RESIDENTS WANT MAYOR TO TELL STORY

BRIDGEPORT -- Mayor John M. Fabrizi should come clean about whether
he bought or used drugs while in office.

That was the consensus among people interviewed downtown on Friday, a
day after a court document revealed that the mayor's name appeared in
a federal drug probe.

"I think if he did it in the [distant] past, it's irrelevant," said
Myriam Polk, 31, of Bridgeport, who was taking lunch in the sunshine
outside the Main Street headquarters of People's Bank, where she
works in the commercial lending department.

"The past is the past," agreed Natacha Louis, 29, of Stratford, a
co-worker who was sharing a stone bench with Polk.

Both said the mayor had not been candid enough in his comments
Thursday, in which Fabrizi said he "never claimed to be a choirboy"
but acknowledged no specific wrongdoing.

If Fabrizi did use drugs in the past, Polk said, admitting it would
make him "appear to be honest." But she said if he'd been abusing
drugs recently, "I think he needs to step down."

"And get some help," Louis added.

Nearby, on a bench at Jasper McLevy Green, John Gilbert said he is
not sure what to make of the news.

"I believe in what the law says, that you are innocent until proven
guilty," said Gilbert, a city resident who said he is a state employee.

But he also said Fabrizi should admit the allegations or
categorically deny them. He added: "I don't think he will."

He wasn't sure what kind of future the mayor would have if he were to
acknowledge criminal behavior -- or whether he'd still be able to run the city.

"Can Ganim be a good mayor?" he asked, referring to Fabrizi's
predecessor in City Hall, Joseph P. Ganim, who is serving a nine-year
federal prison term for corruption.

Shelton resident Debbie Zych, 34, said it is unfair to repeat the
allegations about Fabrizi without charges or evidence.

"It could Advertisementbe hearsay. It could be a rumor, somebody
getting back at the mayor," said Zych, a financial analyst at RBS who
was reading under the shade of a Pacific dogwood at McLevy Green.

But now that it's out there, she said Fabrizi should "come clean."
She believes the public would forgive him if the drug use was not recent.

"Should he resign over that one fact? I don't think so -- if it's the
past, it's the past," she said.

As a former drug addict, Bridgeport resident Greg Corley said the
mayor deserves the benefit of the doubt, but added that he should
apologize if he did anything wrong.

"Everybody is basically given a chance," he said. "Be truthful about
what you do wrong and let people know that you're not exempt from the
things that happen in life."

Corley, 49, who was downtown hoping to find work at a construction
site, added that the Scripture cautions against judging others.

"The Bible says, 'He who is without sin should cast the first stone,'
" Corley said.

Nearby, 25-year-old Justin Rogers, of Fairfield, also urged the mayor
to come clean one way or the other.

Rogers said he believes many people would understand if the mayor
used drugs, as long as he wasn't selling them.

"If he was using, that evokes a little more sympathy, because I know
a lot of people who have drug problems," Rogers said. "He should come
out and say it."

He said he wasn't sure how the Fabrizi controversy might affect the
city after so many scandals. "Bridgeport's got to be used to it by
now," Rogers said.