Dellabianca backs new position

Blake Dellabianca, a former member of a charter commission, said he’s a lifelong resident who’s been in construction and real estate for 30 years. Here in City Hall weekly and deal with many officials and workers.
“I think I have a pretty good understanding of how this city’s being run,” he said.
“We do some things very, very well,” he said, “and we do some things very poorly.”
But, he said, “it’s important to try to do more thing well.
Dellabianca said elected officials are conscientious and well-meaning, but few have the background to head an organization with a large budget and many employees. He said they need someone with experience “who can manage the day-to-day things.”
Dellabianca said some administrators are capable and others not. “Thigns are getting worse. They’re not getting better,” he said.
“It’s just absurd we didn’t have a manager-council form of government decades ago,” he said. “We’re way, way behind.”
“You need to do this,” he said. “It disturbs me when I see some of things that are going on.”
A professional overseer, he said, can “change the culture, little by little, for the better.”
There are many morale issues, Dellabianca said. Sometimes those who should advance don’t because of politics, and vice versa. “That creates a lot of morale problems,” he said.
Dellabianca said there will be a more fair environment for all with a chief operating officer. Ultimately, he said, municipal workers will embrace the change.
He said there will be more accountability and better results if the proposal is approved.
Dellabianca said the position needs to be in the charter so that it’s removed from politics.
He said to do what’s necessary to get this adopted, even if it’s just a toehold. The results will prove the value, Dellabianca said.
Dellabianca said the position will pay for itself ten times over. He said the position could pay twice the mayor’s salary and still be worth it.
He said that West Hartford and Southington’s governments work “much better” than Bristol because they have managers. Everyone in West Hartford loved its former manager, he said.
Dellabianca said that ESPN’s growth “has helped us take up the slack” from lost manufacturing, but it won’t always continue growing at such a fast clip.
Without it, “we’d be half a step behind Waterbury and New Britain on the way to insolvency.”
Dellabianca said there’s a reason to have a mayor, “but we need some real expert people to run the day to day stuff” and “not sweep stuff under the rug.”
“We’re spinning our wheels,” he said, “and nothing’s getting done.”
He said the city has had new mayors every two years for a long while, making it so that balls inevitably get dropped.
Dellabianca said it would be far better to have a trained, qualified professional instead of relying on politicians who lack the background.

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