Moments after the City Council approved the appointment of a new water commissioner last week, Republican mayoral candidate Ken Johnson jumped up from his chair in the audience with a look of disgust.
"I'm outta here," Johnson exclaimed loudly. He hustled to the door, which he proceeded to shove open with a resounding bang before disappearing into the night.
Politicians from both sides of the aisle said they were stunned by the dramatic move.
Johnson later explained, “You can only tolerate having somebody jab a stick in your eye for so long.”
For Johnson, the council meeting was “a microcosm of all that is wrong with Bristol politics,” including Mayor William Stortz’s “personal vendetta against me,” the hostility with which officials treated concerned citizens, and what he considered a surprising act of betrayal from Democratic mayoral candidate Art Ward.
Storming out, Johnson said, “was my way of expressing I was sick and tired of it.”
Stortz, a Republican who is not seeking reelection, said he has nothing against Johnson.
“What reason would I have to go after him? None,” the mayor said, expressing shock the GOP contender to succeed him next month would speak so harshly.
Art Mocabee, the Republican Party chairman, backs Johnson.
“The time has come to say enough, Bill,” Mocabee said. “Thank you for your efforts, but please stop using your time and city resources to try and undermined your party's ticket.”
“Stop with the pattern of vindictiveness you have so frequently shown, especially to some of us who have helped you get where you are,” the GOP chairman said.
Stortz said he is perplexed at the attacks levied on him by Johnson, Mocabee and other Republicans.
“Why are they fighting with me?” the mayor asked. “By attacking me, are they going to win over Democrats?”
While motives remain murky, there’s no doubt that most of the GOP ticket is fed up with Stortz.
Several expressed anger during last week’s council session, including council hopeful Joe Geladino, who yelled at one point that Stortz was acting like a dictator.
Geladino also complained that Stortz hauled a city attorney out to check on the legality of some Republican signs erected on Geladino’s property on Main Street, across from the library.
“It seems like you’re against your own party,” Geladino told the mayor. “You owe the taxpayers of Bristol some money because that was wrongly done.”
“If you have a problem with us,” Geladino told Stortz, “you should stay home and watch the squirrels.”
Stortz said he was already going out with Lacey to check out the mall site to see where construction fences could be placed and decided to swing by the property to see the signs after someone called him anonymously to gripe about them.
Johnson called Stortz a liar for claiming he didn’t go out with the intention of targeting the signs.
“Lie? I don’t do that,” said Stortz.
Richard Lacey, a city lawyer, said the mayor told him to “jump in the car” with him, so he did. He said they drove by the mall and the Main Street site before returning to City Hall about seven minutes later.
The council meeting was chock full of insults and flaring tempers, but Johnson was quiet until the end.
Johnson said he was angry about what he witnessed.
“That council chamber was a pretty hostile environment, Johnson said. “Do you think people think twice before stepping to that podium to speak wondering if they'll have to deal with insults hurled their way or if they'll be the butt of some politician's inappropriate joke?”
In the session’s closing minutes, the mayor nominated Sean Dunn to take the vacant Water Board seat that Johnson had held, and still hoped to regain.
City Councilor Craig Minor, a Democrat, said he understood Johnson wanted another term on the volunteer panel and said he would continue to back the Republican for the position. Another Democratic city councilor, Kevin McCauley, agreed.
But the rest of the council went along with Stortz to install Dunn on the panel on a 5-2 vote.
Johnson said he was most upset to see Ward back the mayor’s choice.
He said that Ward, who had been his strongest supporter for another appointment to the Water Board for almost a year, suddenly “flips and gives Bill what he wants?”
“I’ve come to expect it from Bill,” Johnson said, “but I didn’t expect it from Art.”
“He’s a friend. We’ve had a cordial relationship. What did I do to deserve that?” Johnson asked.
“How is it that after repeated attempts” by Stortz for many months “that he finally got the vote?” asked Johnson.
Ward said that he initially supported Johnson’s reappointment, but with a new water superintendent on board, he thought it was more important now to make sure that “a full complement” of water commissioners would be available to help with a major transition for the department.
“There needs to be some stability” on the board, he said.
Besides, Ward said, there’s only a month left before the municipal election and he assumed that Johnson’s focus would be on trying to win the race, not water issues.
Bruce Lydem, a Democratic City Council contender, called the whole flap “an unfortunate incident” that can happen in the “pressure cooker” of a campaign.
“We are down to the wire in the election season and many of us our tired and sometimes passions boil over,” Lydem said.
Though Lydem said he can understand the feelings that can lead to outbursts, they shouldn’t happen.
“We must make sure that we treat each other with respect and dignity, know and listen to our own minds and bodies and understand when the pressures of politics and serving require us to take a deep breath and step back,” Lydem said.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
