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18 Years, 278 Days Later, Mayor Makes History

by Paul Bass | Oct 4, 2012 3:53 pm

(16) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: City Hall

John DeStefano broke a record Thursday simply by waking up—becoming New Haven’s longest-serving mayor ever.

He matched and surpassed Elizur Goodrich’s record. Goodrich served as New Haven mayor for 18 years and 277 days, until June 4, 1822. (Click here to read about that, and about how Goodrich’s sixth-generation descendant helped elect DeStefano to his record 10th term last fall.)

Thursday marked DeStefano’s the 278th day in his 19th year in office running a city that’s 374 years old.

Not that he was counting. Too closely.

His office made no mention of the milestone. No special events were planned, no congratulations cards or gifts. DeStefano didn’t have a celebratory dinner planned.

Instead he did some paperwork at home in the morning. (It was too wet to cut the grass, his usual Thursday morning chore.) He arrived at the office mid-day for a planned meeting about the fire department, an interview with 6-year-old reporter Isadora DiMartino of Cold Spring School about what it’s like to be mayor, a confab about the Columbus Day parade, an evening appearance at a community forum on citizen participation in civic life.

“It’s a trip,” he said in a relaxed, upbeat interview in his office about doing the same job every day for going on 20 years. “It’s great! I don’t need a cake.” (Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch interview excerpts.)

DeStefano said he’d been under the impression that he was merely tying Goodrich’s record Thursday and breaking it on Friday. (Various calculations exist about the exact date; the Independent’s is based on the state library’s recorded start date for Goodrich’s term.)

“I’m not exactly sure what day” marks the record, he said. “But it doesn’t matter. Right now I’m involved in a school reform initiative that is one of the most ambitious, collaborative and comprehensive in America. We’re doing extraordinary things ... getting national recognition for school reform. Got a wonderful boost last week. ... We’re seeing our workforce transition to a knowledge base environment, an entrepreneurial environment.  We’ve got a 24-hour downtown. Go to these neighborhoods now, particularly public housing: Massive amounts of housing stock [is being rebuilt]. We’re leading the state in jobs, taxes, and population growth ... Homicides are down 50 percent. Shootings down by a third. Anyone who’s been to Compstat knows the police have a focused violence reduction strategy. We’re seeing them build community partnerships—the way they treat victims and engage them. Twelve homicides to date [this year]; 17 homicides cleared. Going back and clearing the cold cases ....

“You know what? It’s not about looking backward. It really isn’t. It’s just so cool to be doing all these things now.”

Melissa Bailey Photo In 2000, DeStefano broke late Mayor Dick Lee’s record as the longest-serving continuously popularly elected mayor. (Lee, who oversaw urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s, served 16 years.) Goodrich served as mayor back when a town meeting chose a chief executive once, then that person stayed in the job until retirement. The son of a Yale Corporation member, Goodrich descended from the original settlers of Wethersfield. Goodrich, a lawyer and Yale professor, came from an era when New Haven had “patrician” mayors, to use political scientist Robert Dahl’s phrase. DeStefano is the son of a cop and a hairdresser; he got his education at University of Connecticut and mastered the art of maintaining a citywide electoral organization.

Like Goodrich, DeStefano has shepherded the city through some economically troubled times, including two recessions.

They first began before he won his first term in 1993 and started serving in 1994. He compared the job’s changing flavor to that of a marriage.

“I’ve been married 33 years now. Love my wife; enjoy the marriage,” he said. “You find different things in it. When the kids have moved out of the house, thank God, got jobs, thank God, you enjoy different things in the marriage. That’s what it’s like being mayor. What you find exciting and enjoyable today is very different than 1994.

“Nineteen ninety-four was about stopping the bleeding and resetting the city,” he continued. “The day before you take office the Superior Court says you’ve got to spend tens of millions more in education .... We’ve got our challenges now. The things we’re doing in the city around school reform, around violence reduction, around changing the economy, there’s a curve and a focus to it now that didn’t exist in those days and have only been made possible by people working together ...”

The job also his its cycles. Besides inheriting a bleeding city budget, DeStefano also inherited a nationally recognized community policing program in 1994. Community policing waned over the past decade; this year the mayor rehired one of the original plan’s architects, Dean Esserman, to revive it and update it as the new police chief.

The job also has its learning curve. Blizzards, contract negotiations, a wildcat school bus driver walkout potentially leaving 20,000 kids stranded in the afternoon—all become easier to handle after dealing with them or similar crises once or 10 times.

In Thursday’s interview, DeStefano kept bringing up new challenges, new projects, new reasons to enjoy coming to work. He’s already running hard for reelection, a contest that’s still a year away. Asked how many terms he’d like to serve, he replied, “one at a time.” (A group connected to Yale’s unions, which elected a majority independent slate to the Board of Aldermen last year, recently did a poll to test the waters to run a potential challenger in 2013.)

At the same time, DeStefano has learned to pace himself. He still works around 75 hours a week, he estimated. The days begin at 6:30 a.m. and include a morning stop at mass. Starting with an all-consuming 2006 candidacy for governor, he decided to start spending Thursday mornings at home to take care of chores. He and his wife Kathy have also bought a vacation home in Florida where he makes a point of spending a few weeks a year. He’s trying to hit the links, too.

As he repeatedly downplayed his history-breaking moment Thursday, the mayor was asked what next milestones he’s looking toward.

“A golf score I’m not embarrassed by,” he quipped. Then he mentioned his son Dan’s upcoming wedding, planned for 2013.

Paul Bass Photo “Look,” DeStefano said of bumping Elizur Goodrich from the perch he’d occupied for 190 years. “Some day it will be a nice thing to say. [But] I don’t want it to be ‘John DeStefano, longest serving mayor.’ I want it to be ‘John DeStefano, dropout rate was cut in half, achievement gap was cut in half, and kids started going to college and having an aspiration for it.’ I want it to be that this was a community where people felt they could organize diaper banks, All Our Kin, Solar Youth, Lyric Hall, and paste photos under highway bridges. I want it to be the place where immigrants come too because they feel they’re welcome, where dreamers can go to college, where every school was rebuilt as an expression of our values ...”

Mayoral Executive Assistant Rosemarie Lemley, who has kept the mayor’s schedule since June of 1996, gently interrupted him from the doorway to his office. The time had come, she said, for his next appointment.

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posted by: anonymous on October 4, 2012  4:06pm

Congratulations, Mayor!

Were there any Native American leaders who served longer terms?

posted by: Stylo on October 4, 2012  4:08pm

TERM LIMITS. Please.

posted by: Threefifths on October 4, 2012  4:17pm

posted by: Stylo on October 4, 2012 4:08pm

TERM LIMITS. Please
Well said.But we will see if Term Limits is put on the table when Charter Revision comes up.

posted by: darnell on October 4, 2012  8:09pm

Congrats to Mayor DeStefano. We have had our differences, but in the end I always believed that we wanted the same thing for the city (most of the time).

Let’s just hope that this record ends soon and stands for a long time, democracy doesn’t fare well when absolute power rules.

posted by: Gauss on October 4, 2012  10:44pm

It really is time for this man to go…

posted by: Tom Burns on October 4, 2012  11:53pm

Congratulations Mayor Destefano—-you have made a difference in so many peoples lives—your legacy as mayor of New Haven and as just a great human being are assured—-your ability to change who you are over time is laudable—-what you had the courage to do concerning the education of our children is second to none—-and I thank you for standing tall for what you believe in (what we all believe in)—-don’t ever leave us—Tom Burns

posted by: Edward_H on October 5, 2012  12:54am

We already have term limits. They are called elections. New Haven voters get exactly the politicians they deserve by voting the same ones in time and time again.

posted by: Threefifths on October 5, 2012  8:44am

posted by: Edward_H on October 5, 2012 12:54am

We already have term limits. They are called elections. New Haven voters get exactly the politicians they deserve by voting the same ones in time and time again.

Elections are considered the bread & butter to a functioning democracy. Yet elections, even can fail the public they can be rigged.Now with out term limits elected official administration turns into a regime and the voice of opposition is held unceremoniously at bay.Also When politicians do not have term limits, they can quickly become drunk with the power, prestige and privilege provided by elected office. This invariably leads to abuses and corruption. It can be argued that incumbent politicians eventually tend to be more concerned with the next election and ensuring victory on election night, than doing what is in the best interest of the people.How about a referendum on Term Limits.I bet you it would win hands down. Term Limits Now!!!!

posted by: Brutus2011 on October 5, 2012  12:19pm

I would like to ask the mayor if he would consider spending less on NHPS administration and consultants and spending more on support for our classrooms.

We do not need this many managers—we need more who are willing and able to do the tough work with our kids.

I believe that if the mayor is sincere when he talks about cutting the achievement gap, then he would insist that much more money would find its way the classroom.

Public education is not a business—contrary to what some might say.

Public education’s bottom line is the education of our future citizenry to ensure that our republican way of life is preserved—not revenue as the bottom line.

The mayor is obviously a bright individual who can get things done.

Maybe what the mayor has been doing with education to date is not giving him what he claims to want.

Perhaps the mayor could try something very different—invert (the management structure) and multiply (student achievement).

Or, maybe the mayor is getting from what he is doing with education is giving him precisely what he wants.

Regardless, our classrooms need resources and support and not more layers of administration.

Show me that commitment to our classrooms, and the mayor has my vote.

posted by: PH on October 5, 2012  12:27pm

The Mayor has done a pretty darn good job in this city.  Not perfect, but pretty good considering all the difficulties he has faced.  There are advantages to having consistency at the top of the city government for so long—an ability to take the long view on projects and problems, to make lasting changes, to give the city direction.  That said, I suppose if I disliked the Mayor’s policies I might be singing a Term Limits tune, but as they don’t exist now, I’m happy that is has been and continues to be this Mayor in charge…

posted by: adelehouston on October 5, 2012  1:10pm

I enjoyed both stories & the informing connection to history. I fondly remember interviewing John while making a Community Access Program as LWVNH President in his 1st run for Mayor. He was refreshing then as a candidate. Living in another CT town with another long serving Mayor I must say I envy the people of NH. Consensus is always challenging; but it more challenging when the idea of dialogue is dismissed & technology & innovation are seen as evil. Congrats Mr. Mayor.

posted by: Threefifths on October 5, 2012  4:12pm

Just Like New York is geting rid of King Bloomberg with Term Limits.We must do the same to King John.Term Limits Now!!!

posted by: BenBerkowitz on October 5, 2012  5:20pm

Congratulations Mayor Destefano. People do feel that they can organize here and they do feel that they can make a difference and you and your team have been a big part of making that possible.

posted by: Brian L. Jenkins on October 5, 2012  5:36pm

How has this personal accomplishment helped the masses of New Haveners? Taxes are through the roof, crime is still out of control, services have been cut severely, the city is filthy with debris strewn throughout with boarded up houses, abandoned vehicles, burgeoning homeless shelters and vacant lots.

If I were Mayor saddled with those telling statistics, I would be embarrassed.

The city has lost it’s identity.

I was somewhat elated when the union(s) ushered in this new cadre of Alderman to the political stage.  However, we are yet to hear or see an economic agenda that shows a major reduction in spending and or tax relief for the residency.

When you run for office, STAND FOR SOMETHING!!

posted by: Edward_H on October 7, 2012  11:09am

Threefifths

Do you have the link to the article you quoted from? I would like to read the whole thing. It would be interesting to see it the link you post actually blows a hole in your own theory again.

posted by: Claudia Herrera on October 10, 2012  8:31pm

Mayor DeStefano, Congratulations!  New Haven has been generous with my family. But also I have had moments that made me speak up for improvements.  I have the ambition and vision for us to do better! But thanks to your understanding and welcoming of diversity and culture. Many families find New Haven as a place they can call home and express their heritage
My support to schools reform and New Haven promise is based on my belief before to trying to fix or create, we need to educate. Please reinforce and focus more to improve the quality of life in our New Haven. Still, Felicidades

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