Council Leaders Question Bizzarro on Stewart

The City Council’s President, Ald. Eva Magnuszewski (D-AL), and its Majority Leader, Ald. Carlo Carlozzi, Jr. (D-5) are asking Gennaro Bizzarro tough questions about Timothy Stewart.

The two Council leaders sent a letter to Bizzarro, the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce, which employs former Republican Mayor Timothy Stewart about the scandal roiling after Stewart made a misogynistic comment about female members of Congress during the national State of the Union address.

In the letter, the leaders say that, “As elected leaders by the residents of New Britain the members of the Common Council feel it is our responsibility to protect the integrity of our great city.”

They then ask a series of pointed questions of Bizzarro. They first asked, “Have you asked Tim Stewart to resign as president of the Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce?”

Magnuszewski and Carlozzi asked Bizzarro to clarify, “When will the chamber board hold the special meeting you mentioned in yesterday’s statement?”

The scandal involving Stewart’s recent comments have renewed calls for his resignation or removal from his influential position as President of the Chamber of Commerce that began in late 2017 when Stewart made a comment about the residents of the city’s North-Oak neighborhood that were widely condemned as racist.

In their message to Bizzarro, the Council leaders asked about the possible terms of Stewart’s departure. “Does Mr. Stewart have a contract, or is he an at-will employee?,” they asked, and “Is there any chance that Mr. Stewart gets ‘bought out’ or receives severance or any other form of payment in exchange for his resignation or termination?”

The two Council leaders then turned their questions to the relationship between the Stewart City Hall and Stewart-run Chamber of Commerce.

“You are the city’s current corporation counsel,” they asked, “a position you also held under Mr. Stewart when he was mayor, do you believe either of those facts constitute a conflict of interest in your ability to handle this matter?”

They then asked Bizzarro,”Have you had conversations with the current mayor, Erin Stewart, on this matter, as to how it might be handled and resolved?”

The Chamber of Commerce has a close relationship with City Hall in New Britain. The elder Stewart became President of the Chamber shortly after his daughter, Republican Mayor Erin Stewart was elected as mayor. Bizzarro, is, himself, employed by the younger Stewart as the city’s Corporation Counsel.

In 2017, Erin Stewart sought to distance herself from the scandal at that time by saying that the Chamber, “is not an entity of the city.” But, meanwhile, it was Bizzarro who announced that the elder Stewart would remain as Chamber President, despite the public outrage.

On Wednesday evening (February 7, 2019) Magnuszewski said that Bizzarro had not yet responded to the letter.

Bizzarro is the Republican candidate for the State Senate in a February 26, 2019 special election called after former State Senator Terry Gerratana (D-6) joined the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont (D-CT).