Library project comes in $303K under budget

The city closed the books this month on the $12 million expansion of the Main Library and determined that it not only got done on schedule, it also came in $303,000 under budget.

“I’ve never seen that before,” said city Councilor Frank Nicastro, liaison to the library. “What a great job they did.”

Longtime Library Director Francine Petosa said the expansion, which doubled the library’s space and vastly increased its parking, has proven a hit for the community and “a highlight of my career” as well.

“The community embraced this project and continues to do so,” Petosa said.

Finance Chairman Rich Miecznikowski said he’s heard “nothing but good comments” about the work.

The result is “a beautiful, beautiful facility,” Mayor Art Ward said. “It is definitely a part of the community. It is definitely being used.”

He called it “a tremendous project” and commended all of the officials involved in it.

City Comptroller Glenn Klocko said the excess money for the project is pumped back into supporting the debt service on the bonds that were sold to pay for the expansion.

The city cut an $8.5 million deal in 2004 with W.J. Mountford Co. of South Windsor to carry out the bulk of the construction work, which was largely finished within a couple of years.

Since then, the city has been tying up loose ends on the project, a process that is typical of large construction jobs.

In addition to the construction costs, the city spent about $3.5 million on architects, overseers and other project expenses, including property acquisition.

Petosa said she’s happy that it all came together so well.

“Our expectations have been exceeded in so many ways,” Petosa said.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

City labor leader blasts COO backers

The president of the Greater Bristol Labor Council said he “quite ticked off” at the signs erected by supporters of the chief operating officer proposal that portray the referendum as a showdown between unions and taxpayers.

Mike Petosa said that the signs “really show the ignorance” of the charter change backers “about what we are and who we are. We are taxpayers also.”

Petosa said the proposal to create an administrative chief at City Hall is “so full of holes that it’s not funny,” including any provision for paying the expected $250,000 tab to hire an experienced professional to do the job.

“If they  think they’re helping the city, they’re not,” Petosa said.

He said that Bristol “is in a lot better shape than a lot of other cities” because its leadership has done a good job over the years of protecting its financial standing and balancing the service needs of residents with their ability to pay.

Petosa said there is “a core group” pushing the chief operating officer that includes businessman Craig Yarde, former Republican mayoral contender Ken Johnson and city Councilors Craig Minor and Ken Cockayne.

“These people have their own agenda,” Petosa said.

There’s something they wanted that they couldn’t have” so they claim there’s no accountability at City Hall, he said.

Petosa said he’s upset they decided to make an issue out of the unions, which have traditionally had good relations with mayors and city councilors in Bristol.

“It shows their lack of professionalism,” Petosa said.

He said that Cockayne in particular has been going after municipal unions since day one.

“If he wants to cause labor unrest in Bristol, he may just get it,” Petosa said.

He said that Yarde may be a good businessman, but he doesn’t know anything about how city government operates.

Besides, Petosa said, Yarde demonstrated his commitment to Bristol a decade ago when “he moved his company and 400 jobs out of town” to Southington.

Petosa said he trusts that voters will see through the weak arguments raised by COO supporters and will opt to keep the existing governmental structure in place.

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

State may help pay for library repairs

The state may pick up more than $30,000 worth of maintenance costs for the city’s two libraries.
Library Director Francine Petosa said that a state program for “distressed communities” will pay for a third of the cost for expanding existing library space or maintaining libraries.
With several major repairs needed at the Manross branch in Forestville that will total about $100,000, the city’s Board of Finance agreed this week to try to secure state help for the projects.
The most pressing need is to fix a leaking roof at Manross that is currently covered with a tarp, officials said.
With a 21-year-old roof on the building, the repair is only buying time for the city to replace the entire roof, officials said, but there’s no choice about doing it.
“The need is still going to exist” whether the city tries to snag state cash to help or not, Mayor Art Ward said.
Petosa said there isn’t any danger that the leak will damage books or other materials, but she said she is concerned that other problems could develop that might pose a threat.
The complication with seeking state aid is that project may be delayed into the second half of next year, officials said, in order to line up the required approvals from the State Library and the State Bond Commission.
The roof, at least, may have to be dealt with sooner than that.
But the other two projects at Manross – resurfacing the lower parking lot and retrofitting three parking lot lights – can wait for a green light from the state, Petosa said.
Petosa has to apply for the maintenance money by August 29. The city should hear in November whether the State Library agrees to pay a portion of the cost.
If the state backs the spending, the city would include its share in the next municipal budget so that it can be done after July 1, 2009, which allows time for the bond commission to take action as well.

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

Pro and con on chief operating officer idea

A proposal to create a chief operating officer for City Hall drew tough arguments pro and con Monday.
The president of the Greater Bristol Labor Council, Mike Petosa, said the charter revision suggestion to create the job is being driven by a small group of business people “who are willing to play economic chicken with the taxpayers’ money.”
Petosa called the idea of creating a costly new job “fiscally irresponsible” at a time when Bristol’s political leadership is searching for ways to carve spending from its budget.
But Craig Yarde, a businessman who is pushing for more professional management at City Hall, said the city has a problem with its management structure that a chief operating officer would help solve.
“We have a management team that turns over every two years,” Yarde said, including the mayor, who is de facto CEO.
“On top of that, we have two opposing political teams on the management team working at times against each other. You can see why it's difficult to get a everyone rowing the boat in the same direction,” he said.
“What we are talking about here is giving an assistant to the mayor and council to help with all the moving parts,” Yarde said.
But Petosa said that the city is better off with a strong mayor who answers to the people directly. Mayors “know Bristol” and have a strong commitment to its future, Petosa said.
“Our form of government is a democratic process,” he said, that gives the people the right to pick their own chief operating officer every two years.
“We don’t need another level of government coming in an creating havoc,” Petosa said. “It would be very, very detrimental to our city.”
Yarde said that he believes hiring “a gray-haired seasoned executive with knowledge of municipal affairs to assist the members on the management team” would be well worth the expensive.
“We need to have a management team that can be more effective in meeting short and long term goals,” Yarde said.
Yarde said that city councilors should let the public decide whether to make the change in city government by putting the Charter Revision Commission’s proposal on the ballot this November.
But it appears that the council will vote 4-3 next week to kill the suggestion unless one of its members has a change of heart. It’s possible there will be an effort to revive the suggestion through a referendum process if the council votes as expected.

Here's Yarde's full speech for Monday's 6 p.m. hearing at City Hall on the suggested change in the charter

My first question is how many emails did you receive for and how many against the new COO proposal by the Charter Revision Committee. I received this email from a union member. Here is what the AFSCME is emailing their members:

PEOPLE POWER IN BRISTOL
The Bristol City Council is considering an ill-advised plan to create a new Chief Operating position. The COO would be like a city manager- an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat running the city. Bristol has done well for all these years. Please contact the members of the city council and tell them we don't need this unnecessary expense. The powers should remain with the mayor and other elected city officials.

I don't know how many of the 1.4 million members received this email but I would dismiss those that came out of the city and all those that came out of state. I went to the AFSCME site and with a click auto mailed all of you a email against the COO position. I listed my real name, with a Southington address. This email is wrong because the union is saying the COO position will be unaccountable. The COO will be working for the mayor.
If the management(mayor/council) team doesn't agree his/her skills he can get fired with no law suit against the city.
But, I lied when I sent the email through the AFSCME web site. I would prefer a town manager but a COO would be a step in the right direction.
Six months ago when I announced to the media my preference for a council/manager form of government, never in my mind did I realize I would be going against the unions. I thought the opposition would come from the councilmen who wanted to be mayor in the future.
Four or five years ago, Yarde Metals a non union company sent a thousand dollars to the men and women on strike for a very long time at a union shop on Pine Street. The UAW official at the time told the media that they had no problem accepting a check from a non union company. They said if employers treated their people like Yarde Metals, we wouldn't need a union.
Taking care of labor equally with management is what made Yarde Metals successful.
The problem with the city is not labor, The problem is the upper management organizational structure. Look at what we have here. We have a management team that turns over every two years including the CEO (mayor). On top of that we have two opposing political teams on the management team working at times against each other. You can see why it's difficult to get a everyone rowing the boat in the same direction. Forget about it!! What we are talking about here is giving an assistant to the mayor and council to help with all the moving parts. I'm advocating hiring a gray haired seasoned executive with knowledge of municipal affairs to assist the members on the management team. This COO knowledge will give our leaders a lot of value. We need to have a management team that can be more effective in meeting short and long term goals. The city needs to create a lean environment similar to Toyota. Everyone must be on board to eliminate all waste and create more efficiency. I think the future will get tougher than better and if we don't improve our organizational structure, there will be more 6 mil increases. I know some of you have conflicts because you get union benefits. You can agree or disagree with this change. All I ask of you is to pass this on so that voters can have a chance to determine our future in a referendum next year. The last four Charter Revision Committee have tried to get this to the public for a vote. Please pass it on. Let the voters decide. After all they are on top of the organizational chart. Thanks

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

Zoppo eyed library director last winter, too

At the end of January, city Councilor Ellen Zoppo sent the mayor an email saying "there were issues" raised about Library Director Francine Petosa at a Friends of the Bristol Public Library meeting the night before.
"Have you picked up any intelligence on this from your sources?" Zoppo asked Mayor William Stortz.
Stortz wrote back two days later saying that he did not know the source of Zoppo's information but he spoke with three members of the group "and they did not feel there were any issues."
Zoppo quickly responded to the mayor in another email to tell him that his questions "had somewhat of a chilling effect, so I will take it from here."
It's unclear what, if anything, happened after that.


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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Zoppo 'created a threatening environment' for library director in 2004

Several years ago, city Councilor Ellen Zoppo allegedly threatened the library's director.
Zoppo told Library Director Francine Petosa in the winter of 2004 "something to the effect that she could be your best ally or your worst nightmare," according to an email sent by a union official to Petosa.
George Wallace, vice president of the Bristol Professionals and Supervisors Association, wrote in the Feb. 10, 2004 email that Petosa "felt that Councilwoman Zoppo was creating a threatening environment" for the library chief.
Zoppo said Thursday that "unfortunately, communication is not one of the library director's strong skills, so while there has been frustration with her handling of matters, I don't recall any situation which would have warranted her going to her union for protection."
Zoppo played a key role in overseeing the $12 million library expansion project that was finished last year, a project that obviously required her to work closely with Petosa.
Asked about what prompted the complaint in 2004, Petosa said Thursday, "I really don't want to get into it at this point."
She said that Zoppo "was asking something that I felt was inappropriate in her role as a councilwoman as far as library business was concerned."
"I felt very uncomfortable with the situation," Petosa said.
The 2004 flap led to discussions between the union, former Mayor Gerard Couture, city Councilor Art Ward, Zoppo and others after Wallace said he "went to see" the mayor to relay Petosa's concerns about Zoppo's treatment of her.
Ward, who is challenging Zoppo in Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary, said he "vaguely" remembered being in Couture's office when Wallace came in. He said he stuck around for the conversation because he was deputy mayor at the time.
Ward said he thinks it's the job of elected officials to initiate policy and then let city workers do their jobs.
"The day-to-day operations should be left to the professionals that are charged with that responsibility," said Ward.
Petosa said the situation was resolved after the discussions and never arose again.
Asked if she's gotten along with Zoppo since, Petosa said, "Councilwoman Zoppo and I, I'm trying to be very delicate in my wording, we can at times agree to disagree."
She said that she's worked well with Zoppo on the library's building committee and that Zoppo has "been supportive" on some issues as the council's library liaison.
"I run the library," Petosa said. "I try not to get involved in the politics that goes on in this community."
"There have been many incidents over the last five years that have been a concern to me and others on the library board about the management of the library," Zoppo said.
" In my role as liaison, I have raised these issues and tried to get them resolved, whether they were on behalf of staff, library patrons or others," she said. "That is my role as the council liaison."
"All I expect from department heads is for them to do their jobs for the salaries they are paid, and for the most part, all of them do," Zoppo said.
According to Wallace's email, Couture told Zoppo "she had to work with" Petosa and communicate with her.
Couture agreed that Zoppo was "basically not to be involved with day-to-day operations" at the library, the email said.
"The mayor felt that as a result of his discussion, things should work out better in the library," Wallace wrote.
Both Wallace and Petosa confirmed that the email provided anonymously to the Press was real.
Ward said he had nothing to do with the release of the email. He said he thinks he had a copy of Wallace's email back at the time, but said he no longer has it.
"That's about six computers ago," said Ward, adding that every time he has to get a new computer, he loses documents.

Click here to see a copy of the email

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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com