April 5, 2008

Krawiecki out, Clift in


The proposed appointment list for Tuesday's City Council meeting includes Mayor Art Ward's plan to install Dale Clift as the new city corporation counsel. Clift is a long-time assistant city attorney.
Edward Krawiecki, Jr, who was first appointed to the city attorney's slot by former Mayor Bill Stortz, has continued serving in the post since Ward's election.
Krawiecki is a Republican. Clift is, of course, a Democrat.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it true that they are just swapping positions, that Krawiecki is staying on?

Surprising, as Clift was and is a big Zoppo supporter.

Anonymous said...

Where does that leave Ann Baldwin/Frank Nicastro?

Anonymous said...

It's about time.

Anonymous said...

It's nice to see that our mayor holds the taxpayers interests above politics .

A lesser individual might have jeopardized Bristols' future just to pay off campaign debts .

Anonymous said...

And the inner circle gets smaller and smaller.

Going to be interesting.

Anonymous said...

...and Ellen wrings her hands.

I don't see anything strange in this. Ed K is a GOP loyalist who is successful and probably would feel awkward serving with Ward and vice versa.

Mr Clift (a Zoppo supporter??) obviously felt that this was too flattering to turn down and he accepted Mr. Ward's offer.

So what?

Anonymous said...

Ward got forced to do this by the Council. It wasn't a generous flattering "offer" by the mayor. He didn't have much choice.

Anonymous said...

You guys should get serious. As hard as it is for you. Waed won , he can do what he wants!

Anonymous said...

if the council wasn't happy, they had better realize that they are not the boss, as much as they think that they are, and that their interest is supposed to be "good government", not their own whims - re-election time comes very, very quickly

Anonymous said...

if you were paying attention, you would have seen that ward recently put zoppo on some cemetary board or commission so I think he has demonstrated that he has moved forward with his plans for good government.

Anonymous said...

Ok, yes, let's make peace with Zoppo and put her on a Cemetery committee, that will make things all better. Not! If Ward didn't put Zoppo on that committee, it would have collapsed because she was in charge before and was the only one who knew anything about it.

Ward would have looked like an idiot if the Cemetery committee folded.

Anonymous said...

yeah, just like zoppo was the only one who knew what was good for the Roberts property - that price tag would have worked well with the cemetary appointment because it would have buried us today. give credit where credit is due rather than wallowing in self pity.

Anonymous said...

Ward reappointed her to Cemetery only because he knew it would look incredibly petty of him not to. He thought he was being clever by giving her the only one-year term (everyone else got two- and three-year terms) but he outsmarted himself - now he's going to have to reappoint her next year.

Odin said...

The only applicants were Clift and Krawiecki, and no way was the DTC gonna let Art keep Mr. Republican 2007 as the council's legal advisor.

Anonymous said...

My observations
The Council may not be the boss but anyone who can count knows that the mayor needs three friends and most days he doesn't have them.

The mayor did put Zoppo on a committee and that was a good move but I don't believe they have actually spoken. ANd its not like the cemetery thing is a huge, important position so he gets to look good and still doesn't have to deal with her.

I was and am a big supporter of the Roberts Property but understand the neighbor concerns. Please don't punish Zoppo for actually doing what couldn't be done by previous committees which was bring the issue forward and have a community discussion about a conceptual plan that was ready to be launched. Poor timing in the end, but still a good plan that in time I hope this community can build in some way. My son plays lacrosse and its embarassing to see what other communities have. We have to invest and rec activities are one way of keeping families here.

Anonymous said...

This is not a Zoppo - Clift - Ward - division issue no matter how long the Art Moccabee's try to make it one. Zoppo worked closely with Krawiecki and always said good things about him during the Stortz saga because he helped her get things done.

Anonymous said...

People in City Hall are not happy with this. Eddie Krawiecki has been the pseudo-Mayor for the entire Ward term and runs all the meetings that take place. People like Dale but aren't sure he can keep the mayor on task since they don't have any previous history. This is another move being prompted by people appeasing Frank Nicastro who despises Krawiecki. But then again, when has frank every put the city first ahead of his personal agenda?

Anonymous said...

I heard the switch was because Eddie flubbed up big-time and made the mayor look stupid on the American Legion World Series bid when he allowed him to get his trip paid for by the Legion and his beer buddies. Let me tell you something right now, they better give an update on this Legion Tournament bid at the Council meeting ON TV or else lots of people are going to be annoyed. These tournaments are expensive and the mayor and his friends better start selling it to the taxpayers.

Anonymous said...

Krawiecki did not make the mayor look stupid, the mayor did it to himself!

After 14 + years he should know a little about what can be done.

Maybe Stortz wasn't so bad: he didn't belittle Zoppo, or anyone else.
As indicated by another poster, Stortz let Zoppo get some things done, including helping her by appointing a real good non-political cemetary committee.

Art is in for a real long two years.

Anonymous said...

I hope Krawiecki is smart enough not to take a lesser position.

He would only be subject to a lot of criticism and second guessing.

Anonymous said...

Good: now maybe Ward will go after Ken Johnson and Municipal Energy!

Certainly Krawiecki wouldn't work against another Republican, a Republican Mayoral candidate.

Anonymous said...

Enough of this Clift is a Zoppo person, So and So is a Ward person. Dale Clift and Ellen Zoppo have been friends for years but now Dale will be the head city lawyer and his loyalty will go to the mayor. It doesn't mean that he and Ellen are going to stop being friends but you do him a grave injustive to imply he is going to be checking in with his pal on city items. He is the most ethical upstanding guy of the bunch. This is the flow of things and as it has been stated on this blog many many times, most people have moved on after the primary including the DTC, Ellen, the mayor, their friends and relatives. People on this blog should do the same.

Anonymous said...

4:10pm poster is right.
Zoppo was a huge Krawiecki fan when Stortz was mayor. She took a lot of flak from Ward for getting along with Stortz and from the other Democrats for getting along with Eddie. Maybe she should have been the Republican nominee for mayor.

Anonymous said...

Maybe she just wanted to do what was best for the city !!!

Guess the democrats destroy their own (zoppo) as did the republicans (stortz).

Unfortunate for the city, becuase they were both good people.

Anonymous said...

Where do we stand with Municipal Energy and Ken Johnson?

Have we collected anything yet?

We know he has!!

Anonymous said...

Now we will watch Ward crash!! Krawiecki was making Ward look good. Telling him what to say and how to say it! Ward just hurt himself!

Anonymous said...

...The amount of people on this blog who claim to have psychic abilities is absolutely astounding! Not only do they know what everyone else is thinking, feeling and what their motivations are (the mayor, Ms. Zoppo, Mr. Krawiecki...), but they can see into the future (always dire news unfortunately). Hell, they can even communicate after death (Frank Longo's ghost)...If only we could somehow harness all of their significant powers...we might be able to almost power up a light bulb...I see in my crystal ball Bristol moving forward.

Anonymous said...

Who is Frank Longo?

Anonymous said...

Krawicki wanted more time to dedicate to his own practice. It had nothing to do with politics.

Dale Clift and Jeff Steeg are both City lawyers and they are in private practice together so this was the logical choice.

Ann Baldwin and Dick Lacey are Full Time employees with appointment dates. They won't go anywhere unless they do something major wrong.

Anonymous said...

The ghost of politics past!

Anonymous said...

Art did not have the courage, nor the confidence to do this early on: this compounded the problem.

Same thing with his secretary: an avowed Republican close to Bev B. and Barnes.

Time will tell.

Anonymous said...

FRANN NICASTRO never made himself look smart .

Anonymous said...

People in City Hall are not happy with this. Eddie Krawiecki has been the pseudo-Mayor for the entire Ward term and runs all the meetings that take place. People like Dale but aren't sure he can keep the mayor on task since they don't have any previous history. This is another move being prompted by people appeasing Frank Nicastro who despises Krawiecki. But then again, when has frank every put the city first ahead of his personal agenda?

That's the biggest lie anyone has ever posted on here. It's factually wrong all the way around.

Anonymous said...

Betcha Ann Baldwin is breathing a lot easier now.

Anonymous said...

(Boring) naysers on here too.

Anonymous said...

WOW- We might someday have a Chief Operating Officer who will help our Mayor and City Council get Bristol on the right track. Bristol's future is looking up.