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After Trades, Aldermen OK Charter Revision Panel

by Leonard J. Honeyman | Mar 17, 2010 8:04 am

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

Posted to: City Hall

In a contentious three-hour meeting that resembled baseball’s winter trade meetings more than a City Hall hearing, an aldermanic panel passed and sent to the full board its recommendations for the makeup and agenda for a Charter Revision Commission.

The final 15-member list was close to the nominations sent over by Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s administration. The agenda was exactly what was presented by Chief of Staff Sean Matteson in a March 12 letter to the Aldermanic Affairs Committee.

That was the source of the contention.

The commission is being set up to review and suggest changes to the city’s charter. New Haven has to set up such a commission each decade. This year the commission will look into whether to expand mayoral and aldermanic terms from two to four years; and whether to shrink the size of the 30-member Board of Aldermen.

The committee chose 15 people, 13 of whom were on the list Matteson sent over on March 9, to serve on the committee. It also chose two agenda items for the committee to mull: a four-year term for the mayor and a Board of Aldermen with fewer members.

The recommendations now go to the full Board of Aldermen, which must pass them by a two-thirds vote. The commission’s work must be done in time for its recommendations to be reviewed by the Board of Aldermen again and sent to the Secretary of the State in September so the proposed changes can be put before the voters in the November elections.

The trading for the starting 15-member squad began when the committee was told that one of the mayor’s recommendations, Daisy Abreu, would not be able to serve. (She runs the downtown Special Services District and sits on the Redevelopment Authority.) Her place was finally taken by former Green Party Alderman Allan Brison, after cultural affairs advocate Douglas Hausladen was briefly on, then sent back to the minor leagues as an alternate.

Just as a baseball team can’t have too many players at any position, the commission may not have too many Democrats, the members learned. According to the state law on charter revisions, Chapter 99 Section 7-190 ,the charter commission cannot have a majority of more than one member for any political party. Hausladen is a Democrat, so he had to go. Former West Rock Alderman Willie Joe Moore, who aldermanic staff said had been a Democrat recently, is now an independent. That left the list as eight Democrats and seven non-Democrats.

But the trading wasn’t over by a long shot.

The aldermen were then informed that the state law also says the commission cannot have more than a certain number of elected or appointed officials. The problem is the interpretation, which the panel decided meant six, so Audit Commission member Martin O’Connor got the boot in favor of Orchard Street resident Porsche Collins, who had shown up to offer her services.

Leonard Honeyman Photo Committee Chairman and Beaver Hills Alderman Thomas Lehtonen and most of the members wanted to pass the mayor’s suggested list with as little fuss as possible. West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson and Committee Vice-Chair and East Shore Alderman Alphonse Paolillo Jr. said the panel was rushing and not taking into account the fact that there were 39 applicants for the commission. None had been interviewed by the committee. Paolillo also said the panel should “do its due diligence” and at least talk to the administration’s candidates before passing on their names to the full board.

Goldson made a half-dozen nominations for the panel, all of which were voted down by 4-2 margins. Paolillo and Goldson voted for and Lehtonen, Yusuf Shah, Katrina Jones and Stephanie Bauer voted with the majority. Many of Goldson’s motions had to do with trying to remove Corporation Counsel Victor Bolden from the list because he is a City Hallstaff member who would be available to the commission in any case. Bolden stayed.

The evening began with Matteson (pictured with City Hall legislative liaison Adam Joseph) urging the panel to accept the administration’s list of committee nominees and urging the agenda to include a four-year term for the mayor and the aldermen.

“…The two-year election cycle takes too much focus away from governance. You are elected one year and the next you are running for re-election,” he said. The two-year cycle is too hard on the voters, he said.

As far as the number of aldermanic seats, he said the administration had “no direct opinion” on the size of the board, but said other large cities have legislative bodies with fewer members. Waterbury, Bridgeport and Hartford have smaller boards. For example, New Haven has one alderman for each 4,100 residents, while Providence has one for 11,000 and Bridgeport has one for each 7,000 residents.

After the presentation, Goldson launched into a barrage of questions about legislative pay and the size of legislative bodies in smaller towns as well as the last time a New Haven mayor served only one term. That drew glares from Lehtonen and Shah. Matteson said he would get back to him with the answer.

Ward 2 Democratic Co-Chairman Gregory A. Smith (pictured) had submitted four proposals for the commission, including creating an elected school board, banning city officials to work for the Board of Education, separating the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from the city, and creating an oversight committee on school construction. He also asked the committee about how to get nominated for the committee. Goldson tried to get his four recommendations for agenda items passed to no avail, with various motions and amendments failing by the same 4-2 vote.

Smith’s appearance, as well as that of Collins, Westville activist Tim Holahan—who mentioned four people as worthy candidates—Westville resident Andrew Orefice, and the announcement that Abreu was not available to serve, led Goldson and Paolillo to try to slow things down, but with no success.

Holahan said he was disappointed in the evening,

“I think we saw a process that was a little – I think Alderman Paolillo said it best—that didn’t honor the traditions of even this committee, because clearly some member of the city government is eager to push through the Charter Revision Commission on two specific issues,” he said.

He called it a “darned shame” and said the process “has to be more open.”

He said many people support the four-year term, but “then the other issue –they want us to reduce the size of the board, which needs a lot of debate. But there are other stuff as well…preventing Board of Ed employees from serving on the Board of Aldermen. Very much worth discussing but voted down…” he said.

He said the rush to have the commission’s work completed as soon as possible was simple to figure out.

“The mayor wants the next election to be for four years. Unless this gets underway in the time frame, that’s not going to happen,” he said.

After the meeting, Paolillo said there was no process in place to examine candidates’ qualifications, so the committee went back and forth for the last hour or so of the meeting.

“Everybody who wants to be on a board or commission in this town comes before us. There were 25 people outside of the mayor’s list. They deserved an equal opportunity as well. There has to be equity in the process, It’s giving everyone the same opportunity and you saw for yourself tonight that that wasn’t the case,” he said.

Goldson said he didn’t know if the best commission was seated.

“There are a lot of good candidates. I’m not saying that these candidates are not good candidates. I don’t know from this process that they are the best. They came to the table with a list,” he said of the administration.

Goldson said, however, that the process has just started.

“They have to have two-thirds of the Board of Aldermen to approve that. That means they have to have 20 votes and they don’t have 20 votes yet. So, they still have to negotiate this list. They might have forced this down our throats on this committee, but they are not going to be able to do it on the whole board.”

For those people who weren’t chosen tonight, don’t lose hope,” he said.

Chief of staff Matteson denied that anything was forced down anybody’s throat..

“I don’t know how you can say this was forced through the board by the administration. It was submitted as a recommendation, debated and voted on. The board added names and took names off,” he said.

Matteson said he hasn’t gauged whether the votes are there in the full board

“ We take one step at a time,” he said.

Although the aldermen may give direction, the Charter Revision Commission can work on its own to take up issues it wants to.

The aldermen “cannot tell them what not to look at. The first thing the commission will do is hold a public hearing and take testimony as well.

“It is a completely transparent democratic process,” he said.

The board named the following people as members of the commission, subject to the vote of the full board.

Porsche Collins
Sandra Trevino
Victor Fasano
Allan Brison
James Rawlings
Cherise Dykes
Jorge Perez
Arline DePino
William Ginsberg
James Segaloff
Larcina Carrington-Wynn
John Cirello
Victor Bolden
Willie Joe Moore
William Celentano

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Comments

posted by: Rsmith on March 17, 2010  8:53am

Let’s just say the Mayor picked his list well.  People who are close allies, those who cannot afford to piss him off. including someone who runs a nonprofit that receives city money???

posted by: Threefifths on March 17, 2010  9:04am

Darnell Goldson you are the Charles Barron of
New Haven. Keep fighting.In fact this you tube
show’s you in action and call’s out the judas goat’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q7I_1o664M&feature=related

Last I hope the follwing comes under Charter Revision.

1. Term limits.

2.Proportional Representation

3.Elected School Board.

posted by: Jay Sokolow on March 17, 2010  10:09am

It’s a pretty good panel. The rules are not good.

Limiting the number of democrats caused an incompetent green party member to be seated. The rules should require roughly the same percentage of seats as there are registered voters affiliated with a given party. Independent voters would be wild-card seats, open to anyone.

The agenda items are a good choice. If too many items are included, nothing will get passed.

posted by: streever on March 17, 2010  10:16am

I’m extremely disappointed with the process involved here. The Mayor’s side sought to keep it as close to “business as usual” as it could and mostly succeeded.

I would have applied for this but am overwhelmed with other responsibilities. I was really hoping this was a chance for other like-minded citizens who have a stake in the cities future to stand up.

A city hall staffer told me that Roland had essentially “gone rogue” when he questioned the pay raises & the mayor’s process in giving it, saying “he’s exposing the lack of alderman’s power to soon, we’re working on fixing it, he should wait for us”

Fat chance of that ever happening. The Alders have no power because of the rules decreed by the mayor.

Sadly, we all have ourselves to blame. If I didn’t sit on 3 boards & have my hands full running 2 companies tech, I’d have jumped for this. Why didn’t you?

posted by: streever on March 17, 2010  10:19am

PS
Excellent points Mr Goldson! Thank you for raising the issues you raised.

posted by: Sandstorm on March 17, 2010  10:53am

An elected school board would deprive New Haveners of some of the best and brightest
volunteers that have made themselves available. They serve as tremendous resources and are respected educators and academicians.
These are not people who have any interest in winning a popularity contest to validate themselves. We are blessed to have them in our city and applaud their generosity.

posted by: City Hall Watch on March 17, 2010  3:22pm

A sad spectacle and an expected outcome. The mayor has been planning this for weeks if not months to pack the committee with like minded folks with an agenda that’s all about him. The alder terms were just thrown in as eye candy. At the very least, the committee should have interviewed the interested people with an eye toward fresh faces. Is that asking too much?

Tom Lehtonen: Why are you still on the board? Really. Has there been a time ever that you have disgreed with the mayor, offered an amendment or proposed a solution to something? It’s not about getting it done so you can check off that you carried the water for the mayor one more time. It’s about representing the interests of your ward. People are suffering all around you, the issues confronting the city are serious and your thoughts are about how fast you can vote on the exact list and issues the mayor proposed so you can go home and eat your spaghetti dinner?

Then there’s Poor Sean Matteson. The idea of open government probably gives him seizures. Sean,  transparent means light passes through with clarity. As an adjective, it means candid, clear-cut, direct, distinct, distinguishable, easily seen, easy, evident, explicit, forthright, frank, guileless.

Manipulative, deceitful and cooked are not found in open government. But your view of it certainly explains a lot of things at City Hall.

posted by: Greg Smith on March 17, 2010  3:37pm

I find it a bit confusing on how the Alder-manic affairs committee selects members to sit on this committee. There was to my knowledge nothing publicizing this hearing that took place. My questions were what is the process, What is the criteria for serving on this committee, Who makes the decision as to who will serve, and is this process open to the general public, basically can you serve by simply being a new haven resident and having submitted a resume. Is submitting a resume the only requirement to be a considered choice by the board. How does the general public get information on serving if they desire to do so. Is it the Mayor who submits the list, or can residents submit resumes without being nominated or must the resident be nominated, and if so then by whom should the resident be nominated. It appears to me that there is no process in place to select members to serve, so i must assume that, the Mayor in times past would submit a list of 15 people to make any recommendations on charter revision if any at all. This i believe is the first time this type of process has been use to select members to serve on this committee. If there is a criteria, then it isnt spelled out in any documentation that I have seen. Furthermore none of the people that was submitted by the administration came to the hearing, so how did the alder-manic panel passed and send to the full board its recommendations for the makeup and agenda for a Charter Revision Commission seeing that none of those individuals with the exception of Cherise Dykes showed up to the hearing, also was testifying a requirement because most of the people on this list were not there to testify, and If they were passed for full recommendation, and didnt have to show up, then that clearly speaks to the question of whether there is a process in place. If by nothing else the couple of people who submitted resumes and showed up to the hearing should by default been selected to served, If submitting a resume and showing up is the criteria, otherwise I could have stayed home and probably got selected like the rest who didnt show. Just trying to understand the process thats all.

posted by: David Cameron on March 17, 2010  3:53pm

Section 7-190 of the Connecticut General Statutes states that the selection of the members of a municipality’s Charter Review Commission is to be made by the “appointing authority” - in New Haven’s case the Board of Aldermen.  It does not assign or give the mayor or any other official a privileged position in nominating members.  It does not assign the selection to a committee of the board rather than the full board itself.  Nor does it allow the mayor, his staff, the alders, or anyone else to limit the issues that can be considered by the Commission.  The Commission itself can consider any revision it wishes to consider.

What happened last night seriously delegitimizes the process of charter review.  The alders who participated in last night’s little charade should be ashamed of themselves.  The full Board should ignore what was decided last night and review the merits of all of the candidates - those proposed by the mayor and the many citizens who volunteered to serve on the commission.

posted by: Threefifths on March 17, 2010  4:24pm

Jay Sokolow

Limiting the number of democrats caused an incompetent green party member to be seated. The rules should require roughly the same percentage of seats as there are registered voters affiliated with a given party. Independent voters would be wild-card seats, open to anyone.

The agenda items are a good choice. If too many items are included, nothing will get passed.

How about the incompetent Democratic and Republican parties that on all level’s who have done nothing for the people.Look at new haven who is raising your taxes. It is not’t a incompetent Green party member.Look at how Mr.Goldson And Mr.Paolillo Jr. try to put in recommendations and it was shot down by there own party member’s.So if anyone is incompetent take a look at this Two party system.


Sandstorm

An elected school board would deprive New Haveners of some of the best and brightest
volunteers that have made themselves available. They serve as tremendous resources and are respected educators and academicians.

No let the people vote for the right to have a elected school board.You need to do your home work.There are ony Three members on the school board who are educators. Check them out.


Michael R. Nast, a graduate of New Haven Public Schools and Fordham University, was Superintendent of Stamford Public Schools from 1994 to 1999, having risen through the ranks of Stamford’s school system from high school principal to the top post. He started his career as a science teacher at James Hillhouse High School. Administrative positions held in New Haven include chairman of the Science Department at Hillhouse, assistant principal at Wilbur Cross High School and principal at Cross.

Upon retiring from the Superintendent’s position in Stamford, Mr. Nast served as an educational consultant to many school districts in New England and New York, worked for the Education Alliance at Brown University, and served as interim Superintendent for both the Amity Region 5 and New Hartford School Districts. He currently is an adjunct professor in the University of Connecticut Administrative Preparation Program and is a consultant to the Center for Secondary School Redesign in Rhode Island.
Administration & Finance Committee
Term Expires: 9/2012


Dr. Carlos Antonio Torre earned three degrees at Harvard University: an Ed.M. in Human Development; a Certificate of Advance Studies in Administration, Planning and Social Policy; and a Doctorate of Education. He is, currently, Professor of Education at Southern Connecticut State University

President
Curriculum Committee
Term expires: 9/2013

Selase Williams, Southern Connecticut State University Provost, views himself as a bridge builder, but of the metaphorical sort—bringing together people from different backgrounds, connecting students to faculty and creating new links between Southern and the communities it serves.

Curriculum Committee
Term Expires: 9/2010

These are you Three educators.

Now here are the five Non-educators.

Elizabeth Torres has worked in the housing and community development field for the past 14 years. Her first job was with a national nonprofit starting as a receptionist and then spending 10 years growing through the ranks and ultimately responsible for creating 84 units of affordable housing leveraging over $15,000,000 of financing from HUD, CHFA, and DECD.

Administration & Finance Committee (Chair)
Term expires: 05/2012

Work’s for hud and we know what hud is about. 


Susan R. Samuels came to New Haven to attend Quinnipiac University. Later, Ms. Samuels graduated from Connecticut School of Broadcasting in 1987, attended Albertus Magnus College in 1990, and most recently became an honors graduate of the medical assistant/secretary program at Sawyer School (2006). She is a Justice of the Peace, and an independent contractor with the United States Social Security Office of Disability Adjudication and Review.

Curriculum Committee (Chair)
Term expires 9/2011

Wow a back ground in Broadcasting!!!!

Mayor John DeStefano, Jr.
The king Is the King.

Alex Johnston is Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN). As ConnCAN’s first employee, Alex launched what is now regarded as one of the nation’s leading state-level education reform organizations. In the five years since, he has led ConnCAN’s effort to advocate for state policies that will ensure every Connecticut child has access to a great public school. In 2009, ConnCAN achieved three major legislative victories through its ‘Mind the Gaps’ campaign: overhauling the state’s teacher certification rules, opening up stores of longitudinal student achievement data to the public and securing $8 million of funding for the expansion of high-performing public charter schools in the midst of an $8 billion state budget deficit.

Term Expires: 9/2011

How can you have someone on the board who is pushing charter school’s


Ferdinand L. Risco Jr. is a native of Philadelphia, PA. Educated in the Philadelphia Public School System, he graduated from William W. Bodine High School for International Affairs prior to enrolling in Temple University where he received a Bachelors’ of Business Administration degree.
Mr. Risco is currently employed with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority –Metro North Railroad. Prior to his recent promotion, he managed the daily activities of five unionized supervisors, seventy-six craft personnel, representing multiple unions; maintenance activities, including equipment overhaul, running repair work and inspections of 342 pieces of rolling stock. Now, he serves as a Manager in the Labor Relations Department for Metro North Railroad.

Administration and Finance Committee
Term Expires: 9/2013

I like this guy.Notice he is a union man.Will he stand up for the teachers union?

Like I said let the voice of the people be heard and that is with a elected school board. Not a school board with this type of politics.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wePMYM4av6Q&NR=1

posted by: facchec on March 17, 2010  9:10pm

According to SEC 216 of the Charter,which reads:

“Sec. 216.  Mandatory Decennial Charter Review.
At least once every ten years after July 1, 1993, the board of aldermen shall appoint a charter revision commission pursuant to section 7-190 of the general statutes to consider such amendments to this charter as the board of aldermen may direct and such other amendments as the commission may deem appropriate.”

As you can plainly see there is no provision which provides for the Mayor to recommend much less appoint members to the Charter Revision commission. This is the sole right of the Board of alderman.

On or about April2, 2002, the last time a commission was assembled, a fifteen member commission dominated by mayor made ten recommendations to the Board of the whole. The board approved ten questions be sent to the voters.The leading two questions were:

1. Should the mayoral term be for four years?

2.Shall the revision commission other eight proposed amendments to the charter be approved?

one of the other recommendations was for the creation of a civilian review board.

The voters overwhelmingly rejected the all recommendations including a four year term for the Mayor and the alderman. The alderman question was not favored by the commission.

Eight years later..today….and by this story above… history is repeating itself.

The Mayor now, as then, does not have charter authority to recommend or appoint any members to this commission.
The Board then, as now, is abdicating it’s authority and responsibility to carry out it’s mission for the citizens of the city of New Haven.

Do your job, Board of alderman, stand up for once and enforce the law.

Enough said….

posted by: Allan Brison on March 18, 2010  12:10am

Pathetic seeing Aldermanic Affairs Committee members plus the “guest” huddling with administrative personnel, seemingly getting their marching orders right there for everybody to see as the evening unfolds.

Pathetic that the committee chairman seemed to think that sending the Mayor’s list out of committee, in tact, for the full board to debate is a substitute for doing the committee’s work.

Pathetic that there were, if I heard right, 39 recommendations from alders, and 15 from the Mayor, and the committee majority wants to pass ALL of the Mayor’s list and NONE of the Alder’s list.

(They eventually had to make 2 substitions because the Mayor’s list did not conform to state statues concerning party affiliation and city officials. Talk about incompetence!)

Though I feel privileged to being one of the two substitutions asked to serve, and would be happy to do so, I feel that the process was so flawed that I hope the full Board sends the list back to the Committee so it can do what they should have done in the first place: Interview all of the candidates and come to their own conclusions as to who should serve.

As a previous post clearly states, state law gives the Mayor and the administration NO role in the selection process for charter revision commissions.

I am grateful that there were two committee members who understand that there is something wrong with allowing the administration free reign in selecting this committee; something wrong with abdicating its role as a co-equal branch of city government supposedly acting as a check and balance to the other branch.

posted by: Threefifths on March 18, 2010  8:39am

Allan Brison on March 18, 2010 12:10am

Well said!!!! Keep up the fight.

posted by: City Hall Watch on March 18, 2010  11:26am

Ditto to Allan Brison. Well put. Cameron, thanks for the legal/charter information.

Alders? Nothing but shame for the committee and the rubber stampers found there. It remains to be seen if the full board will find their backbone or have a transplant between now and when they meet.

posted by: Boston Lettuce on March 18, 2010  2:11pm

Well said Brison!  Telling it just like it is and just like you did when you were elected.  Oh, wait. . . . you didn’t really do that did you.  You really just sat there quietly and said and did nothing in every meeting.

You had your chance.  You were elected by popular vote and did absolutely nothing with it as an elected official.  Just as east Rockers are all sure you will do nothing with a seat on a charter committee.

posted by: Allan Brison on March 18, 2010  2:40pm

City Hall Watch and 3/5ths

Thanks for your comments.

There is some hope in this situation. It only takes 11 votes from the full Board to send this back to committee since a 2/3rd super majority is needed to pass.

Of course this might jeopardize the real purpose of this exercise, which is win a 4-year term for the Mayor in time for the Nov election.

posted by: Threefifths on March 18, 2010  6:23pm

If they get four year term’s then is should have term limits with it.

posted by: Lisa Gray on March 18, 2010  10:23pm

Are we at all surprised about how these events played out? If you are, shame on you. The question becomes what are you going to do about it. Clearly, the agenda of power is moving forward and that powers pays little deference to the needs or desires of black, brown and poor people.

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