Norwalk: The Politics Of Incompetency

by turfgrrl

January 25th, 2008 · 24 Comments

Tags: In the News

24 Responses so far ↓ “Norwalk: The Politics Of Incompetency”

• 1 fed up with this // Jan 25, 2008 at 2:15 pm

  Now we know why there was such a rush with the changing of the guards.

  Is Papa Gunn employing the whole city now. It sure looks like it.

  Sue Gunn is in power Long Live The Queen.

  The Friends should gather up all the collections they own and open a museum that will be run as a museum should be. At least they would show up everyday.

  This is terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• 2 History Starts with Me! // Jan 25, 2008 at 2:33 pm

  A dark hour indeed. The only good things that have happened at the museum are directly linked to the Friends of the Norwalk Museum.

  The curator has not even been able to do a simple inventory, how cany she do her duties when it is obvious she spends her paid work hours writing how she is ill-treated. If she only did her job instead of whining, maybe she would earn some respect.

  Hire the handicapped but not the incompetent.

• 3 anon // Jan 25, 2008 at 2:49 pm

  TG your reports on this issue are appreciated.

• 4 numb // Jan 25, 2008 at 3:28 pm

  This is beyond incompetent.

• 5 anonymous // Jan 25, 2008 at 4:57 pm

  Isn’t very interesting that Sue Gunn, Eric Chandler,Charles Yost and my all time favorite patoot kisser Peter Bondi drafted the policy manual. Excuse me while I spit this bitter taste in my mouth. Sue can’t even attend a HC meeting!

  Amazing.

• 6 anonymous // Jan 25, 2008 at 5:05 pm

  The pieces are falling in place. Watch what happens next to the HC. Who’s the guy behind the curtain? Daddy Gunn? Daddy Bondi? Or another eminence gris?

• 7 disgusted // Jan 26, 2008 at 2:57 pm

  How ‘in your face’ corrupt can the city get. I would like to know if commissioners were asked to volunteer to work on the committee to form a museum policy or was this a selection by Bondi. I’ll bet not! The commission has been waiting for 8 years for the curator to create a policy manual for the NM, a priority for any curator taking a job. She never had the time because she was always sooooo busy. Now that the Friends of the NMs are asking for the codification of their 30+ year status, suddenly there is a rush to beat the law dept. to a decision. The ‘curator’ cannot curate, manage, organize, create, schedule, or do any of the other qualifications necessary for the job. The only thing she gets right is her doctor’s appointments and her multitude of time- off days.

  Turfgrrl hit it right on the nailhead. The sneaky stupidity of the present HC is all about protecting an incompetent, and has nothing to do with protecting an incredibly wonderful Norwalk collection from the incompetents. But, then, it’s business as usual in the great city of Norwalk.

• 8 anon // Jan 26, 2008 at 3:52 pm

  Round and round we go. Remember, from the beginning Sue Gunn understood that it wasn’t what she knew (she didn’t and doesn’t seem to know very much about how to do her job, or work in general), but who she knew that mattered. It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

• 9 2 sides to every story // Jan 26, 2008 at 5:32 pm

  The Friends of Norwalk museum have been AWOL more often than they will admit to. Look at the records. Ralph Bloom is a whiny troublemaker who has manipulated hatred against Sue Gunn from the beginning, and a lot of her problems emotional and otherwise are due to the calculated and almost pathological scheming of some of the Friends (not all). Ralph has contibuted a lot over the years, but he has made more enemies than anyone, and a lot of the trouble at the museum can be traced back to petty jealosies of that control freak who hates everybody. Ask him who he likes, and who has done a good job. Bet the answer would be a big fat nobody. She may be a bit unstable, but who wouldn’t be with some of the things she’s been wrongly accused of and the bitter nasty things said publicly about her, alot of it just untrue.
  The Friends have more than their share of wacky personalities, and Sue Gunn has been made a scpaegoat for all their own failings. It is time to set the record straight and stop this immature bullying.

• 10 barnstorm // Jan 26, 2008 at 10:54 pm

  #9,, maybe Ralph has made enemies because he’s been so dedicated to preserving Norwalk’s history rather than allowing the developers to destroy it.

  Unlike a lot of individuals, Ralph’ motivations have never been for his own grandisement. He exposed the fact that daddy Gunn got Sue the job and Sue has done everything in her power to prove all his accusations correct. I certainly wouldn’t characterize that as “whiny”.

• 11 2 sides to every story // Jan 27, 2008 at 8:45 am

  #10, this has nothing to do with preservation and developers.
  As I said, Ralph has done a lot over the years, and Norwalk would be at a huge loss without his valuable contributions. And Sue Gunn is hard to defend. I am just saying that the traits that Sue Gunn is accused of are also quite apparent in some of the members of the Friends including Ralph. Petty and self righteous for starters. History is never black and white, but Ralph believes that his version alone is the only one, and more often than not any other opinion that is offered is dismissed loudly and with sharp criticism of the intelligence and dedication of who over makes it.
  Is this not true? Working with him is an exercise in patience. The history of Norwalk is long and complicated, and is certainly not the Bloom version only. Rather than work with Sue Gunn and try to help her, he and a few others went on a vicious and calculated attack early on, and have waged a relentless and nasty pr campaign that offered no solutions and just made things worse for everybody.

  History is as much about interpretation as it is just a gathering and display of artifacts and photos.
  The museum needs a new approach, and the Friends way is as much at fault as anyones. It is not all Sue Gunns fault as some would have you believe.
  She needs to go, but a more organized new curator had better have a strong enough personality to stand up to the nasty and vengeful pettiness of Ralph and his bitchfest bullies, or we’ll be in the same boat forever.

• 12 Cover up for incompetence // Jan 27, 2008 at 9:05 am

  Ralph DOES support others wiht a similar level of committment and passion for Norwalk’s history. He DOES NOT tolerate incompetence about somthing that he has spent his life preserving and protecting. The PR cmapaign, the lawsuits, the accusations, and innuendo have consistently come from Susan Gunn in an attmept to place blame for her inability to run the Museum on someone else. She has been given multiple chances to “prove herself” and has failed every time. No inventory since she arrived? That is such a basic function and she has been unable to do it in the 6 years she has been there. This in spite of the HC closing the Museum for a month or more, relieving her of all other reposnibility, in order to help her get a handle on an inventory. How is that failure Ralph’s fault? How is the rat’s midden that is her office and the archives anyone’s fault but her own? She is not able to do the job and trying to blame others is a pathetic excuse. In any “normal” work situation, she would have been fired years ago. Frankly, if the city wants to waste taxpayer money on an incompetent, so be it. Won’t be the first time. But I do care that the City’s history and artifacts continue to be at risk.

  There is the rumour that her husband, Mike Bromley, was showing around a dageurotype from the Musuem collection at a party a few years back. Did that go back into the collection or is it still in Bromley’s hands? What else is missing?

• 13 anon // Jan 27, 2008 at 10:27 am

  #9 who is to blame for the trouble Sue Gunn had getting along with everyone at the Lockwood Mathews Museum before we got stuck with her here?

• 14 barnstorm // Jan 27, 2008 at 10:40 am

  I still say we ought to shift Ms Gunn’s duties and responsibilities to Norwalk’s massage parlors and crack houses. They’d all be closed in no time flat, freeing up law enforcement for more important duties.

• 15 Cover up for incompetence // Jan 27, 2008 at 10:45 am

  Good idea, barnstorm. Personally, though, I think Ms. Gunn should be an assistant to the Mayor. The original claim was that she reported only to the Mayor. So, let her…as long as her office is in the Mayor’s area of City Hall and she leaves the Museum alone!

• 16 Norwalker // Jan 27, 2008 at 12:23 pm

  I believe the reporting to the Mayor scenario was changed to reporting to the commission back in the Knopp days. He also fueled the situation when he appointed Ralph to the commission.

• 17 disgusted // Jan 27, 2008 at 2:28 pm

  Norwalker #16 and ‘two sides to every story’ you seem to forget that Ralph is probably the only totally qualified person that should be on the commission. He is the Municipal Historian, he has been honored in the state of CT for his contributions. He did not fuel any fire, but only brought his expertise - something that was greatly appreciated and in a normal town with a normal operation he would be on the local HISTORICAL commission. But this is Norwalk. Ralph is also one of the few people who eyewitnessed Norwalk’s history for the last 45 years, as he has been collecting historical artifacts of this town’s manufacturing history since he was a young boy. Gunn owned her psychological problems long before she ever came to Norwalk. She has a history of leaving bad feelings in every job she has ever had and people were glad to see her go.

  So do not try to blame someone else in order to shift the blame of total incompetence of the curator and the power protection surrounding her when you have no idea of what you are talking about.

  And I would like to remind you all with short memories that the reason the whole story came out years ago was becaue Ms Gunn started it with accusatory stories in the newspapers. The then Commission tried to keep her incompetency within so as not to embarass the mayor, but she fired the first shot. So stop trying to, again, blame other people. Funny, how some things backfire.

• 18 disgusted // Jan 27, 2008 at 2:34 pm

  Norwalker #16 and ‘two sides to every story’ you seem to forget that Ralph is probably the only totally qualified person that should be on the commission. He is the Municipal Historian, he has been honored in the state of CT for his many contributions. He did not fuel any fire, but only brought his expertise - something that was greatly appreciated and in a normal town with a normal operation he would be on the local HISTORICAL commission. But this is Norwalk. Ralph is also one of the few people who eyewitnessed Norwalk’s history for the last 45 years, as he has been collecting historical artifacts of this town’s manufacturing history since he was a young boy. Gunn made and owned her psychological problems long before she ever came to Norwalk. She has a history of leaving bad feelings in every job she has ever had and people were glad to see her go.

  So do not try to blame someone else in order to shift the blame of total incompetence of the curator and the power protection surrounding her when you have no idea of what you are talking about.

  And I would like to remind you all with short memories that the reason the whole story came out years ago was becaue Ms Gunn started it with accusatory stories in the newspapers. The then Commission tried to keep her incompetency within so as not to embarass the mayor, but she fired the first shot. So stop trying to, again, blame other people. Funny, how some things backfire when the truth needs to be faced.

• 19 Jarvis Lorry // Jan 28, 2008 at 9:18 am

  Ralph Bloom and the Common Interest Group was responsible for saving the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion from being demolished.
  Ralph Bloom contacted the Lockwood family and was responsible for the Lockwood House museum on East Avenue, and the Historic Reference Library.
  Ralph Bloom saw the empty, former city hall in South Norwalk, and created the Norwalk Museum.
  Did he do this alone? Of course not. Does he make things happen? Yes - he is a goal oriented person that has a proven track record of fund-raising, exhibits,and motivating volunteers to help and to feel appreciated.
  When he had charge of Lockwood House and The Norwalk Museum, there were many community groups that used the space for meetings and events, and a sense that this was something good, something that made you proud to be part of Norwalk.
  There is something about Ralph that is unique - he actually works as opposed to attending meetings.

• 20 nwlknative // Jan 28, 2008 at 1:34 pm

  Having been born and raised in Norwalk and being a fifth generation “Norwalker”, I think I also know quite a bit of the history of Norwalk, but would never think I could qualify to be the Norwalk HIstorian. I really don’t know how only 45 years in Norwalk can qualify one person for that title. While I acknowledge that Ralph Bloom has done a lot for the Norwalk Museum, especially when it was in the Lockwood House on East Avenue, he is not the only totally qualified person to be on the commission, as #18 stated. As far as an inventory - was there ever a good accounting of the inventory - even when the museum was in the Lockwood House?

• 21 Cover up for incompetence // Jan 28, 2008 at 2:32 pm

  Ralph is a dedicated amateur; Gunn is puportedly a curatorial professional. Whether there was an inventory done by Ralph is irrelevant. Gunn has had 8 bloody years to come up with an inventory for a small local musesum. I would think that would be pletny of time even if she was starting from scratch — which she was not.

• 22 disgusted // Jan 28, 2008 at 4:29 pm

  #20 - I too am a Norwalk native and your lack of reasoning does not hold water within an intelligent argument. If you are on the commission now you should know that under the former curator, there was not a computer for the NM. All the inventory was contained on cards within the very organized alphabetical file cabinets that are still in the museum. The system worked beautifully just as for any library. The new curator got computers and was instructed by the law dept. to create an inventory. That was never done. Any responsible curator would want to know at a very early stage just what he/she is curator of.

  And as for 45 years qualifying a person for historian, it is not just years but how those years were spent studying, following, researching and dedication, as well as personally knowing the many people whose family histories we talk about now and have donated to the museum because they have been approached by Ralph. And that inlcudes the original bequest from the Manice deForest Lockwood family which was the basis for the creation of the museum. Again, try and get your information straight.

• 23 Norwalker // Jan 28, 2008 at 7:50 pm

  Discusted,
  I agree that Ralph is an asset to the community. What I said was that when he joined the commission the personality conflict between him and sue made for an explosive environment. It was tough enough dealing with sue but the two of them together… should have had boxing gloves. As far as not knowing what i’m talking about, unless you know me, speak for yourself.

• 24 Knows the story // Jan 30, 2008 at 5:08 pm

  Norwalker, If you really knew your history, the Historical Commission was formed by Mr. Bloom and John Cuneo, then on the Mayor’s Sites Committee. It must not be easy for Mr. Bloom to watch the museum he created with Mr. Lockwood to be destroyed by an incompetent with “connections” like Sue Gunn who always likes to blame everybody else for her incompetency.

  I’m sure everytime she breaks a fingernail, it is Ralph or someone elses “fault” whether they are in or out of the State. And all of the idiots believe her because she can play the “victim” like Sara Bernhardt.

  The problem is that you have peope who know nothing about the museum or the Commission making decisions about them. I wonder what the Lockwoods would think of all of this crap. Both Sue Gunn and the HC are an embarrassment to Norwalk.

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