Ex-Met manager named public safety director
STAMFORD - Mayor Michael Pavia announced Thursday morning that he has appointed former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine to his cabinet as the city's director of public health and safety.
Valentine, a lifelong Stamford resident, will begin immediately in his new role and will earn $10,000 annually, a salary that he said he plans to give back to the community.
"I'm going to give this my best effort," Valentine said during a press conference with Pavia at Government Center Thursday. "The thought of trying to do good in a very public way is a very exciting challenge in my life."
Pavia cited Valentine's management and leadership skills as a local business owner and international baseball manager as his reasons for selecting him to head Stamford's public safety department. He also pointed to Valentine's work over the past six months as chairman of the mayor's task force to reorganize the city's fire department as an indication that the job was a good fit.
He knows the operation of fire service as well as anybody in Stamford, Pavia said. What that shows me is his commitment to what has to be done.
Valentine said his main function as director of public health and safety will be to improve communication between the mayor and the city's police, fire, emergency medical services and health departments.
"I'm going to be learning on a daily basis, all of the things that my job will entail," Valentine said. "(The departments) run, as I said, extremely well in the city and the mayor, I think, that I'm going to try to help coordinate the flow of information both ways, from him to them, and from the different services to the mayors office."
Valentine said he plans to donate his $10,000 annual salary to community services in Stamford. He cited the Mickey Lione Jr. fund and Stamford's Citizen of the Year scholarship as entities he would be interested in supporting.
"This is a non-salary position," Valentine said. "To receive is wonderful, to give is divine, I guess."
Valentine said his full-time job as a baseball analyst for ESPN would not interfere with his ability to serve as Stamford's health and public safety director. He said his work for ESPN will mainly consume night and weekend hours, leaving the days free to oversee Stamford's health and safety departments.
"I get up early, I go to bed late," he said. "There's plenty of hours in the day that I get to do the things that I need to do."
In early December, ESPN announced that the former New York Mets manager would serve as an analyst for its Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts as part of a three-man booth that will include Dan Shulman and former pitcher Orel Hershiser. The job will take him to ballparks across the country during baseball season.
Valentine is a longtime Stamford resident and prominent member of the community. His sports restaurant, Bobby Valentine's Sports Gallery Cafe, was an important component of the revitalization of downtown Stamford when it opened in Columbus Park in 1980. In 2007, Valentine launched the popular Bobby Valentines Sports Academy on Camp Avenue. Last Friday, Valentine was recognized as Stamford's Citizen of the Year in an early morning ceremony at Government Center.
Valentine has been involved with city government since last winter, when Pavia tapped him to head a task force charged with advising the mayor on a restructuring of the city's fire departments. Tension has existed for years between the city's paid and volunteer departments, and Valentine was not immune to the drama. In September, he lashed out at the local professional firefighter's union during a meeting of the Board of Representatives Public Health and Safety Committee.
"When I entered the room tonight, I had two union members treat me in a way that no one ever treats me," Valentine said at the end of the meeting. "I'm saying this publicly because the next time somebody says something, I might end up in front of a judge.
The public safety director job is a cabinet-level position that typically pays between $118,000 and $138,000. Pavia eliminated funding for the job and appointed himself to the vacant position shortly after taking office a year ago as a cost-saving measure. The move saved the city $122,000, but changes in the city's health department freed up enough money to pay a public safety director's salary for the first six months of 2011, which is the second half of the fiscal year. The city had been searching for a new director for several months. The position's full salary will have to be added to next year's budget.
The last public safety director appointment was a source of controversy in city government. Republican officials questioned former Mayor Dannel Malloy's decision to pay William Callion, whom he nominated for the position in September 2003, $11,000 more than his predecessor, Ben Barnes.
Callion's starting salary was $96,000 a year. He served as director of public safety in Stamford through the rest of Malloy's time in office. In 2008, the Board of Finance approved an 11 percent pay hike for Callion, raising his annual salary to $119,244.
Prior to his appointment to the mayoral cabinet, Callion had worked as a fire commissioner and served as chairman of the Board of Finance's Public Safety, Health and Welfare Committee. He also worked at IBM for 34 years.
The city Charter requires Stamford to have a director of public safety, health and welfare, who is responsible for the supervision of police, fire, health, social services, paramedics and emergency management.
