New Haven Independent

From his perch at the front of the Aldermanic Chambers at a full board meeting Monday night, Goldfield had a rare vantage point: He could see the city’s bond counsel “turn green” in the face.

What was turning the man green, Goldfield said, was a proposal on the table from Hill Alderman Jorge Perez to sunset the city’s new trash plan after three years.

The new trash plan, which eventually gained approval Monday after some unusually spirited public sparring, calls for the city to create a public, independent authority to manage the city’s trash and recyclables. The city says the plan would help plug a $17 million budget shortfall and save millions of dollars in operating costs in the long run. (Click here and here for background).

The plan would help plug the budget gap by selling the leasing rights of the city transfer station to the new authority, for a projected $6 million, as well as fobbing off $2.8 million in existing city debt to the new agency.

Aldermen have generally welcomed the effort to improve an operation that has been running up serious budget overruns for the past three fiscal years. The plan got approval from the Finance Committee after a two-hour Feb. 25 public hearing. But some said the proposal is too “rushed” and details need more vetting. Some concerns have been raised about the city’s practice of plugging budget holes with one-time revenues and of privatizing public functions.

In a pre-meeting powwow before the vote, several aldermen protested that their decision was being made in too much “haste,” and that too many questions still swirled around the proposal.

“I feel like it’s being rushed. It seems like an awful lot of information now,” said Hill Alderwoman Dolores Colon. “I feel the pressure to vote for this, the pressure to vote for this.”

Frank D’Ercole (pictured), the city’s bond counsel, said the trash authority board of directors needed to be sitting next week for the bond-rating process to be done in time to make the transfer station switch in January.

Perez was in part addressing those concerns as he made an amendment on the aldermanic floor that Goldfield called the “kiss of death.”

Perez proposed adding a sunset clause for the trash plan, so that the new agency would be reviewed in three years, and would be dissolved unless aldermen choose to prolong its existence. Perez’s amendment didn’t give alders any new powers; the city already had the power to dissolve the authority any time it wanted, taking back ownership of the transfer station and agency debt.

The proposal would make sure the new agency gets proper scrutiny, Perez explained.

As Perez pitched the sunset idea, Goldfield said he watched D’Ercole change color. Goldfield, the board president, left his high-backed seat to go down to his Ward 29 microphone and speak as a member of the board.

Sunset Warning

“Let’s not kill this,” warned Goldfield. He relayed the bond counsel’s fear that the sunset clause would spell doom for the new agency as it knocked on rating agency’s doors. The agency aims to bond out up to $10.5 million to finance capital improvements and its newly assumed debt.

Specific language that emphasizes aldermen’s ability to dissolve the agency would have a psychological effect on bondholders and rating agencies, Goldfield argued: The amendment would be a “restrictive covenant” that might make bond-holders shake in their boots.

“Anything that makes bond holders nervous that they’re not going to be paid back is the kiss of death,” he said. Beaver Hills Alderman Moti Sandman backed him up, saying aldermen could simply review or dissolve the agency anyway, without spelling it out in this ominous amendment.

Goldfield’s efforts, however, failed to rescue the trash plan from the grim reaper’s lips. Aldermen like Alex Rhodeen of Fair Haven Heights argued the three-year review would be healthy. (“We’ll still be here in three years at this meeting,” so it’ll be easy to review, he quipped.)

Perez’s sunset clause passed in a suspenseful 14-13 vote, with two passes and one absentee. So then Newhallville Alderman Charles Blango, a mayoral loyalist who voted for Perez’s amendment, got pulled into the hall by Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts.

In attempt to mitigate the psychological damage of the impending sunset, Sandman added an amendment to emphasize that in the event that the agency is dissolved, the city would be on the hook for the bonds.

City Budget Director Larry Rusconi said Sandman’s effort “mitigates some” the damage, but that the sunset clause “will make it much more difficult” to secure a rating from rating agencies and issue the bonds. He said he didn’t know if the “kiss of death” had really been smacked; only time would tell. But in the meantime, “we have to go to the rating agencies and sell the idea, and it’s going to be tough.”

Some other highlights of the evening’s trash activity:

East Rock Alderman Allan Brison (pictured) moved to table the item to give aldermen more time to think over the big decision.

Many of the trash plan’s touted benefits — increased recycling, better management, more efficient methods of collection, more business due to a new mandate — might be attained without having to sell a city asset and create an independent agency, he argued.

Click here to read his outstanding concerns on the plan.

• Some of the transfer station revenue will go towards recycling outreach and education, according to an amendment posed by Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale and approved unanimously.

• The waste authority board of directors was expanded from five to seven to include two neighborhood representatives from nearby wards. All directors must be city residents. Six will be chosen by the mayor, one by the aldermen.

The first five directors were approved Monday:
-Alderman Gerald Antunes, in whose the ward the transfer station sits.
-Joseph Dolan, Chief Financial Officer of the Town of Wilton.
-Konstantine Drakonakis, who has a Masters in Environmental Management and works at the CT Clean Energy Fund.
-Anika Singh, an attorney with Wiggin and Dana.
-Donald Walker, who teaches accounting at two local colleges.

The remaining two will be decided by the mayor.

The final ordinance to create the solid waste authority, with the several amendments tacked on, was approved by a 17 to 7 vote, with one pass by Newhallville Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards. Alders also approved a separate ordinance to mandate that all trash created in New Haven be processed at the municipal transfer station.

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