Marshal details many attempts to serve Bridgeport mayor
BRIDGEPORT — It took the better part of a month pouring through voter records, face-to-face rejections, numerous phone calls and even trying to contact Mayor Joe Ganim’s father before State Marshal Kenneth Lombardi finally handed Ganim the paper he had been asked to serve.
In a sworn affidavit filed in Superior Court on Friday, Lombardi detailed the difficulties he said he faced in serving Ganim with a notice that the Bridgeport mayor will have to give a deposition in the civil case challenging Acting Police Chief Rebeca Garcia’s qualifications.
From that first notice on Dec. 4 until the final hand-off Jan. 6, Lombardi worked to track down Ganim on behalf of three police captains suing the city contending Garcia wasn’t qualified for her appointment to assistant police chief.
The case brought by the three — Capt. Brian Fitzgerald, Capt. Roderick Porter and Capt. Steven Lougal — is pending in Superior Court. As part of the case, the captains had Ganim served with a notice that he will have to give a deposition on the process that was used to select Garcia.
Reading the affidavit is like watching a complicated game of chance play out.
Lombardi picked up the notice from the plaintiffs’ lawyer on Dec. 4.
“On Dec. 7, 2020, I attempted service upon Mayor Ganim (at the Margaret Morton Government Center) but was denied entry to the building due to COVID-19 restrictions,” he states in the affidavit.
He next called the mayor’s office but was told by the mayor’s secretary to contact the City Attorney. Deputy City Attorney John Bohannon Jr. refused to accept service, the affidavit states: “(He) was told that he was instructed not to accept service for this subpoena by Mayor Ganim himself.”
According to the affidavit, Lombardi then called the mayor’s office again but was told that no member of the staff or the mayor were present in the office and all members were working for home remotely.
He left a message, the affidavit reads.
On Dec. 8, Lombardi again called the mayor's office to schedule service of the subpoena but received no return phone call; on Dec. 11, he called the mayor's office to schedule service but without success, the affidavit states.
“Next, I checked the voting record of Mayor Ganim which indicated he lived (in an apartment near the Fairfield border). I attempted service at that address that day, but no one came to the door,” he stated in the document.
On Dec. 17, 18 and 27, he attempted to make contact there without success, the affidavit says.
Lombardi said he then went to another address listed for Joseph Ganim, this one an apartment in Black Rock, according to the document.
“When I went to the door, an individual who identified himself as a renter ... indicated that Mayor Ganim did not live at that address, but he received his mail at that address,” he stated in the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Lombardi next called a phone number that was supposed to be the mayor’s. A man answered, but when Lombardi stated his business, he said the man told him he had the wrong number and hung up.
“The voice sounded much like Joseph Ganim to both myself and my brother Edward Lombardi who was present with me. Additionally, the phone number matched the number he indicated was his on the legal voting record,” Lombardi stated in the affidavit.
On Dec. 27, Lombardi again contacted the Mayor's Office and spoke with the secretary; she told him she has been giving the mayor the messages and was told specifically that no one is to accept service of the document and she could not give him any information other than that, according to the affidavit.
He states in the document he even tried to contact the mayor’s father to help him serve the mayor but got nowhere.
Lombardi finally served the mayor on Jan. 6 at Luis Muniz Marin School.