July 3, 2008

The showdown over Krawiecki continues

Updated at 1:50 p.m. Thursday...

The city attorney’s office is going to need to make do with one less lawyer for at least a few more months.
Mayor Art said Thursday he would still like to appoint Republican Edward Krawiecki, Jr, a former city attorney, to fill the position.
“I really believe we can make the case for my choice. It’s quite obvious that it’s non-partisan,” said Ward, a Democrat.
The move sets up a further showdown between Ward and the Democratic-controlled City Council over the possible appointment of the Republican mainstay to fill the last vacancy in the legal office.
The majority Democrats have said they don’t mind picking a GOP lawyer to fill the final slot in the five-person office, but they maintain that they won’t back Krawiecki for the job.
City Councilor Craig Minor said he told the mayor months ago “that demoting Ed to assistant corp counsel was very bad for morale and organizational dynamics.
“I tried to use a military analogy: you don't demote the company commander to sergeant and keep him in the same unit,” Minor said. “The men will be constantly looking to the ‘sergeant’ to approve whatever the new commander says, which completely undermines his authority.”
“The new commander never gets the chance to establish his own ways of doing things. It makes absolutely no sense given the wealth of experience possessed by the applicants,” Minor said.
The two Republican councilors, Mike Rimcoski and Ken Cockayne, strongly support Krawiecki.
Ward said the city notified the five other Republican lawyers who sought the job that it wouldn’t be filled for now. He said none could match Krawiecki.
All the respondents were “amply qualified professionally and I know many of them personally. I had no reservations about any of the other five,” the mayor said.
“I am thinking of waiting until September or October and putting out a new call” to see if there will be “a larger response” to his request for lawyers interested in the job, including perhaps some Democrats, Ward said.
In the meantime, Ward said, “We do have an opportunity to save” some money by leaving the position vacant.
The decision leaves the office with two part-time attorneys, including Corporation Counsel Dale Clift, and two full-timers, Ann Baldwin and Richard Lacey. The other part-timer is Jeff Steeg.
The move follows an unsuccessful bid by Ward, a Democrat, to install Krawiecki in the post. Krawiecki was the city attorney during former Mayor William Stortz’s last term.
Before the last regular council meeting, Ward said he decided to ask his colleagues to put Krawiecki into the part-time assistant city attorney's role because there's nobody better for the position."We're in difficult times. We're in trying times. That calls for bipartisanship," the mayor said at the time.
But the next night, during the meeting, Ward said that Krawiecki's nomination "will not be made this evening due to some personal issues that arose."Krawiecki apparently asked the mayor not to back him.
That came after four Democratic councilors – Frank Nicastro, Craig Minor, Cliff Block and Kevin McCauley – said they would not vote for Krawiecki. Some said they didn’t trust him.
Several of them said they didn’t have a problem with appointing a Republican to the job and were ready to vote for Tom Conlin, a former Board of Finance member, if Ward would agree.
But Ward instead declined to nominate anyone.
He said that after he asked for resumes from attorneys interested in the job, not a single Democratic lawyer expressed interest. But several sources said that Conlin was among those who did.Clift was appointed to the top city legal job in April after the council spent months leaning on the mayor to replace Krawiecki.
The mayor said that based on the last eight months – and the transition between the election and his taking the helm at City Hall – “I’m still of the belief that my consideration” of Krawiecki “is still the most appropriate,” based on his experience dealing the state on downtown, brownfields “and the types of the projects that are going to serve the city’s best interests.”
“Based on the due diligence and performance” shown by Krawiecki, Ward said, “I still feel he would be an asset” to the city attorney’s office.
The mayor said he spoke with Clift and Krawiecki about “working conditions and the environment” in the legal office if they were both there and each of them “agreed they can work together with no reservations.“I believe the office would experience the optimum of efficiency,” Ward said, if the council would go along with his pick for the job.

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

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Leave the post empty for a while? Oh No!!! That would mean that Ann would actually have to stop working for Frank and start working for the City that pays her salary!

Anonymous said...

The members of council said they do not trust Krawicki yet they have issues among themselves. Maybe they should look at Art W
Wards record regarding trust.
How trustworthy is he? How loyal is he to his supporters?

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Nicastro and Zoppo's three stooges are sticking it right up Ward's ___! Hope Ward remembers this!

Ward don't take there S__T!!

Anonymous said...

I don't remeber Stortz having such trouble getting along, and the council had a majority of the opposite party.

Maybe Ward should look in the mirror.

Anonymous said...

I don't remeber Stortz having such trouble getting along, and the council had a majority of the opposite party.

The council gave Stortz a no confidence vote! He had plenty of trouble getting along with the council because he kept so much information from them.

Anonymous said...

thought that it was stortz, lacey and kraweicki who banded together to snooker the council?

Anonymous said...

Guess we'll never know the facts, but Stortz did get a lot accomplished with 5 democrats on the council.

Anonymous said...

Art, no picture, again?

You are slipping in the PR department.

Anonymous said...

Stortz...GO AWAY! Your in a dream world if you think you did a good job. Not even your own party wants you!! We are all hoping you run again so you will see home much your NOT wanted!!

Anonymous said...

"Art, no picture, again?
You are slipping in the PR department."

3:55, Same stupid comment, again?
~ It wasn't funny the last 2 times you said it. You are definitely slipping in the witty remark department.

Anonymous said...

Of course they don't trust him. Ed can run circles around virtually all these morons in regards to anything. He'd have them running in circles, if he wanted too.

Anonymous said...

? - I'm glad that ward is sticking to his guns on this issue; if he waits long enough, minor will change his mind again - as he has so often in the past - and art will have his 4 votes for kraweicki.
everybody will make out - the city will have an exellent choice for the city lawyers office and again, we'll all know how wishy-washy minor is on the tough issues - tough, at least, for him.

Anonymous said...

I agree 12:01 ~ Mr. Ward's got the right idea and the guts to stick with it. It's good to see he's got Bristol's best interest in mind!

Anonymous said...

What is intrusting is ward wanted to appoint someone to the board of finance a republican who had been fined on ward’s campaign the largest fine in a municipal election in Bristol. He also wants to appoint a republican to corporation council who received a large fine from the ethics commission for trying to pass a bill that benefited one of his clients. Perhaps one or ward’s requirements is to be appointed you need to have a large fine. May be one reason he did not get a lot of applications. And yes as sound intelligent people we should call the members of the council that try to stop it stooges

Anonymous said...

ED K or Conlin, just not one of those libreal ding-bats like Clift.

Anonymous said...

~ very, very "intrusting"...

Anonymous said...

July 5, 2008 9:09 AM

"What is intrusting is ward wanted to appoint someone to the board of finance a republican who had been fined on ward’s campaign the largest fine in a municipal election in Bristol."

To whom are you referring? Ward didn't nominate anyone who fits that description. Dunlap, who he was considering, who was his financial person on his last campaign, and who did get fined for taking illegal contributions from the unions and was a Democrat. He only changed to unaffiliated at Ward's urging so that he could nominate him for the finance board.

It was a joke! He was trying to pay back another one of his cronies for supporting him.

So much for doing what is right for Bristol!

Nominate a democrat! Do what is right for Bristol and your party!

Anonymous said...

10:44pm - for your information, the position on the finance board required the appointment of either a republican or an unaffiliated not a democrat - make an effort to try to make us think that you know what you are talking about before showing us your stupidity.

Anonymous said...

How come there hasn't been any outrage here on the blog over Ward's incredibly immature decision to scrap the position, after the City Council rejected his choice? The Corp Counsel's office needs the help, or he would have deleted it from the budget during the second round of cuts (unless...hmmm....he funded it only so that he could keep his pal on the payroll?). Sure, Krawiecki has the smarts and the connections to make a good Assistant Corp Counsel, but the City Council rejected him for several different valid reasons, which is their right under the charter. Ward really needs to grow up and at least pretend to act like a mayor.

Anonymous said...

to the 10:44 post The article is about the Karwiecki appointment. All the coments are directed around that. Dont show us your blind protection of ward by calling somone else whos comment is approiate. You are the one who is being stupid and I bet you do not like being called on it or treated that way

Anonymous said...

4:51pm - guarantee that we are not related as my family members contribute to making this town better, not worse, such as you do.

Anonymous said...

The way you bring in “we are not related” reminds me of when son #1 would come to me and say son #3 did a bad thing. My first thought was what did son #1 do that he did not want me to find out. My guess at this point is you are under 21 years old So you are hiding something it just has not been figured out yet. But most important of all you are trying to shield the fact that you think the word or calling someone stupid is part of good intellectual conversation or constructive criticism. I see that as exposing you are a shallow person and do not like me talking about it or exposing it. With what you have said so far and shown us how you think and your thought process I would not be surprised if you told me joining the kkk is a solution to racial problems.

Anonymous said...

Where's Diamantis? He must have scads of experience after working so closely with Couture in his paid assistant position. Why not nominate him? Why would a Democratic mayor push so hard to hire a Republican attorney? Makes no sense.

Anonymous said...

7:18

Good Question!

Anonymous said...

quite possibly it might really be about ability and experience - unusual in politics but commendable.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Ward is looking for a political assistant, not someone who will do the legal work in the Corp Counsel office.

Art, check the job description.