New Haven Independent

They both live in the same oddly shaped ward, 26. And they share a concern that the ward’s two aldermanic candidates are promising to address — with different twists.

Their concern: They want something done about traffic.

Sergio Rodriguez (in top photo, with Barber), 59, the three-term incumbent, is being challenged by LaShell Rountree (in second photo, with Avila), 38, a first-time candidate in a Democratic primary. The primary takes place Sept. 15 at the newly rebuilt Sheridan School.

Rodriguez and Rountree are not all that far apart on the issues like traffic and education. They don’t even live far from each other in upper Westville.

They do offer different approaches when speaking to voters on the hustings.

Rountree, pictured with Avila, is telling constituents that she wants to hear their opinions about how to address issues — and then enlist in them making changes downtown. She calls herself a change “facilitator,” not a change “agent.” Her message: Let’s fix a broken system together.

Rodriguez is stressing his experience within city government. He is telling constituents that he can makes changes for them downtown. His message: Tell me what you need and leave it to me to get it done because I have proven I can do it.

In discussions as they walked door to door recently, the candidates had only good things to say about each other. This is a clean campaign.

The 26th Ward is an amalgam of bucolic streets that ranges from the Woodbridge border in upper Westville north of Fountain Street to Forest Road, then squeezes between the 25th Ward and the West Haven border along Derby Avenue, to a bob at the end of the tail for a few blocks squeezed between the Boulevard and Ellsworth Avenue with a spear point touching Winthrop Avenue.

The latter area, called the “B” part of the ward, experiences more serious crime than the car thefts and break-ins that occur farther west in the rest of the ward.

“T” Tags Along

It was to this B section, on Judson Avenue, that Rountree chose to take a reporter who asked to tag along on a campaign swing on a recent Sunday. Rountree’s partner in campaigning was her husband Terrence, or “T” as she affectionately calls him. He’s a New Haven firefighter, a 12-year veteran of the city department.

“This is the most fun I’ve had doing anything,” she said. It seemed either she or “T” knew many of the people on the street, which is home to one-, two- and three-family houses.

Rountree noted that this neighborhood is populated by more transient families than the Westville part of the ward and hasn’t been serviced as well as the other, a charge that more than one person she spoke to seemed to affirm. She is shown on the porch of a house listed as belonging to a Democratic voter. It is clearly vacant.

“We don’t see the alderman except during the campaign,” said Avila, who was mowing his lawn. “There needs to be something done about these sidewalks and curbs.” He pointed to the crumbling concrete in front of his well-landscaped home.

In a conversation not prompted by Avila’s charge, Rodriguez said he has worked with block watches in the B portion of the ward to address “gun shots, litter, prostitution, all kinds of stuff going on with that on Chapel” a couple of blocks north of Judson.

But James Manley, a man interrupted while power washing his concrete stoop on Judson, also said he hadn’t seen Rodriguez except at campaign time.

At at least five homes on Judson, the residents knew either Rountree, an administrator at the Amastad Academy charter school on the Boulevard, or her husband. For example, Rosa Richardson knew her husband’s family. Rountree asked her for whom she would be voting and whether she needed a ride. She asked those questions of everyone she met during the 90-minute walk in the sun.

Avila had said he wasn’t sure whom he would vote for. When Rountree was returning to her car, he told her he had decided to vote for her.

Experience Touted

Rodriguez decided to take a reporter to Vista Terrace Sunday. He said he wanted to remind voters there of the primary in a little more than a week and to gauge reaction to a chicane, a traffic-calming device, that had been installed on the street. A block watch session is scheduled for later this month to discuss the chicane, which narrows the travel lane to slow traffic.

While most endorsements of Rountree were for her and her family, most for Rodriguez were for his accomplishments in office. Some came before the homeowner knew that the person accompanying the alderman was a reporter.

“I think he’s doing a good job,” said Salvatore Farricilli (at right in photo with Rodriguez). He said Rodriguez had helped him get his sidewalk and curb repaired after city workers had damaged them.

Marcia Schwartz began praising Rodriguez as soon as he entered her home, particularly with his follow-through on requests and complaints. She also said the street needs more police presence on the street to stem speeding.

Her neighbor, Barber, said he wants wanted less traffic-calming, or at least a different mode from the chicane in front of his home.

“It’s not working. Trucks go on the other side of the street,” Barber said. “I don’t mind losing the few parking spaces, but it just doesn’t work.” He praised Rodriguez for pressing the city to work on the speeding problem and agreed to appear at the block watch session to lobby for an alternative.

Board of Ed Split

During more formal interviews, a question about whether the Board of Aldermen should exert more control over the Board of Education gave insight to the candidates’ different philosophies. The board technically can only vote up or down on the full amount of money set aside each year for the Board of Ed, the largest line item in the city budget. Some have suggested that the aldermen can still choose to examine the education budget in far more detail each year before voting the whole amount up or down.

“I believe that in general, the Board of Aldermen should have more control,” Rountree said. There should be “more of checks and balances of what the Board of Education can do. From my understanding, the [city] charter is coming up for renewal in 2010, and hopefully we can focus on those issues. I want to see more policing around the Board of Education. The mayor is on the board; he has the ability to choose the members who are on the Board of Education. And there is not a lot of policing going on there. If the aldermen who are representing their community {are} able to communicate with the citizens of the community in regards to what’s happening on the board, the citizens will be empowered on what is going on and not hearing about decisions after the fact and be able to weigh in on some of those decisions,.”

“I have a website, I want to have a website as an alderperson, and [will] have a snapshot of what’s going on in the city. I need you to give me feedback. I want to receive feedback. I want to vote based on what the citizens say,” she said.

On the relationship between the boards of education and aldermen, Rodriguez said he wants to see more cooperation between those already in office.

“When I was chair of the [aldermanic] Finance Committee, I had asked that that committee meet with the Finance Committee of the Board of Education. We had no way of us knowing what the financial plans were on the board of ed side. For us to give input would have been difficult because we didn’t know how the money was being spent. And I, as chair of finance, had asked that that meeting would take place. I will encourage [West River Alderman] Yusuf Shah, who is the chair of finance, to move on that. I know Yusuf has had an interest to do that as well.

“There is no reason we couldn’t meet and coordinate the budgets. That is really important to find out where the money is being spent. We don’t have line-item control of the board of ed budget.

“I think there should be a collaborative effort between both finance committees, so when we are doing our budget analysis and work, that we are working together on it. Whether we should have control, that’s not the way it is set up now. I would like to have control, but that I not the way it is. So for now, the next best thing is to build a relationship with the committee so at least each of us knows which way we are headed at budget time,” he said.

He also said he had attempted to lower taxes by lowering spending, including an effort to cut the City Hall work week to four days. He said he’d try again if re-elected. Rountree said she would try to cut taxes by going through the city budget line by line, but hadn’t seen the document and couldn’t give specifics.