New Haven Independent

Rawls-Ivy, 43, has been under pressure to resign since she entered her guilty plea in federal court on Monday.

In her letter Thursday, she said her resignation is effective “daybreak September 25.” The timing is deliberate. Three aldermen loyal to the DeStefano administration, including Rawls-Ivy, are expected to resign mid-term. Each of their three wards would hold a special election for a replacement. Under city law, those special elections can take place the same day as the Nov. 7 general election if the resignations take effect no earlier than Sept. 25. That will simplify the process, bring more voters to the polls, and save the city money.

Rawls-Ivy was running a community agency doing work for the city’s housing authority when she stole the money. She wrote 37 checks and pocketed the money, then fabricated paperwork to make it look like the money was going toward the public-housing drug-elimination program for which it was intended.

Rawls-Ivy addressed her resignation letter to Board of Aldermen President Carl Goldfield.

“President Goldfield and Colleagues, I am profoundly sorry for my actions leading up to this resignation letter,” she wrote. “I am profoundly sorry that I committed a crime while in a position of leadership and authority. I am profoundly sorry that I have broken a sacred trust of those I was hired to serve. I take full responsibility for my actions and have taken the necessary steps to ensure that my crime does not go unpunished… Whatever my punishment, I know it will never be enough, nor will it get back the trust that was broken. I only hope that I can be of service to the world and that my life would be an example to others…”

Click here to read the full text of Rawls-Ivy’s letter.

Three Seats At Stake

Rawls-Ivy’s resignation comes at a difficult time for Democrats loyal to the administration of Mayor John DeStefano. Pro-DeStefano forces captured narrow control of the Board of Aldermen last fall. Now they’re at risk of losing three seats: Rawls-Ivy’s in Ward 28; Ward 14 in Fair Haven, whose alderman, Joe Jolly, is leaving to attend law school at Cornell; and Ward 9 in East Rock, whose alderwoman, Elizabeth Addonizio, is probably resigning to gain time to care for an ailing family member.

Democratic Town Chairwoman Susie Voigt said she has no candidates picked out for those three seats. “I’m encouraging the ward commmittees to come together around a candidate. That’s how you win,” she said.

“I think that these three races are going to present an interesting opportunity for the board to be reconfigured,” said the alderman viewed as the administration’s most prominent critic, Jorge Perez, president of the Black and Hispanic Caucus. “I look forward to a process where people in the neighborhoods really want to do this independently” of citywide political factions.

Perez said he is inclined to support the candidacy of Evelyn DeJesus-Vargas to replace Jolly in Fair Haven. DeJesus-Vargas ran against Jolly in a Democratic primary last year. She confirmed Thursday that she plans to run for the seat as a Democrat this fall. If the ward committee denies her the nomination in favor of someone more pro-City Hall, she would run as an independent, she said. “I believe that I’d win even so.”

While the main fight will probably be between two factions of Democrats in one-party New Haven, might we see a Republican emerge in at least one of the wards?

“Right now, it’s unknown,” said Republican Town Chairman Rick Elser. “The only current prospect” for the GOP is Juan Montalvo, who ran for alderman in the 14th Ward two years ago. Montalvo (pictured), reached Thursday, said he he hasn’t made up his mind yet. If he does run, he will do so as a Republican again, he said.