New Haven Independent

Posted by: Streever | March 31, 2009 1:52 PM

I like much of what these candidates say--and am especially happy with Harrison's request for a stronger checks & balances system, Jones request for more oversight on the budget, & Harrison's commitment to responsible development.

I think Tranh & Harrison are quick to judge the Chief without looking at all the factors. Call it community policing or targetted policing: it's a semantics deal. I'm hard-pressed to find any instance of the current policing NOT being community-oriented. The police are clearly working hard to be part of the community--not true in the last several years under Ortiz.

Proponents of community policing in New Haven seem to be oddly focused purely on "walking beats". I think those make the department look good but understand the problems with them. If I'm an East Rock on Avon, & my walking beat officer is on Pearl when I get mugged, I'm going to be pissed that he or she didn't have a car.

I can't agree more with her position on titles/yalies/city hall. Jones, do we really need to stick 15 Yalies in City Hall with titles? What would that do? Most of us in this community join boards, volunteer, & do many other things with no official titles, desks, or positions. I don't think a yale student should be elevated at City Hall because he or she wants to help. There are citizens who have spent their whole lives improving this city, and they are highly effective without any title.

I also strongly agree with Harrison's position on the Board of Aldermen. All too often it functions as a rubber stamp. Why? not due to incompetence, mostly, but due to the lack of information going to BoA members. How often do we read a story that says, "Alders have to make a quick decision because the contract is set to expire in 3 weeks"

Sorry, doesn't cut it. We have some very hard-working & dedicated city hall employees & alders, and we have a small number of incompetents who manage to screw things up over & over again.

We have zero accountability on these people.

Our citizens & press seem focused on the small & incidental things, whilst ignoring the larger & more pressing issues. Or they target possible "corruption". Is it corruption when you have people who are not qualified to do a job? Perhaps, but why even go after the corruption angle? Just illustrate how the person has failed at their job repeatedly, & go off of that. We have far too many incompetent people doing terrible jobs & several incredibly rude & unpleasent civil servants. If your job is to represent the City, you need to be professional & approachable.

We all know the specific individuals who make our lives hell when we try to do something basic at the City.

I'm tired of these entrenched & less than competent people making life difficult for the rest of us. Let's get a stronger Board of Aldermen (and a BoE that is elected) and try to minimize the damage that the overpaid & underqualified can do.

Let's set accountability & checks & balances as a priority. No one is perfect--that is why that system exists. Let's start using it & using it heavily. People who don't do their jobs well--or who are openly hostile to the public--need to go. It's our city, people, and our vote is what makes it so.

Posted by: Mike Jones | March 31, 2009 3:03 PM

Streever,

With all due respect to Katie, I think that her characterization of my Legislative Aide program was incredibly superficial. Often, when folks want to avoid having a substantive conversation on the issues, they turn to quick soundbites like the one that she gave at last night's debate.

The purpose of the program, as I described last night, is to pair aldermen (who feel like they need help reaching out to their constituents or increasing their research capacity) with students who are willing to help. This program is not intended to give Yale students the ability to craft municipal policy at the expense of anyone from any other neighborhood in the city; it is simply designed to allow Aldermen to be more effective representatives of their constituents by giving them students who are interested in helping out. This idea grew out of discussions with current alders who seemed frustrated by their inability to efficiently manage their aldermanic obligations.

Furthermore, Aldermen would by no means be required to work with students, and the students would not be paid. This job wouldn't have much of a title, and it wouldn't be particularly prestigious, but it could potentially be an incredible learning experience, an opportunity to serve those who could use the help, and an effort to strengthen the Board.

There are a number of reasons why the Board isn't as strong as it could be, and simply diagnosing that fact does not provide a cure. This program may not be as viable as it seems, but I hope that both you and voters in Ward 1 can see that I am not only acknowledging the board's relative weakness as a problem, but I am trying to come up with pragmatic, inexpensive solutions.

Posted by: anon | March 31, 2009 4:34 PM

A legislative aide program is a great idea, assuming that Alderpersons would like to have more help. Yes, there are already many volunteers and involved citizens but a structured program in addition to that could be great for other reasons, including the ability to involve younger city residents and students.

Perhaps Democracy School could be a prerequisite, so it would really be open to any person, young or old, who had a keen interest in facilitating the governing process.

Posted by: Streever | April 1, 2009 9:26 AM

Hi Mike,
I think it's great to get more students involved at City Hall in the capacity you've described here.

I think you'll ultimately find though, that the weaknesses of the BoA go back to incompetent staff members. I think it's a great idea to get students in City Hall as volunteer researchers & aides, but do not believe it will bring about the proactive board that we strongly need. For that, we'd need to pay our Alders, or we in the public, need to speak up when we've dealt with yet another city employee who simply doesn't do their best job.

Posted by: Mike Jones | April 1, 2009 3:17 PM

Well thanks so much for the advice; I'll certainly keep these suggestions in mind.

Posted by: jeffreykerekes | April 1, 2009 4:26 PM

Streever:

If you have a list of incompetent staff, I would hope you have communicated that to someone. I know you can communicate problems with Legislative Staff problems with Al Lucas (their immediate supervisor) or Carl Goldfield (President of the BOA). If its other staff, Rob Smuts or Sean Matteson would be good people to go to. If that still doesn't get you anywhere, perhaps a coordinated effort from the citizenry would be in order. I know NHCAN would support accountability efforts and measures for all City employees. I would be happy to work with you to develop and propose such measures. Let me know.

Posted by: john john | April 1, 2009 4:45 PM

We've seen several articles about ward 1's candidates, and there never seems to be any outrage or problems with the fact that new haven have gift wrapped and alder's spot - an actual lawmaking, decision making post - exclusively to a yale student. the ward has been drawn specifically to NOT include any non-yale citizens of our town.
Had this district been drawn to exclude by race or culture there'd be people with torches and placards decending on city hall, why is nobody concerned that %4 of the aldermanic decisionmaking will be done by a poly-sci student as an extra-carruciular experiment?
wouldn't it make more sense to make a ward just for SCSU students or even the UNH students in westville who are probably more likely to stick around and face the consequences of any bad ideas they've brought forth?