John M. Fabrizi
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John Michael Fabrizi (December 25, 1956-) was the former mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, succeeded by Bill Finch. He is also a member of the U.S. Democratic Party.
Fabrizi holds degrees from Southern Connecticut State University as well as the University of Bridgeport and has served in numerous public service capacities. He was assistant director of Bridgeport's adult education program, and was also a teacher of fifth and sixth graders. He was first elected to public office, the Bridgeport Civil Service Administration, in 1983.
In 1992, Fabrizi was elected to the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee and in 1996, he was elected to the Democratic State Central Committee of Connecticut. In 1997, he was elected to the Bridgeport City Council. He became the mayor of Bridgeport in 2003, after the previous mayor, Joseph P. Ganim, was sentenced to nine years in a federal prison for corruption charges. As mayor, Fabrizi is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,[1] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.
In June 2006, an FBI report surfaced in which an alleged drug dealer claimed an associate had a videotape of the mayor using cocaine. The rumor that there was a videotape turned out to be false. At first, Fabrizi acknowledged that he had made "poor choices in the past", but declined to be more specific. Eventually, in a prepared speech he gave, he declared openly that over the course of a number of years he abused alcohol and used cocaine occasionally. U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor has said Fabrizi was not a target of the drug investigation, and he apologized to the mayor after the report was released.
On May 9, 2007, Fabrizi announced he would not seek re-election. The full text of his speech is here: [1]
Fabrizi is currently serving on the Democratic State Central Committee of Connecticut for the 2008-2010 term. [2]
