Bridgeport Labs board member Kelvin Ayala, left, an economic development consultant, addresses gathering of green energy initiative on Saturday.

Several members of the city’s state legislative delegation and municipal officials met on Saturday for the launching of a green energy authority, a public-private partnership for designing and funding municipal microgrids and empowering underserved community interests.

bill introduced by State Representatives Chris Rosario and Joe Gresko calls for the creation of a Municipal Energy Security Authority to enhance energy affordability, carbon reduction and workforce development.

MESA expects to invest in advancing U.S. Department of Energy’s technologies to create energy savings, pricing affordability, system resilience, critical infrastructure hardening, and local sustainability, with a policy priority to create a multitude of skilled green jobs for America’s workforce, according to officials of Bridgeport Labs, Inc (bLabs), and includes founding member Rev. D Stanley Lord, president of the local NAACP, who spoke on behalf of bLabs in a news release.

Saturday’s meeting took place in Bridgeport Labs Downtown office.

“The great importance of MESA is that the country is ready to move forward by investing in green energy,” says Lord. “MESA is here to create good paying jobs for each and all who show up to work, and ‘yes’ this includes our policy to hire from our most underserved but deserving of population. My goal is to support the NAACP “One Million Jobs Campaign” (unemployment is especially acute in urban populations due to incarceration release rates).

“Finally, I know these jobs are real. Our hope is to cut down on the number of people who go back to prison by training and hiring from local populations who are historically without workforce development opportunities. MESA establishes green standards that all people can support in building this green economy. I am partnered with MESA to ensure that the workforce development standards is equitable to all. I am committed to green standards for workforce development. New hires meet those green standards and are certified by bLabs and identified as the Rangers Work Force.”

State Senator Dennis Bradley, State Representatives Christopher Rosario, Joseph Gresko, Antonio Felipe and Charlie Stallworth were among the meeting participants as well as former Mayor Bill Finch, Anatoliy Gurevich (Fraser Lane Associates), Cary Smith (The Grey Edge Group), Attorney Edward Marcus (Marcus Law Firm), Attorney Mark Bergamo (Marcus Law Firm) and Christy Duffy-Acevedo (MESA).

Board of Directors of Bridgeport Labs:

Dr. Ralph Ford, (Chairman), City Clerk Lydia Martinez, (Treasurer), Ramya Subramanian, (President), Councilman Jorge Cruz (Director), Councilman Alfredo Castillo (Director), Kelvin Ayala (Director), William Conor Duffy (Director) Councilman and Michael DeFilippo (Director), Reverend D Stanley Lord (Director).