New Haven Independent

A proposal to create the positions sat ready to be voted on at the Board of Aldermen’s Monday meeting. Aldermen opted to pass over it, delaying a vote until the city completes its national search for a new chief of police.

The agreement to delay the vote was one of two deals struck in a recent meeting between aldermanic leadership and the mayor. (The other one concerned the city transfer station.)

Hill Alderman Jorge Perez (pictured above) was the prime mover pushing for the delay.

The proposal would create two new assistant chief positions, bringing the total to four. Creating the positions was a prime suggestion given by PERF, the independent group that audited the city’s police department in the wake of a bribery and theft scandal. The administration argued hiring new assistant chiefs would be a “bargain.” The matter passed committee with four dissenting votes. Click here for a back story.

Perez was one of those dissenters. “I don’t think the solution to every problem is to pour money into it,” he explained Monday.

Why delay the vote? He said it doesn’t make sense to approve two new management positions before the new chief is hired.

“I believe if we’re going to hire a new chief, we should not handcuff the new chief—we should let them come up with the best structure,” Perez said.

Delaying the vote would also give aldermen a chance to communicate directly with the new top cop about the new positions. “Whoever the new chief is, we expect something in return” for adding those two positions, Perez said. “We expect some accountability. We expect some results.”

Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts, who’s overseeing the police chief search, said he had no problem with the delay. “I understand [aldermen] want to hear from the chief before moving forward,” he said.