Bridgeport Council fails to pass Columbus statue resolution - CT Insider

BRIDGEPORT — City Council members at an emergency meeting Tuesday vented about the mayor’s abrupt decision July 6 to remove the Christopher Columbus statue from Seaside Park.

But the 20-person legislative body failed to pass a resolution calling on Ganim to: restore the statue by Friday, provide security against vandalism and then collaborate with the community and present a plan to the parks board to resolve the ongoing controversy over the divisive monument’s future.

Only seven council members — Marcus Brown, Alfredo Castillo, Michael DeFilippo, Jeanette Herron, Michelle Lyons, Maria Pereira and AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia — voted to move ahead with taking up the resolution.

But even had it passed, City Attorney Mark Anastasi told the legislative body the parks board, which meets on the same matter at 5 p.m. Wednesday “has jurisdiction with respect to property located within the park” per the municipal charter. “So anything the council does would be advisory.”

Several of those “yes” votes used Tuesday’s meeting to reprimand Ganim, who moderated the teleconference, for what they argued was his illegal act in taking the statue down. The mayor and his staff have said they were preserving it from threatened vandalism.

DeFilippo said City Hall showed “cowardice and disrespect” to the council by not informing members about the decision to remove Columbus, and initially refusing to schedule Tuesday’s emergency meeting until legal action was threatened against the mayor.

“We get treated like garbage,” DeFilippo said.

“Under the charter, the mayor has zero authority to remove the statue in the first place,” Pereira said. “(You) disrespected the entire Italian community, the council and the board of parks commissioners. … What you did made this 10 times worse.”

Vizzo-Paniccia did not name individuals, but placed the blame on some of her colleagues and unspecified “outsiders” for turning the statue into a controversy.

“There was not going to be anything done to the statue,” Vizzo-Paniccia said. She also said no individual council members should have any say over municipal parks that serve all of Bridgeport’s population.

Councilman Jorge Cruz, whose South End district includes Seaside Park, had for weeks been very vocal on social media that he wanted Columbus gone.

While Cruz also chastised Ganim Tuesday, arguing he had been negotiating behind-the-scenes with Italian-American community leaders on a resolution when the statue was removed, Cruz said the decision to restore it should be left to the parks board.

Later in the meeting, however, Cruz interrupted by shouting that anyone who defends Columbus “doesn’t know the true history of the killer.”

Though he participated in the Tuesday meeting, Ganim did not further explain or defend his actions.

Councilwoman the Rev. Mary McBride-Lee, however, did support the mayor. McBride-Lee said, “Make no mistake about it, eventually somebody was going to come and vandalize that statue. Now you’re saying the police department is going to be responsible for guarding a statue, and they can hardly guard people that are alive? … I do not want my tax dollars to guard a damn statue.”

And Councilwoman Rosalina Roman-Christy said restoring the monument would only inflame the controversy: “There’s going to be ... rioting in the city.”

Council President Aidee Nieves suggested Bridgeport follow New Haven’s lead. Officials there took down the Columbus statue in Wooster Square last month and formed a special committee to discuss a replacement.

Nieves also agreed that the city should not be in a position of paying for ongoing statue security. And she chastised her colleagues who sought an emergency meeting on the monument, arguing there are more pressing matters the legislative body could have taken up.

“I do not think this constituted an emergency,” Nieves said.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.ctinsider.com/local/ctpost/article/Bridgeport-Council-fails-to-pass-Columbus-statue-15443346.php

2020-07-29 18:00:00Z
CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmN0aW5zaWRlci5jb20vbG9jYWwvY3Rwb3N0L2FydGljbGUvQnJpZGdlcG9ydC1Db3VuY2lsLWZhaWxzLXRvLXBhc3MtQ29sdW1idXMtc3RhdHVlLTE1NDQzMzQ2LnBocNIBAA

Bagikan Berita Ini