About Bob

Highlights from Bob’s resume . . .

Connecticut Native — Born in New Haven.
Local Attorney — Sole proprietor responsible for all aspects of the business.
Instructor of Management and Policy at the University of New Haven — teaches undergraduate and graduate students.
Member of the Norwich City Council
Former Norwich Assistant City Manager
Former Norwich City Manager
Legislative Assistant to two United States Senators — Senator Paul Sarbanes (Maryland) and Senator Chris Dodd (Connecticut).
Top Manager at the United States Department of Transportation — Acting Assistant Director of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 1994-1999
Graduate of Eastern Connecticut State University – B.A. in Government Studies. 1987.
Graduate of the University of Connecticut — M.A. in Political Science. 1989.
Graduate of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education — Ed.M. in Administration, Planning and Social Policy. 1990.
Graduate of the University of Oregon School of Law – Law Review Editor, graduated in 1993.

More about Bob . . .

Bob Zarnetske is a Connecticut native born in New Haven in 1966.  His mother was 18 years old when he born; his father was 20.

Bob was the oldest of three siblings.  He was a very lucky kid.  His parents constantly struggled to make ends meet, but they were still able to provide good guidance and help their children develop strong self-confidence and a deep appreciation for social justice.  Bob’s parents didn’t have college degrees, but they were smart, knew right from wrong and they had common sense.  They passed those great gifts on to all three of their children.  The picture to the right is Dawn (front left), Kristin (front right) Bob (hiding in the back) and Pham Duc Tre, a Vietnamese high school student who stayed with the Zarnetskes in the early 1970s.  Tre was killed soon after returning to Vietnam.

Bob’s parents always pushed their children to do well in school and enouraged Bob and his sisters to work hard and learn as much as they could about everything.  They read widely and encouraged their children to be open-minded and curious.  Bob and his sisters learned to ask questions and keep asking until they got answers that made sense.  They were taught that those who are on the right side of an issue are always able to explain their reasoning.  Bob’s mother would often say “Be suspicious of any one who says ‘because I said so.’”  Bob’s grandfather, a WWII veteran and lineman who advanced through the ranks to become a phone company manager, and his grandmother, a waitress at an I-95 truck stop, taught their grandchildren to have respect for hard work. Perhaps because of the family’s appreciation for law and the habits of mind instilled in them by their parents, all three children grew up to work the legal field.  Bob’s sister Dawn is now a legal secretary for Yale New Haven Hospital.  She lives in Milford with her husband and three girls.  Bob’s youngest sister, Kristin, is a production manager for a firm that produces video depositions for lawyers in the greater Boston area.

Bob was the first in his family to graduate from college.  He earned his Bachelor’s degree from  Eastern Connecticut State University in 1987 (after just three years of attendance).  He was also the first graduate of Eastern’s Honors Program.  His senior thesis was a study of socialization through education and curriculum design.  He attended Eastern and UCONN simultaneously and earned his Masters degree from the University of Connecticut in 1989.  In 1990, Bob earned a second Masters degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.  After graduating from Harvard, Bob went out west to study law at the University of Oregon. He served as an editor on the Oregon Law Review and graduated in the top third of his class in 1993.
For Bob, education was a ticket to world.  He studied at five separate Universities.  He traveled throughout the western United States and even earned a minor in Japanese language after studying in Japan through an exchange program administered by Hokkaido University. Bob has had the opportunity to travel throughout North America and Europe.  He is a citizen of the European Union (his wife, Shirley, is a native of Ireland who also has duel citizenship) and he has worked as a U.S. government representative at conferences and meetings in Ireland, England, France, and the Czech Republic.

Bob started his public career as a Presidential Management Intern at the U.S. Department of Education.  Bob then served as the Acting Assistant Director of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he started the National Transportation Library – a Congressionally mandated online library for the nation’s transportation planners and policymakers. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena awarded Bob the Secretary’s Silver Medal for managing the development of the nation’s first digital library of transportation materials.  In 1996, Bob was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the Federal Computer Community by Federal Computer Week Magazine.  He was awarded three Hammer Awards from Vice President Gore for his helping design and implement computer and information distribution programs. Bob made presentations about the National Transportation Library across the country, in Canada and Europe.

At the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Bob developed a great appreciation for the value of good data, honestly-developed statistics and well-organized information.  He learned from some of the most accomplished members of the federal government’s senior executive service, who defined the Bureau’s mission as this – ”Our job is to hold a mirror up to the nation to help the public and policymakers see the implications of their decisions.  We help people understand whether things are getting better or worse and what we mean by better or worse.  We leave it to Congress to deterine what should be done about it.”

In 1999, Bob became a Brookings Institute LEGIS Fellow and joined the staff of Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland.  Bob helped Senator Sarbanes draft legislation to reduce contamination of the Chesapeake Bay.  Bob later joined the office of Senator Christopher J. Dodd as Dodd’s Legislative Assistant for Judiciary, Public Safety, Housing, Transportation and Indian Affairs.  Bob assisted Senator Dodd in drafting and advancing the FIRE Act, the first federal program to provide direct assistance to local paid and volunteer fire departments. As a member of Dodd’s staff, Bob also dealt with a wide range of municipal issues and worked with mayors from throughout Connecticut including Mayor Perez of Harford, Mayor DeStefano of New Haven and Mayor Malloy of Stamford.  Bob also worked closely with Connecticut state officials from nearly every department in the state government.

Life in Washington was good for Bob, Shirley and their two children. The hours on the job were long but Bob has never minded hard work.  He loved being engaged in big policy debates, but he didn’t see as much of his family as he as he wanted.  Bob also wanted to get his ”hands dirty” with policies that could have a more direct impact on the lives of real people.  In Washington, it sometimes seems that every argument in about some theoretical, statistical norm.  Bob wanted to work on local issues, so he started looking for jobs in Connecticut.  When he heard that Norwich was looking for an Assistant City Manager, he jumped at the opportunity to be part of the revitalization of one of Connecticut’s oldest and most historically significant cities.  He told his friends in Washington that he was going home to help finish the restoration of the most beautiful little city in New England.

In December 2003, Bob assumed the position of Assistant City Manager in Norwich. Two years later he was promoted to the position of City Manager by unanimous vote of the City Council.  Bob immediately started making changes to the structures and procedures of city government.  He insisted that all city employees and officials comply with rules of ethics in hiring and procurement.  He established high standards of service, created performance measures for all city departments and created a culture of accountability.  When Bob advised members of the City Council that the city’s rules of ethics applied to them too, he lost favor with the Council and after months of disagreement, Bob agreed to resign as city manager.  Later that year, Bob ran for City Council himself and currently serves on the Council.

Since July 2007, Bob has run his own local law firm — the Law Office of Robert Zarnetske, LLC — next to City Hall at 110 Broadway.  Bob is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of New Haven, where he teaches management and public policy courses.

Bob lives in Norwich with his wife Shirley, his son Ilya and his daughter Kasia.  His mother, father, grandfather, sister, three nieces, two brother-in-laws, an uncle and several cousins live nearby.