Allan Appel
DeStefano (left) and Hausladen at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Wondering whether he and fellow neighborhood organizers are “spinning our wheels,” Doug Hausladen had a question for the mayor: Would he consider giving community management teams some real power — to, for example, sign off on development deals in their neighborhoods?
“I’d engage us in land use,” the mayor replied, not answering the question directly.
The exchange on the role of CMTs took place at the Wesville-West Hills community management team meeting at the police substation on Valley Street Wednesday night. Forty people came to hear DeStefano, the featured speaker.
New Haven’s 12 all-volunteer CMTs came into being in the 1990s along with community policing. They meet monthly with cops and other officials at police substations to discuss issues ranging from development to crime and safety to new school design to dumping.
Hausladen is the chairman of the Wooster Square management team. The evening’s host, Paul Chambers, heads the Westville-West Hills CMT. The two are also movers and shakers in the bimonthly gathering of heads of the 12 citywide CMTs.
That group has been meeting since January 2009 and in effect asking: Who are we and is our potential being fulfilled?
They asked the mayor the same questions.
“Is my time being spent well volunteering [in these CMT roles]? Are we spinning our wheels? Do we need a more permanent presence?” Hausladen asked.
The mayor replied that perhaps his administration could give the CMTs more acknowledgment, and that all CMTs are different based on their concerns.
Hausladen said that the CMT is “good entry level way to engage” people in government and city life. However, to find out about even what a CMT is, he said, he had to learn it from a friend.
“If you go to the city’s website, you can’t find us. Also in the police department [site] you need to drill down to find CMTs,” Hausladen said.
Each CMT is listed along with its meeting time under the geographical area of the city on the police site. “But if you ask what a CMT is, it’s not there,” said Chambers
The mayor offered to meet with the citywide CMT chairs on their concerns. He said they also could have a link on the city site and the city site could even host a CMT chairs conference call.
“It’s as positive as I expected,” said Chambers of the mayor’s response.Chambers said he was pleased that as a result of the get-together the door has at least been opened wider on the role of CMTs.
Hausladen said while he hopes CMTs will have the place they deserve in the “residents” section of the city site, he plans to take action on his own.
With the aid of Yale interns, Hausladen said he hopes to create a “landing page” for each of the city’s CMTs on ctdatahaven. “I’d like to see a platform where we can control our own presence. But we [still] need a link on the city site because that’s where people go.”
Hausladen was at pains to point out that in other regards the city administration has been supportive of the CMTs — when they ask, for example, for speakers to come to meetings.
With luck, he said, the CMT presence on ctdatahaven can be up by the spring.
I am so impressed with DeStefano after this meeting.....he was on point, had all the stats, and spoke eloquently. Whatever you think about how this man governs, you cannot say that he does not care for and love this city......