BRIDGEPORT REPORT
By Reginald Johnson
BRIDGEPORT ----- The
administration of Mayor Joseph P. Ganim violated the city charter by failing to
secure City Council approval for spending $6 million to purchase property from
the University of Bridgeport to build the new Bassick High School.
That’s the view of
several current and former City Council members, who commented on the decision
of the school building committee last year to pay the University of Bridgeport $6 million in order to acquire a parcel off Broad Street to build the new
$115 million facility.
The officials said
that the committee, which is a subcommittee of the City Council composed of
both administration officials and Board of Education officials, did not have
the authority on its own to spend the money.
Councilwoman Maria Pereira, D-138, said the
charter is clear on this issue.
“It is land
acquisition. If you look at the city charter there is only one entity that
could purchase municipal land or sell municipal land and that’s the City
Council. I don’t care whether they want to sell a $40,000 a lot, or whatever,
it has to go through the City Council that’s the law.” she said.
Pereira said that
originally in 2017 the City Council authorized a $27.5 million bond for
construction of a new Bassick and it didn’t include anything for land
acquisition, as there was consideration for building a new high school at the
existing city-owned site on Fairfield Avenue. She said that later in early 2020
finance officials asked for an additional $5 million for the project, citing
increased costs, but nothing was mentioned about land acquisition.
“We weren’t informed
--- it was never brought up,” Pereira said. “And clearly they already knew in February
that they were going to pursue purchasing that land (at UB) for $5 million,
okay, and they were hiding it. So this is all secretive.”
Pereira continued,
“until they have a press conference on July 6 last year with UB acknowledging
that they were going to move Bassick there, I as an elected official had
absolutely no idea this was going on. None.”
Former councilmember
and state representative Chris Caruso also said that the City Council should
have reviewed the expenditure before it was approved since councilmembers “have
budgetary responsibility for all the expenditures of the Corporation, in this
case the city.”
“And a committee of
the Council cannot waive that responsibility,” Caruso said.
Some councilmembers and
other individuals are reportedly in the process of filing a lawsuit to have the
purchase reversed and an order be given that the Council review any land
acquisition payment before it is made. However, it could not be confirmed that
any court filing has actually taken place so far.
Councilwoman Aidee
Nieves, D-137, president of the City Council and also chairman of the school
building committee, could not be reached for comment on the Bassick-UB issue.
The purchase of the
property at UB and payment to the university comes at a time when the University
of Bridgeport --- which has been in financial trouble in recent years --- is
about to be taken over by Goodwin University of East Hartford.
Goodwin is
partnering with Paier College of Hamden to buy UB, pending the granting of all
needed accreditations.
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| The University of Bridgeport |
There has been
significant criticism from leaders in the community about the Goodwin merger,
with concerns being raised about whether Goodwin is strong enough academically
to take over the University of Bridgeport. Officials of the NAACP and minority
members on the city Council are also worried that the minority community will
not be served by the new university.
There is also some
suspicion about Goodwin’s intentions in buying UB, with leaders such as the Rev. D.
Stanley Lord, the president of the Bridgeport NAACP, saying that the upstate
college is interested in acquiring valuable waterfront real estate and then
profiting from selling properties later on.
Goodwin officials
have vehemently denied that claim and said they are only interested in building
a strong academic institution in Bridgeport.
Goodwin is intending
to spend $52 million to acquire UB and is obtaining financing from Citizens
Bank. Citizens Bank in turn has agreed to write off $30 million of UB debt.
The property deed
that was filed with the Town Clerk’s office regarding the property transaction
for the new high school has raised some eyebrows. The deed in question says
that the university was giving the land to the City of Bridgeport for one
dollar, not $6 million.
John Weldon, the
chairman of the Bridgeport Board of Education and a member of the school
building committee, said he did not know why the deed was written the way it
was. “I can’t speak to what the rationale would be for that. It’s just more like a legalese question. I’m
sure there’s a rationale. I just don’t know what it is.” he said.
Meanwhile, community leaders and city councilmembers are criticizing Mayor Ganim and Robert Berchem, head of the UB Board of Trustees, for being in a conflict over the Bassick situation and UB.
“I think what we
have here is the chair of UB is Bob Berchem with Berchem and Moses law firm.
They are the law firm for the Board of Education that Joe Ganim got in there
for them and they get millions from the city on an annual basis,” said Pereira.
“So he’s chairman of the board of UB, he co-chaired a major fundraiser for Joe
Ganim at Brewport when Joe Ganim was running for mayor in 2019 and Joe Ganim is
serving as an adjunct professor at UB and serving on their board. So this is
rife with conflict, right?”
Berchem could not be reached for comment about the Bassick property acquisition by the city and the claims about a conflict of interest.
Ganim, as well, has not been available for comment.
Caruso said that if
the charter was violated with the Bassick property acquisition, it isn’t the first time. “Time and time again you’ve seen it. You saw it with the selection of a police chief,
with the mayor just ignoring the charter. You see it with the civil service
system and acting positions are created rather than permanent positions, again in
violation of the charter.
“And the list goes on
and on,” Caruso said. “As long as this frankly lawlessness exists then you can’t
expect too much, you can’t get too upset. Because frankly the people that are
responsible to be the loyal opposition, to be that oversight, are MIA, they are
missing in action.”
In other developments at UB, Councilman Jorge Cruz, D-131, was unsuccessful recently in trying to
get the Council to approve setting up a task force to study the idea of the
city taking over the University of Bridgeport.
Cruz, who has been
one of the most outspoken opponents of the Goodwin merger, proposed a
resolution to set up a task force in the council’s education and social
services committee “to review and recommend specific strategies to acquire the
charter and assets of the University of Bridgeport…”
However, Cruz
withdrew his resolution when the city attorney advised that such a task force
would not be appropriate. Other councilmembers also were not receptive to the
idea of a public takeover, Cruz said.
The city attorney did
say however that it would be possible to set up an informational session in
which there could be a discussion of ways that the city might assist the
University of Bridgeport achieve better management.
The South End councilman said he is disappointed that the
mayor and other members of the council are not more receptive to the idea of a
public takeover, which he thinks would be doable.
“It would be like CUNY,” said Cruz, referring to the
publicly owned City University of New York.
