Finch hands himself, appointees raises

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch is interviewed at the Connecticut Post office on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch is interviewed at the Connecticut Post office on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. Photo: Cathy Zuraw / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Cathy Zuraw / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 35 Caption Close Finch hands himself, appointees raises 1 / 35 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT — Hours before he was to leave office, outgoing Mayor Bill Finch gave himself, his supervisors and political appointments an early holiday present — hundreds of thousands of dollars in retroactive raises.

The move enraged incoming Mayor Joe Ganim who said Finch may have put the city in “dire financial straits,” with the raises.

“This may impact the tax rate and could cause layoffs,” Ganim said.

“He appears to be trying to sabotage my administration before I even take office,” he said of Finch.

In addition to the raises, Finch appointed new hires for senior City Hall positions, including a local real estate agent as associate director of economic development. Ganim has criticized the new hires as not being qualified for the jobs.

Meanwhile, Ganim on Monday announced a few of his own appointments, including John Ricci, the former manager of Sikorsky Memorial Airport who was fired by Finch over a scandal involving a road to a millionaire developer’s Stratford home.

Ricci now joins the Ganim administration as director of public facilities.

While many critics called Finch’s renewal Friday of Police Chief Joseph Gaudett’s contract a slap in the face to the incoming Ganim administration, they said Monday’s move by Finch is a kick much lower.

“It’s a slap at the face of democracy and I’m ashamed that he (Finch) has done this,” said City Councilman Enrique Torres. “He is a lame duck mayor and shouldn’t be doing anything, let alone abrogating the power of the City Council.”

Monday afternoon Finch was going office to office in the Margaret Morton Government Center, meeting with employees.

“I’m going around saying goodbye to everyone,” he said when asked about the raises. “I have been approving contracts for eight years. I have a duty until midnight tonight and I take that very seriously.”

Finch said he did not know how much the raises were for or how many were given out, referring comment on that to his spokesman, Brett Broesder, who also got a raise.

“I’m not playing politics,” he continued, finally stopping to answer questions. “This was a contract that was bargained in good faith and I’m doing my job as chief executive. It’s all within the budget. It was the party bosses playing politics, not me.”

He then continued on to make his farewells.

In fact, it’s not all Finch’s fault.

Last month the City Council tabled the five-year contract for the 150-member supervisors’ union. Members include librarians, zoo personnel and custodians, and have been without a contract for two years because approval would have also meant raises for 60 non-union political positions, including Finch, his chief of staff, his communications director and various department heads.

However, by doing nothing, the council may have forced Finch to take action.

Edward Gavin, the lawyer for the city supervisors’ union, said the union and the city came to a tentative contract agreement in October. The council then had 30 days to either accept that agreement or reject it.

Gavin said under Connecticut General Statute 7-474b, if the council fails to vote on the tentative agreement within the 30 days, the mayor has to approve the agreement.

“I followed the law and demanded our tentative contract be enforced,” Gavin said.

He understood the mayor and his appointees are tied to his union members’ contract, but he said he was not negotiating for them.

Under the new contract, all the employees retroactively got 3 percent raises as of July 1, 2013, 3 percent as of July 1, 2014 and 2.5 percent as of July 1, 2015.

There are also 2.5 percent raises as of July 1, 2016, and 2 percent on July 1, 2017.

The raises certainly came at an inopportune time, with Ganim officially taking over as mayor Tuesday.

When asked if knew of any way to reverse the raises, Ganim said: “I don’t think so — they were already direct deposited. It’s pretty appalling.”