Sikorsky Memorial Airport (KBDR) gets new temporary head

BRIDGEPORT -- Six weeks after John Ricci was ousted as the manager of Sikorsky Memorial Airport, the city has quietly installed a new temporary boss while searching for a permanent replacement.

Pauline A. Mize has been named acting airport manager for the Bridgeport-owned facility, which is located in Stratford. She officially started the job Monday, but news of her arrival became public a few days later.

"We were planning to announce it this week, but we were just giving her an opportunity to get settled," said Elaine Ficarra, spokeswoman for Mayor Bill Finch, said Thursday.

Mize will be paid $94,161 as acting manager, about the same salary Ricci was earning when his tenure abruptly ended in early August.

Ficarra said Mize will serve as acting manager until the conclusion of an ongoing national search for a new, permanent airport manager. It was not clear Thursday how long that search would take, or how Mize was selected as an interim manager.

Multiple attempts to reach Mize on Thursday were unsuccessful.

"I look forward to the challenge, and am pleased to have been selected to take the helm as acting manager at the airport," Mize said in a city news release. "My goal will be to make the airport a safer facility for the flying public, our tenants and the surrounding neighbors."

According to the release, Mize worked as the airport manager for Francis S. Gabreski Airport on Long Island. There, she secured $10 million in federal funding for improvements to the airfield's lighting system and headed up economic development initiatives involving the airport. The release said Mize also worked for the Long Island city of Glen Cove in various capacities.

Mize takes over the top job just as the airport emerges from the turbulence of Ricci's departure.

He was fired amid a controversy over a $400,000 driveway built by millionaire developer Manuel "Manny" Moutinho and paid for by the city. The city said that Ricci did not disclose his business connections with Moutinho before he and the city attorney's office hired Moutinho for the job. Ricci has told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers that he did disclose the relationship.

The driveway went across Sikorsky land to Moutinho's waterfront mansion. City officials said the project was needed because a dirt driveway used by Moutinho and three other property owners was going to be eliminated by a runaway safety project.

Sources said the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office had been investigating the driveway controversy because the safety upgrade is being paid for with federal dollars. Initially fired by Mayor Bill Finch on Aug. 1, Ricci opted later that month to retire and collect city benefits instead filing a grievance against the city.

Original article:   http://www.ctpost.com