nothin Anyone Seen A Non-Democrat? | New Haven Independent

Anyone Seen A Non-Democrat?

Thomas MacMillan File Photo.

Let Jorge Perez know if you turn up any GOP elected officials.

As city lawmakers voted to appoint aldermen to a variety of boards and commissions, they ran into problem: No one’s a Republican. Or even an independent.

That’s a problem because some of the commissions, like the School Readiness Council, require bipartisan representation from the Board of Aldermen.

All of the 30 members of the Board of Aldermen, who started their two-year terms on Jan. 1, are Democrats.

Hill Alderman Jorge Perez, president of the board, said he’s waiting on a legal opinion from the city’s corporation counsel on how the board should proceed, given the peculiar one-party problem. In past years, the board’s lone one or two non-Democrats served on all the committees.

Corporation counsel Victor Bolden said a legal opinion is forthcoming.

In the meantime, aldermen left empty the seats reserved for Republicans or other non-Democrats.

Aldermen appointed themselves to 20 boards and commissions Tuesday night. The groups include bodies like the Affirmative Action Commission, the Litigation Settlement Committee, and the Solid Waste Authority.

These are different from aldermanic committees, like the Finance Committee and the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee. Those comprise aldermen appointed by the leadership of the Board of Aldermen: the president, president pro-tem, majority leader, and deputy majority leader. Perez said he expects those appointments to be complete by the beginning of next week.

It remains to be seen who will be appointed to two commissions that were passed over Tuesday night: the Litigation Settlement Committee, for which no alderman volunteered, and the New Haven Slavery Task Force, which has not held a meeting in at least two years.

The aldermen were voted unanimously as a slate to their new positions. The election results are as follows. (Commissions with an empty seat for a non-Democrat are marked with an asterisk.)

• *Ad Hoc Living Wage Commission: Jessica Holmes, Doug Hausladen
• Affirmative Action Commission: Sergio Rodriguez
• School Readiness Council (formerly Commission on Early Childhood Education –Educare): Angela Russell
• *Capital Projects Committee: Doug Hausladen
• City Plan Commission: Adam Marchand
• Cultural Affairs Commission: Frank Douglass
• Development Commission: Sarah Eidelson
• Emergency Management Advisory Council: Frank Douglass
• Environmental Advisory Council: Sal DeCola
• Equal Opportunities Commission: Delphine Clyburn
• Food Policy Council: Frank Douglass
• Legal Assistance Association: Evette Hamilton
• *Parks Commission: Ernie Santiago
• *Peace Commission: Brian Wingate
• *Property Acquisition and Disposition Committee: Andrea Jackson-Brooks, Brian Wingate
• *Redevelopment Agency Advisory Council: Jeanette Morrison
• Solid Waste Authority: Mark Stopa
• *Transfer Committee: Brenda Jones-Barnes
• Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority: Al Paolillo
• Youth Commission: Carlton Staggers

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