New Haven Independent

Posted by: robn | November 2, 2007 9:12 AM

Fines for the parents of over-truant children isn't a slap in the face...its simply a fee to reimburse other parents for the administrative and classroom inefficiency costs that put a drag on other childrens' education.

Posted by: Mike Lawlor | November 2, 2007 11:39 AM

Connecticut General Statute 10-184 provides that each parent or persons having control of a child five years of age and over and under eighteen years of age is obligated to cause the child to attend school regularly during the hours and terms school is in session, unless such parent shows that the child is elsewhere receiving equivalent instruction. Connecticut
General Statute 10-185 provides that each day's failure to comply with these requirements is a separate offense, punishable by a $25.00 fine.

Posted by: New Haven Tea Party | November 2, 2007 12:22 PM

Ms. Clark: Please detail what bidding this mayor has done for you. What major piece of legislation, what tax initiative or spending plan did he bend to your will? As an alder and somebody who did not attend a single budget hearing or listen firsthand to any citizen recommendation on reigning in spending or new debt, and in fact, failed to show up for the final budget vote, it is stunning to be accused by you of being uninformed.

As for Shartenberg - since you were so involved, was it also your recommendation that the city not get an appraisal before negotiating with Becker? Was it your plan all along to sell the property for a $1, lose the $240K of income from it, and hit downtown property owners with a third layer of tax to fund the trolley service which depends on that income to meet its operational expense?

There is no real discussion of public policy in New Haven. There is no shared vision of city priorities that drive that policy. There is no public debate. There are mayoral proposals and there are votes sustaining them. Any opposition from the public or some alders who disagree is routinely dismissed because the deal's been cut behind closed doors with the mayor, with the Dem Caucas very much in the model you described as your involvement in Shartenburg. So if you don't like the rubber stamp label - change your behavior.

Posted by: Allan Brison | November 2, 2007 3:13 PM

Bitsie Clark is quite articulate, and quite forceful, but I have to take issue with her indignation over my statement that the Board of Alders does the Mayor's bidding. By the way, please note that I didn't attack the hard work the Board puts in, but the unspoken rule that governs that hard work, i.e. go against the Mayor at your own peril.

Let me take one example that I was involved in as a neighborhood activist a few years ago. The Mayor decided to sell off the sewage sludge incinerator in order to balance a budget shortfall for the year. This practice of selling off assets to cover operating expenses is considered a poor business practice, and was one of the reasons cited for the lowering of the City's credit rating. The result has been a raise in water rates as new Haven subsidizes suburban _ sewage separation, and increased air pollution as more towns are allowed to send more sewage to the incinerator to be burned.

In the selling off of the facility to the new regional board, the city lost control of who can use it, thus adding to our air pollution.

My proposal, which I referred to last night, and which I plan to introduce should I become Alderman would require a long-term Financial Impact Statement for every piece of legislation that involves City expenditures, or has any effect on City revenues, would have been just the tool the Alders needed at the time to challenge the wisdom of selling off one of its assets. More than that, this tool would prevent the annual suprises about the budget each spring, and help the Board to keep on top of expenditures as they are being voted on. Perhaps we would not have acrued 57 million, and rising, in annual debt service for the city if the Board of Alders had a better system in place to review the City's budget on an ongoing basis.

I know that Ed Mattison would like to portray me as someone who would be a loner on the Board of Alders, as he implied last night when he said that I would be "just one" Alder and how could I work with the twenty-nine others. But I would like to point out that my style is to propose concrete solutions and try to bring people together behind these proposals, and I think Ed knows this. Last Spring even Ed publicly applauded my suggestion (as covered by two stories in the New Haven Independent) that both sides in the Hooker controversy pledge to abide by the CT Supreme Court decision and not drag the controversy out beyond this end point.

Having said all of this, I would like to thank Paul Bass and La Voz for hosting last night's debate. It was a great opportunity to let the public hear from the candidates in Wards 10 and 7. I also plan to take Paul up on his offer to post on the Independent website the rest of my summation speech, which had considerably more specifics iin it than I could get across in 90 seconds.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | November 2, 2007 3:27 PM

("someone should give them a knife!" called out Kiley
Yet because we are so Getto in Cedar Hill? Or because we are sick and tired and have had enough. This was not a joke to us. Sad!

Posted by: fairhavener | November 2, 2007 6:24 PM

Yeah great idea, fine poor people for money they probably don't have - and if they do, they really need it. A better idea would be to have the offending parents serve detention on their days off from work. I would stand behind that.

Posted by: Bruce | November 2, 2007 6:28 PM

The Shartenburg Site
What no one mentions is that B + B are paying $7,000,000 between environmental remediation the city whould otherwise incur and the cost of re-locating over 500 parking spaces the city is obligated to for the CT Financial Center. The idea of connecting a proposal with full financing plus $1.5 extra per year seemed a no-brainer. I am not a city employee, but support DeStefano for Mayor for all he has accomplished for downtowners like me and want to see extended elsewhere, "Bitsie" Clark for Bd of Aldermen, and admit that I became an appointed member of the New Haven Development Commission after the deal was made.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | November 2, 2007 6:52 PM

fairhavener
I am with you on that! But to refine what he suggested...He said more or less that if his dad had to pay $250 because he missed school his dad would make sure he never missed school again. I get were he is coming from. Not the method. Children do not fear the consequences of there actions and or the parents are not enforcing a consequence. And our system has something set up now to enforce to many days off. The question is our we using that and if we are is it working? I know it is now being used to ID troubled kids and we were told that the out reach workers would be targeting these kids. But how do we stop it???

Posted by: cedarhillresident | November 2, 2007 7:27 PM

Since the site is closing I will be posting Allan Brison's summation speech at my web site when he gets it up so just clips my name here to get to my web site

Posted by: fairhavener | November 2, 2007 11:01 PM

cedarhillresident

"Children do not fear the consequences of there actions and or the parents are not enforcing a consequence."

That's it. I know a $250 fine will make the parents get the picture REAL quick. But, that $250 may be money for food, electric, gas etc. I am not entirely poor, but if I were fined $250 that would be a pretty bad setback for my family. In school detention would be the perfect solution. So ironic too.

It is probably too late but what is your website?

Posted by: fairhavener | November 2, 2007 11:03 PM

oops nevermind. I didn't know you could do that.

Posted by: New Haven Tea Party | November 5, 2007 10:20 AM

Shartenburg and Bruce
This deal is done so it's a bit like kicking a dead horse - but let's be straight here. Remediation on this site is a cost of $1 million or less. B and B were required to provide parking for residents anyway, and had to build a parking garage. The city waived the usual parking requirement, cutting back parking for residents fo Taxpayer Towers in order to accomodate the required parking for the Financial Center. It didn't save the City of New Haven anything and it didn't cost B and B any more or less.

Your DeStefano/Murphy talking points are as misleading today, as they were when rolled out during the useless public hearing on this project months ago.

Posted by: strangerthanfiction | November 5, 2007 1:27 PM

Ed Mattison has been a superb and effective alderman for East Rock . Allan Brison is a very nice man with many good insights, but Ed has been doing the job and doing it well. It's safe to say that the new Hooker School would not be under construction now were it not for Ed's savvy and tenacity! His low key, behind the scenes style may not grab the headlines but he gets good things done. If you read Allan's closing statement it's filled with good sounding things that are not fact-based or realistic. As I understand it, under the charter, the Mayor develops and presents the budget to the aldermen and they deliberate and vote on it. Allan writes
"1. The Board of Alderman should be brought into the budget process at the very beginning. A completed budget should not simply be dropped on the board within a month or two of when it must be approved to avoid interrupting city services."
His statement shows a shocking lack of understanding of the city budget process.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | November 5, 2007 3:26 PM

strangerthanfiction
superb????? Hello.... yeah if you turn a blinds eye at the truth.
I can NOT agree with you. Drive in my half of the ward!! And down few streets in that half. does it look like yours??? Allen may not be the best of public speakers but he knows what he is doing. For the ward and the city.

Posted by: New Haven Tea Party | November 5, 2007 8:44 PM

Stranger Than Fiction: Your post about what a great Alder Ed Mattison is fits perfectly with your name. It is stranger than fiction.

Posted by: strangerthanfiction | November 6, 2007 11:52 AM

Look at the way the East Rock neighborhood has prospered during Ed's tenure including a new school, a new playground for the kids at College Woods, increased police presence. That didn't just happen by itself. Ed quietly does the job and takes care of business. It's easy to overlook a job well done until there's no longer someone doing it. Do you really think Allan will be able to do more for East Rock than Ed? Get real.

Posted by: elmcity69 | November 19, 2007 5:59 PM

My husband and I were sad to see Ed lose; I agree with "Stranger than Fiction" that he has worked quietly on various issues.

I wish Alan well and hope he works as tenaciously as Ed did to ensure our public school children get their new facility on Whitney Avenue! I haven't read his opinion on the matter and will be asking him next time I see him( which shouldn't be too long since I also live on Everit).