Yet another special election looms in New Haven — this time for a Board of Alders seat that already went vacant once this year.
The position in question is alder from Ward 3 in the Hill. Jackie James won reelection to that seat this fall. Then she resigned from it in January to take a position (now in charge of minority and small-business development) with the Harp administration. JeQueena Foreman (pictured) replaced James after the ward committee’s two chairs (one of whom is she) selected her at a “convention” at the downtown JoJo’s Coffee Roasters & Tea Merchants.
Friday Foreman, too, resigned from the seat.
“New positive opportunities for my family require me to move outside the ward,” she wrote in a letter to Mayor Toni Harp.
Now a special election will take place if more than one candidate surfaces to seek the seat; otherwise the candidate nominated by the ward committee will move into the seat.
Several people in the ward are contemplating running.
Allan Appel File Photo
Hill activist Miguel Pittman said Friday he and his wife, Sandra Pittman, are discussing whether one of them should seek the seat. The Pittmans (pictured) run Congress Avenue’s popular Sandra’s Next Generation soul food restaurant, which was recently featured on Cooking Channel’s Road Trip With G. Garvin. Miguel Pittman has run for the seat in the past; he has become a regular visitor to weekly Compstata data-sharing meetings at police headquarters.
Another possible candidate is Latrice James (pictured), who has lived in the Hill since 1980. “My parents raised us to always be civic-minded,” said James, who is the sister of former Alder James. “If you’re not part of a process of looking at solutions in a community, you have to look at where you are on the spectrum.” A graduate of Spelman College, James currently works as a math and science supervisor at Platt Technical High School and is pursuing an advanced degree at Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Alders have also resigned and been replaced this term in Wards 7, 16, 19, and 27. The term began on Jan. 1.
WexactlyTF is going on in the Hill?