August 28, 2008

GOP set to take a stand on chief operating officer idea

Republicans plan to take a stand on the proposed chief operating officer position at City Hall.
Though the GOP’s town committee played a key role in helping secure signatures to put the measure on the ballot, it’s far from certain that the Republicans will endorse the proposed charter change.
The two Republican city councilors, Mike Rimcoski and Ken Cockayne, are split on the issue, with Cockayne a strong supporter and Rimcoski a strident critic.
Tom Barnes, the city GOP chairman, said the party threw its support behind the signature drive to put the issue on the ballot because members believed the public should get a chance to vote on it. But the party didn’t take a position on the ultimate outcome.
At least two of the people who gathered signatures, Henry Raymond and Mickey Goldwasser, said that many who signed the petitions did so for the same reason the GOP backed the referendum effort. They said many residents simply wanted the right to decide.
Barnes said he wanted the Republican Town Committee to vote on the question this month, but turnout for the meeting was so light that officials thought it was best to wait another month.
“It would be nice if all the members came,” said Sharon Krawiecki, who is running for registrar this year.
The chief operating officer “would be someone sitting below the mayor” at City Hill and would serve as the mayor’s “right hand man,” Barnes said.
He said that creating the post would allow for a professional administrator to handle day-to-day oversight of city government and leave the mayor free for ceremonial functions, meetings and larger policy decisions.
The idea, Barnes said, is to have “a better organized and better run city government.”
Critics say the position is poorly thought out and likely to cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars extra each year, with no guarantee of a more efficient operation.
Both sides are gearing up for educational campaigns to sway the public to their way of thinking.
The Charter Revision Committee unanimously backed the proposed change to the city government’s blueprint, but councilors gunned it down on a 5-2 vote in June.
By state law, those backing the recommendation had 45 days to gather signatures from at least 10 percent of Bristol’s registered voters in order to force a referendum over the council’s objection.
They pulled it off by mobilizing petition gatherers in June and July to round up more than 4,300 signatures at grocery stores and beyond. In the end, they got several hundred valid signatures more than they needed to meet the state standard.

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

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess if the gop can't win an election one way, they'll try to squirm their way into the process by trying to snowball the public.

Anonymous said...

Mike. Craig, Kevin, Frank. do the city a favor PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO not run AGAIN EVER. You are all useless.

Anonymous said...

Isn't this position akin to what Couture tried with Diamantis and got thrown under the bus by the Republicans as a result? And I guarantee that what they were paying Diamantis was significantly less ($500/week with no benefits) than what they plan on paying the COO. This makes it okay now? What's changed?

Anonymous said...

ReFlub-La-cans figured that you forgot about that by now; just like they have taken it for granted that they can stymie you with bogus info on the COO and you'll fall for it - their new theme song from here on out is "flub-a-dub-dub, flub-a-dub-dub", I be a ReFlub-Li-can.

Anonymous said...

August 28, 2008 11:32 AM:

1) The people expect that Diamantis would be "appointed" to his new postion until after the election.

2) The people didn't get to vote on the new position (as they are now with the City Manager or COO).

3) The job description is different. Whether the position is na traditional "city manager" or more of a Chief Operations Officer (COO), that person will be in charge of all the departments instead of just assisting the mayor (as Diamantis was charged with doing).

Duh...OK you clueless buffoons?!?
LOL

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the GOP is not as sure about the COO as they were before.

Are they repudiating Ken Johnson who made that his main campaign issue?

Sure sounds like it.

Or are they finally waking up and realizing that they got had by Johnson and the Charter Revision Committee?


Maybe TJ got some good advice and listened to it this time.

Anonymous said...

it's not like this would be the first time that ken johnson has stuck it to the public/taxpayers?

AnonymousWestconnStudent said...

Duh...OK you clueless buffoons?!?
LOL


Both positions are a bad idea anyway.

Anonymous said...

"Duh...OK you clueless buffoons?!?
LOL"

Mr. Cockayne,

That is not a very respectful way to treat the electorate. You should turn down the insults and stick to the issue.

Steve Collins said...

Cockayne didn't say that. An anonymous poster wrote that comment.

Anonymous said...

how do you know that Steve - does that mean that you monitor the site and pick & choose the responses?

Steve Collins said...

How do I know that Cockayne wasn't the anonymous poster? I don't. But it's ridiculous to try to guess the identity of those who comment, particularly if someone's going to take some wild comment and attribute it to a public official. That's not kosher.

Steve Collins said...

And, by the way, I do approve or reject comments. I throw out many more than you would imagine given the level of much of what does get posted.

Anonymous said...

Gee, is TJ Barnes still around, still Republican Town Chairman?

I thought he had retired, since he hasn't been heard from in so long.

Guess he really hasn't been missed.

Anonymous said...

at least the gop is finally taking a stand on something - too bad that the crdibility of it is tainted with the tarnished image of minor's (zoppo's) involvement in it; but then again, he could always change his mind - if zoppo tells him to do so - AGAIN.

Anonymous said...

Is the GOP advocating that Bristol create a COO locally, which would parallel the Bush/Cheney situation?

We know how that has worked.

Anonymous said...

"Is the GOP advocating that Bristol create a COO locally, which would parallel the Bush/Cheney situation?
We know how that has worked.
September 1, 2008 7:05 AM"

--You mean like Obama/Biden?

(you idiot!)

Anonymous said...

Being new to this blog, I find it very amusing that the democrats who are regularly making comments on this blog actually take pride in the lack of progress that is made under their leadership. They laugh at the attempts of the Republicans to bring about positive change to the state legislature as well as to the city of Bristol. They continue to laugh as Bristol continues to lose stature as a city and the state continues to be one of the highest taxed, least business-friendly in the country.

Anonymous said...

No, Bush/Cheney!!

Anonymous said...

10:10p.m. - gee, we're both new to this site - yeah, right, - and your view differs from mine - I agree with those who told me that some views would be as ignorant as yours.

Anonymous said...

10:10 - Great post! Welcome to the blog.

Anonymous said...

He He 8:33 should fit right in. The Republicant's will take a position on anything they think will pass. They haven't got too much to brag about . And you can sure as hell tell that the "hatemongers" are back !