prospective new businesses.
In the emails that Rosenthal sent to Stortz, there are many references to businesses interested in buying the mall or moving to town. Some of them almost beg the mayor to act on the requests, but there is rarely any indication of what Stortz did in response.
Ward said that he believes that Rosenthal put in a dozen years working for two mayors without much of a hitch and only ran into trouble when Stortz took office. He said he’s trying to determine whether Rosenthal’s problems the past two years were a result of “a lack of direction” from the top or possibly restrictions put on his ability to do his job.
Ward said that he anticipates a close vote by the council on Rosenthal’s appointment.
If the council doesn’t back Rosenthal, it’s not certain what will happen.
Ward said it would create “another interesting” scenario because Rosenthal is in a union and replacing him can apparently only be done for cause.
“In all probability, Mr. Rosenthal would continue to be occupying the office” even if the vote goes against him, Ward said, at least until lawyers and personnel officials can figure out what should happen.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
20 comments:
If Rosenthal had no problem before Stortz, why was he "thrown out" of meetings at the state level during the Couture administration?
Maybe he got but didn't follow direction from Stortz, who chose not to air the citys dirty linen and Rosenthals failures in public.
How could Rosenthal "lose" legal documents and then blame the city attorneys for teh delay?
How could Rosenthal approve a $4999.00 purchase order, in violation of city policy, and not just one time?
How can Rosenthal justify his continually showing up late at meetings and embarassing the city?
As far as the Mall goes, the simple facts are that the city entered into an Assistance Agreement with the State, to do certain things relative to the Mall Site.
Selling to a developer would have been in violation of that agreement: discussions would not have been in good faith
Rosenthal knew that, knows that, but as usual, he is misdirecting blame and responsibility.
Why was the Streetscape such a legal and financial fiasco, which took the Corporation Counsel many many hours to rectify, and it still isn't complete.
Maybe the media should do more research.
Obviously Ward isn't talking and listening to all the people involved.
Bill, You had your chance to tell the city why Rosenthal shouldn't be reappointed. You chose to say nothing. Don't do it now anonymously.
the interesting part is that Ward is acting like a bystander, like he is just one of seven on the Council instead of showing leadership and trying to solve the problem. Make the guy an offer and let's move on. Don't sit around and wait for the City Council to vote him down and then be left with a mess.
Just read in todays press that there is a major screwup at the middle street project, again.
Who is Rosenthal going to blame this time?
That is his project, isn't it?
I don't know if Stortz wrote the comment, but at City Hall, most people are aware of most of these issues, and frankly, even more. It could have been any number of city workers
City Hall does know more than is let on, for obvious reasons.
With all the delays and more than likely addtional costs and overruns on the Middle Street project, I would belive that there is enough documentation to make a case.
Hope Ward follows up on this boondoggle.
Art is doing the right thing by not talking about his potential vote before it happens. It's a personnel issue. He isn't going to tell the press before it happens. It wouldn't be right.
Rosenthal: Greeter at Wal-Mart
Rosenthal is a union member in an appointed position. (figure that one out) Even if he does not get re-appointed, he does not get shown the door. He will probably get a windfall to negotiate him out of his position at the taxpayers’ expense. Mayor Ward and the council will roll over just to get rid of him.
Ask any Fire Department member about the Streetscape and the design and how it affects their ability to set up the Tower.
Did BDA (Rosenthal) include the Fire Department in the design considerations?
Did Rosenthal design this project or was it done by a consultant hired by the city? If the fire department's needs were not taken into account, I can only wonder why the fire department didn't express its concerns at any of the many, many, many meetings on this project.
My point is that I do not believe that Rosenthal included other pertinent departments in the design process.
Probably another of his Faux Pas.
Typical of the way he operates
The Fire Department was most definitely taken into consideration. Just look at the time sheets filed by the consultant. The Fire Department should get their own act together and do some longterm facility planning before they start blaming other agencies for the problems with their site.
Did Jonathan post his response just before he went home?
His fate - death and taxes like the rest of us.
If Stortz had such a problem with Mr. Rosenthal then it was his responsibility to do something about it. He could have chose not to reappoint him close to 2 years ago and dealt with any Union issues back then but instead he did nothing but continually serve to hinder Jonathan's ability to do his job & the BDA's efforts in general, micro managed the process, created a work around in the form of the BDDC and in the end left the whole issue for Mayor Ward to resolve. Stortz in this case showed nothing but poor management and lack of courage to make a decision.
Who were the last two City Council liasions to the Fire Board?
12-6 4:48
Stortz did make a decision, he did not reappoint Rosenthal.
No one as of yet has shown where he hindered Rosenthal in doing his job, on Middle Street, or other Economic Development.
BDDC was a business like approach, one endorsed by the State.
Ironic that Couture (and Ward) did not turn the Mall over to Rosenthal, but kept it under their control. Stortz, with the BDDC, made the effort more formal and more independent of politics.
I do not see it being left for Ward: the BDDC is underway and has momentum, and all Artie has to do is bring up Rosenthals name.
Of course, if it gets shot down, then the fun begins.
Todays Courant story where state is looking into unbid contracts in Hartford.
Is Bristol far behind?
December 7, 2007 8:56 PM
"Stortz did make a decision, he did not reappoint Rosenthal."
If you want to call doing nothing a decision then Bill's your man. All talk no action! Instead Bill complained about Jonathan instead of getting rid of him. He could have dealt with the Union issue and have been done with it. That's leadership. Not doing anything and leaving it for the next Mayor to deal with shows just what a poor manager Bill was. Yes there would have been a cost to dealing with the issue but what has been the cost of leaving Jonathan on as a lame duck?
In the interest of FOI it would be interesting to see the emails Bill sent to Jonathan as his so called "manager" and the emails Jonathan sent to Bill to see just how he hindered the BDA's efforts.
As for the BDDC while it turned into a good idea it's orginal intent was a work around to avoid dealing with Jonathan. What was the cost of that?
Yes, Mayor Ward will show leadership by bringing up Jonathan's name and dealing with the issues be they as they may. Something Bill could have done two years ago if he had a backbone to lead.
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