"There’s going to be a period where people will wait and see with regard to building their confidence in the new mayor."
Paul Timpanelli
Bridgeport’s business community is absorbing the news that Joe Ganim will soon be back in the mayor’s office. It's a city that’s always needed all hands on deck to stimulate economic development, attract businesses, and boost employment.
So what does it make of its newest recruit? “Frankly I’m still somewhat surprised by it,” said Paul Timpanelli, CEO of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council.
But he told WNPR the surprise is tempered with optimism. Back in the early '90s when Ganim was first elected, he brought a positive energy to the city.
“He was very much in the forefront to turn Bridgeport’s fortunes around in terms of economic development. He did a great job on that score for ten years. The city progressed very dramatically…and then we had a setback.”
That setback of course, the massive corruption scandal that landed Ganim in federal prison for seven years. And so, Timpanelli says, the reinvented Ganim has a lot to prove. “There’s going to be a period where people will wait and see with regard to building their confidence in the new mayor and his administration,” he said.
But Timpanelli wants the Business Council to act as a catalyst to help the administration move in a positive direction. “We hope to be able to bring the new mayor together with Bridgeport development, investment, and business communities, so that he can present his case and they can listen, and we can build confidence quickly. That’s number one, and number two, I think everybody’s clearly waiting to see who the new mayor surrounds himself with.”
Timpanelli says he’d like to see Ganim focus on some of the key high-profile development efforts already underway in the city, including Steelpointe Harbor, the Ecotechnology Park, downtown north, and the redevelopment of the train station.
