New life of Bridgeport's Republican party

Marc Delmonico, who moved to Bridgeport from Trumbull in 2003, has taken over the reins as chairman of the city's Republican Party.

A resident of the city's Black Rock neighborhood, the 47-year-old is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport ('83) and a former employee of GE Capital in Fairfield. He is now the co-owner of the Grenadier Corp., a masonry contractor that has 140 employees.

He lives with his wife, Barbara, and two daughters, Lily, 10, and Charlotte, 5.

Recently, Delmonico discussed his role in trying to reverse the fortunes of the vastly outnumbered Bridgeport GOP in this traditionally Democratic city.

Q: How did you get involved in politics?

A: "I moved to Bridgeport in 2003, and my brother-in-law got me involved. I was always very interested in politics. So, then I became secretary of the party, and later, the opportunity came up to be party chairman."

Q: Do you have any aspirations to run for office, or are you content to stay behind the scenes as party chairman? And do you hope to run for mayor someday?

A: "Well, I ran for City Council three years ago with Donna Curran. Donna, as you know, got in, and I didn't. It was an eye-opening experience, even just at that level, at the Black Rock level.

"Yeah, I'm interested in pursuing office. I'd like to get back to it, but I have two young kids at home — 10 and 5 — so when the time's right. You don't want to miss out on this part of their lives.

"As for mayor? Never say never."

Q: You said you were involved in a masonry business. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about that.

A: "Well, we mostly do restorations — we really don't do any new work. We have clients like Columbia University, New York Presbyterian Hospital. We just did a job for Yale University. That type of large project — $500,000 to $2 million or so. We have 150 employees — union — so we keep busy. In the early '90s, I saw that this business was for sale in The Wall Street Journal, so I put together a buyout of the business, and with my brothers and dad, we went into it."

Q: Even though this is a Democratic city, there have been two Republican mayors in recent years — Mary Moran and Leonard Paoletta. Have you had a chance to talk with them?

A: "No I haven't. I met Mary briefly at one of our functions, but I look at my job as trying to reach out to the independents and the Democrats of Bridgeport. There's a lot of dissatisfaction in Bridgeport right now."

Q: So, what's your take on the city and where it's headed?

A: "We always dabble in mediocrity, we never shoot to excel in this town.

"Years ago, my grandfather moved here from Italy, settled in Bridgeport at the age of 18. Bridgeport at that time had a great industrial base and it had a great banking base. That's all gone now, but you look at I-95 and you see a hundred thousand reasons why Bridgeport can become a wonderful back-office operations center for any number of corporations."

Q: How would you encourage that?

A: "Well, we're not aggressive enough in knocking on corporations' doors, and saying, 'Hey, have your clerks work up here, have your data entry people work up here, instead of having to drive all the way down to Stamford.' It used to take me — in the early '90s — 35 minutes to get from here to Co-Op City in the Bronx. Now the commute is ridiculous. If I leave my New York office at 4, I'm lucky to get home by 6. "So we have to press the issue with companies. It's great that we offer housing to artists. I mean, the arts are great. But when was the last time an artist hired a hundred people?

"The city of Bridgeport a lot of times acts like a stepchild. They're not aggressive. This is a wonderful city and we have wonderful assets. Let's not let people kick us around."

Q: So what are some of the mistakes that the city has made in recent years?

A: "We throw money at the wrong people. I mean D'Addario got a $3 million benefit. Dinardo got a $400,000 benefit. He owes $8 million to the city. They should have gone after him when he owed a few thousand, not a few million.

"The city rests its failures on the back of the taxpayers. The city is very good at protecting the city employees and the city benefits.

"Today, at any company, you're not going to get cradle-to-grave benefits, but that's Bridgeport's mentality."

Q: What are some of the glaring examples of this?

A: "We have police officers making $140,000 or even $160,000 a year, waving people by holes in the street on overtime. Granted, sometimes contractors are paying for that, but hey, I'm an employer — sometimes I have jobs going around the clock, I don't have people working 16-hour days. I'll have three people to cover three shifts of eight-hour days."

Q: Have you had a chance to look at the school system?

A: Briefly. And what I've found is that the money's not getting down to the students. It's obvious. The money is getting stuck somewhere up at the administrative level.

"There has to be an operational, financial audit of what's going on with the board of ed. In fact there needs to be an operational audit of the whole city. There are better ways to do things."

Q: What's your take on Steel Point?

A: "Bridgeport always seems to go for the home run and never tries for singles and doubles. They should play small ball.

"I think small projects would benefit the city the most. I mean, let's try to get some employers here. It's great that we're building all of these apartments overlooking the Sound, but who's going to move there?"