New Haven Independent

One Party, Two Camps

The struggle between between Perez and DeStefano, allies since DeStefano’s first mayoral run in 1989, has simmered for a couple of years now. It emerged publicly with this primary season. The Democrats—who control 29 of the Board of Aldermen’s 30 seats in this one-party town—have split into two camps supporting competing candidates, with Perez and DeStefano the titular head of each side.

The dispute has played itself out in several votes over the past term. Aldermen loyal to DeStefano supported a new ordinance requiring inspections of absentee landlords’ rental apartments. They supported a domestic registry for gay couples. Perez and his allies generally were on the other side of those issues.

DeStefano loyalists feel they’re trying to transform the board away from old-style quid-pro-quo politics. They want to see the aldermen take on important citywide issues, and pass progressive laws in a constructive spirit with the mayor’s administration, rather than focus on merely symbolic, feel-good resolutions. For them, the upcoming board presidency fight is about taking the board in a new direction.

Aldermen sympathetic to Perez feel they’re trying to prevent the board from being a rubber stamp for the mayor, on issues ranging from outside contracting to New Haven’s participation in a new regional sewage-treatment agency. They believe the DeStefano administration promotes its own brand of patronage politics aimed at building a political and financial base for his gubernatorial campaign. (Technically, DeStefano is currently running for reelection as mayor this fall. In practice, he’s spending much of his time running for governor. That election takes place in 2006.)

Now aldermen loyal to DeStefano are hoping to depose Perez as board president. They’re supporting Alderman Carl Goldfield as a challenger. That vote takes place when the newly elected board convenes in January; the makeup of that board remains uncertain pending next Tuesday’s primaries. So, given how closely divided the board now is, the outcome of next Tuesday’s primaries (usually equal to general election in New Haven) will probably determine who’ll win the board presidency vote.

In theory, they could be choosing New Haven’s next mayor, too, when they choose a new board president. If DeStefano succeeds in becoming governor next year, he’ll have to step down as mayor halfway through his term. The president of the Board of Aldermen automatically takes his place as mayor to serve the remainder of the two-year term.

What Power Struggle?

DeStefano claims he’s staying out of all this jockeying over Board of Aldermen primaries and the election of the next board president. The power struggle is between two groups of Democrats on the Board of Aldermen, not between the mayor and the board president, DeStefano insists.

“I think this is an important election,” he says. “I don’t think me injecting myself into it publicly has value.

“Look. I’m not running against Jorge Perez for anything. I don’t have the view that I’m in a contest with Jorge. That is apparently his view. I realize this is a rather large issue for Jorge. It’s less so for me. I have a civil, cordial relationship with Jorge.”

To Perez, the dispute arose because the mayor refuses to deal with the aldermen as an equal partner or to tolerate dissent. Technically New Haven has a system of checks and balances. But historically the city has had a “strong mayor” form of government. The aldermen (the local equivalent of Congress) rarely challenge the mayor’s policies; often they’ll trade votes on important citywide issue in return for favors like new sidewalks or jobs for family members or friends. As a result, there’s little independent oversight of or input into city policies and practices.

Perez bristled last year when City Hall violated the law in entering into an $85,000 contract with a private legal firm without required approval from aldermanic leaders. Mayor DeStefano publicly apologized to the board. He promised to appoint a task force to study ways to improve his administration’s corporation counsel office. That was last year. The task force hasn’t met yet. Perez says DeStefano continues to ignore the board’s wishes. DeStefano responds it has taken a long time to get the task force going specifically because he does want to respect the political process; he wants to follow all the procedures for competitive bidding in finding a consultant for the task force. A similar test of wills has taken place over a new task force to look at shootings by police officers; that task force, too, has yet to meet.

His conflicts with the mayor also concern youth policy and gentrification, Perez says. He claims City Hall has thwarted efforts on the board to find money to help key youth agencies like LEAP, the Boys & Girls Club, and the Dixwell Q House (which remains closed). “I am tired of having people talking about youth, about how we need to do more” without delivering, Perez says.

DeStefano responds that his administration has provided more constructive options for kids than the city has seen in a long time, from record numbers of pre-school and summer-school slots to a lowering of the drop-out rate. He insists there is no meaningful divide on youth policy in New Haven. (To read more from DeStefano on the subject, click here.)

The overriding issue in their split is, in Perez’s view, the DeStefano administration’s reluctance to deal with people who aren’t “on the team.” DeStefano forces citywide are swarming into the Dwight neighborhood, for instance, to try to unseat Joyce Chen, a popular, independent-minded alderwoman (and Perez supporter). Perez says even he is, for all intents and purposes, a DeStefano supporter, unless arguing over issues qualifies someone as an opponent worthy of unseating.

“I support [DeStefano] for mayor. I support him for governor. I don’t think he’s a crook,” Perez says. “But he wants no criticism. He wants no dissent whatsoever. In order for democracy to work, you have to have that healthy struggle.”

Full disclosure: In his capacity as a private attorney, Alderman Goldfield did the legal work to incorporate The Online Journalism Project, which funds this web site.