The Bridgeport City Council”™s Ordinance Committee has taken the first step in enacting Mayor Bill Finch”™s request for a revision of the city charter. At its Dec. 28 meeting, the committee voted to send the mayor”™s request to establish a city charter revision committee to the full City Council for consideration.
Finch has said an overhaul of the city charter is long overdue and many provisions in the current charter are outdated. The last time there was a major update of the charter was in 1993. To begin the process, Finch recommended the creation of a revision commission to the Ordinance Committee in mid-December. He explained the No. 1 reason Bridgeport needs a charter revision is to drastically improve its school system.
“It has become clear that we need to modernize, simplify and make our charter more constitutional in style in order to face the challenges of a 21stcentury municipality,” said Finch. “One of the primary recommendations I will forward to this commission will be creating more public accountability for education reform in order to ensure that our students receive the best education possible.”
Any way you look at it, the Park City education system is a mess. Most importantly, Bridgeport”™s students are woefully underserved. Among other problems, classroom sizes are too large, textbooks are outdated, standardized test scores are pitiful and the high school dropout rate is astronomical.
And if that isn”™t enough, politics have made the question of exactly who is running the city”™s schools unanswerable. The elected Board of Education voted to dissolve itself by a 6-3 vote last summer and was replaced by state-appointed board. However, that move is being challenged in court and a decision has not yet been rendered. Also, the state board fired Superintendent of Schools John Ramos and a new schools chief has not yet been hired.
Observers have said Finch”™s call for a charter revision is mainly to permanently eliminate an elected Board of Education.
Business leaders have long said one of the main reasons new businesses are not flocking to Bridgeport is its poor education system. Finch has said he believes economic development and a strong school system go hand in hand.
“Finding ways to make our city government more effective and accountable is something that the City Council has been grappling with for some time. I”™m happy that the mayor has taken the lead on the issue of charter reform, and I”™m sure the council will support his action and the creation of a charter revision commission,” said City Council President Thomas McCarthy, who is almost always a Finch ally.
It is anticipated that at its next full meeting, the council will initiate the charter revision process by a resolution that must be adopted by a two-thirds vote of its entire membership. On Jan. 17 ”“ or not more than 30 days after initiating the charter revision process ”“ the council will, by resolution, appoint the commission consisting of between five and 15 electors. The first order of substantive business for the commission will be to conduct the first of two mandatory public hearings.
“We expect to pursue an aggressive timeline in order to place the charter revision on the November 2012 ballot in order to maximize voter participation during the presidential election cycle,” said Finch. “This all-volunteer commission will have its work cut out for it in order to meet this deadline.”
Rob Sullivan is the publisher and executive editor of the Bridgeport Banner daily website ”“ www.bridgeportbanner.typepad.com ”“ and monthly print edition.
