Elicker: Use Zoning Code To Slow Yale’s Roll

Limit Yale property acquisitions through changes to the zoning code by encouraging vertical, not horizontal, expansion of its university and medical campuses.

That policy proposal is at the center of mayoral candidate Justin Elicker’s newly released ​“Good Government” platform.

Elicker, a former East Rock/Cedar Hill alder who came in second place behind Mayor Toni Harp in the 2013 mayoral election, published his latest policy ideas a day after the Independent broke the news that the Harp administration has received a wide-ranging federal subpoena regarding alleged mismanagement of funds in the Youth Services department.

Elicker is challenging Harp for the Democratic nomination for mayor again this year. He has previously released policy platforms in the areas of education and jobs and the economy.

Amidst calls for more mayoral ​“town halls,” a commitment to broadcast public meetings on Facebook Live, and a commitment to participate in the public financing Democracy Fund even if running as an incumbent, Elicker argues in his new platform that the city must take new steps to limit the loss of taxable properties to tax-exempt nonprofits like Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Roughly $8.2 billion, or 55 percent, of city properties are currently tax exempt, according to the city assessor.

“For years,” Elicker writes, ​“New Haven has been losing taxable property as Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital acquire more and more land. While both the University and the Hospital are major economic drivers of our city, they also take a significant toll on our city’s ability to collect taxes. Each time the University and Hospital acquire a new property, it is taken off the tax rolls, requiring local homeowners and business owners to bear more of the overall burden for the cost of government. The City’s zoning code should set clearer boundaries for medical and university land acquisition. While we want to encourage the expansion of the largest employers in the city, we should encourage them to expand vertically so that we preserve more taxable property to support the city’s needs.” (Emphasis added.)

While Elicker’s statement about every Yale property acquisition resulting in fewer property taxes paid is not 100 percent accurate, considering that the university pays millions of dollars in taxes every year through its commercial property division, Yale’s $11.5 million voluntary annual contribution to the city is indeed hundreds of millions of dollars less than what it and the hospital would pay in taxes based on the appraised worth of their tax-exempt properties.

Elicker has already called on Yale to increase its voluntary annual contribution to the city to $50 million, which the Harp administration has criticized as a unrealizable campaign promise.

Harp, meanwhile, has worked with the hospital to establish a new ​“Wellness Center” at the city government office building at 200 Orange and helped pave the way for the hospital’s planned $838 million new neuroscience center at its St. Raphael’s Campus.

In the new ​“Good Government” platform, Elicker also commits to publishing every dollar the city spends in an online, publicly accessible ledger, which the city’s independent Financial Review and Audit Commission (FRAC) has called on the city to do. And he promises to pursue a greater regionalization of services, such as collaborating with Hamden to build a new shared animal shelter.

See below to read Elicker’s full platform.

Elicker’s Full Platform On Good Government

A City That Runs Well

Government should run openly, efficiently, and effectively. Unfortunately, all too often, people ridicule government as representing just the opposite. With the national political environment so caustic and trust in government so low, New Haven should serve as an example of what government can be; we need to openly share information, actively include the public, and work tirelessly to improve our effectiveness. Local government should be a place where we come together as a community to address our greatest challenges. The New Haveners that I speak with don’t trust city government, don’t feel their taxes are being used carefully and effectively, and don’t feel included in the decision-making process. They also feel that our city is not well-run, that quality-of-life issues are not addressed quickly, and that financial and personnel scandals keep us from achieving our potential. Our city needs leadership that puts the concerns of its residents first and builds a local government that works.

A Financial Path Forward

• Live within our means. New Haven faces serious budgetary challenges. Under Mayor Harp’s last two budgets, taxes increased by 11 percent while last year the city’s tax base declined despite all the building downtown. To make matters worse, the Harp administration has refinanced and borrowed millions of dollars, passing these debts on to our children. Meanwhile, credit rating agencies have downgraded our bond ratings, showing less confidence in the financial health of the city. To protect taxpayers over the short and long term, we have to be more disciplined in how we spend the taxpayer’s money, work to find efficiencies, and cut costs without using financial gimmicks. We should empower our department heads and our frontline staff to identify these opportunities for savings and hold them accountable for overruns. The most basic budgeting principal is that you should never spend more than you make. We should expect our city to abide by this fundamental principal.

• Create a long-term fiscal plan for the city. City Hall’s inability to function stems from its unwillingness to address our city’s financial problems and chart a long-term course for action. The City’s current administration looks only year to year when budgeting. In fact, the Board of Alders has twice required the mayor to produce a five-year financial plan. Amid the budgetary challenges that we face, we lack a strategic, long-term fiscal plan based on sound financial footing. At the same time, the needs of the community are real and large. Our vision must be ambitious. As mayor, I would put forward a long-term plan which:

Outlines how we can use upcoming budget cycles effectively;

Addresses our structural financial problem by exploring other realistic revenue sources;

Identifies long-term cost reductions such as health care savings;

Creates regional partnerships

A strong financial plan will put our city on secure footing and position us for long-term success without unreasonable taxes.

• Eliminate fraud and misuse of funds. In the past several years, the Harp administration engaged in countless instances of wasteful and unethical spending. These include:

A $50,000 trip to China;

Fancy dinners and sporting events on city credit cards;

Hundreds of thousands of dollars of frivolous lawsuits which led nowhere;

Tens of thousands of dollars stolen by several city employees;

Consulting gigs costing thousands of dollars a day given to friends of high-level city employees.

This reckless spending wastes millions of taxpayer dollars. As mayor, I’ll make sure that financial accountability starts at the top. We will impose tighter financial controls, such as hard spending limits. In addition, we will implement strict pre-approval for employee travel and expenses, use surprise audits to identify employee theft, and increase transparency of city purchases.

• Borrow when it makes sense. Our city borrows an incredible amount of money: we are $1.5 billion in debt. Borrowing money through government bonds makes sense but only under certain circumstances. Unfortunately, our city’s leadership all too often borrows without doing a full analysis of the long-term financial impact. This is not sound fiscal management. We need to make sure every new project aligns with our city’s long term goals and that we have the resources to successfully operate and maintain it. We should also borrow when the combined principal and interest on our loan is lower than the savings. We should use cost-benefit analysis to ensure that borrowing saves us money and reduces our costs. For example, it may make sense to borrow $100,000 to fix the roof on the Goffe Street Armory if it means that we will pay less in annual principal and interest payments than the cost of storing materials in a different building.

• Collaborate with our local partners. Ultimately we will not be able to cut or tax our way out of the fiscal mess we are in. We must also address some of the underlying structural problems in our budget. Pension and health care costs for city employees are significantly underfunded. We must balance what we promise with our ability to follow through on these promises by respectfully and collaboratively working with municipal union partners. Municipal employees understand that a financially strong City Hall means a financially sound retirement future for them and their families. Partners such as Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital must play a more active role in working with the city to resolve our financial challenges. They can accomplish this through increased voluntary payments and by using their resources to help the City increase revenues in other ways — such as lobbying the state to provide alternative municipal funding sources or increased payment in-lieu of taxes funding.
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Embrace regional solutions. Regionalism in Connecticut is critical to addressing the economic disparities that exist between many of the suburbs and urban centers. Yet it has been out of reach politically for many years. The lack of leadership in Hartford should not deter us from pursuing regionalism on our own. Many of our surrounding towns are struggling financially. Hamden is experiencing a budget crisis and West Haven’s finances have been partially taken over by the state. There exists significant opportunities for us to collaborate and benefit each other. I would work with the governor and other mayors to develop shared service strategies that deliver better value for the taxpayer and more financial stability for all. There are many examples. Our animal shelter, for instance, which is in dire need of repair, lies near the Hamden border. Meanwhile, Hamden is raising money to build a new animal shelter of its own. We should combine efforts to minimize expenses for both towns. Other solutions could include more regional purchasing agreements to reduce prices for each town, regional coalitions to lobby the state for shared goals, and sharing facilities and services when it makes economic sense.

• Limit the loss of taxable property. For years, New Haven has been losing taxable property as Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital acquire more and more land. While both the University and the Hospital are major economic drivers of our city, they also take a significant toll on our city’s ability to collect taxes. Each time the University and Hospital acquire a new property, it is taken off the tax rolls, requiring local homeowners and business owners to bear more of the overall burden for the cost of government. The City’s zoning code should set clearer boundaries for medical and university land acquisition. While we want to encourage the expansion of the largest employers in the city, we should encourage them to expand vertically so that we preserve more taxable property to support the city’s needs.

A Government That Welcomes You

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Have a more open and accessible mayor. We need more Mayor’s Town Halls in person, online, and over the phone. Too many people in this city tell me they are not being listened to. As mayor, I would commit to regular town halls to hear from residents — and not just at election time. In addition to meetings in different neighborhoods, I would host Facebook Lives to hear from residents throughout the city. As I do now, I would continue to share my cellphone number with residents so they can reach me directly: 203 – 500-2969.

• Walk your block. I love talking with New Haveners directly, not only about their ideas for our city, but also about their families and favorite parts of New Haven. Some of the best places to connect with residents include block parties, neighborhood festivals, and Community Management Team Meetings — you name it and I will show up. A mayor can’t do a good job if they are cooped up in City Hall all the time. Just like I did while on the Board of Alders, I will prioritize spending time with the community and translating that presence into direct action to improve our city’s service.
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Involve you in the budget process. Our budget process is far too inaccessible. While municipal finance might be complicated, I believe our city would operate better if more residents had a better understanding of our budgetary challenges. For that reason, in 2012, when I was on the Board of Alders, I made a Youtube video to teach people about the budgetary process. Check it out here. I would maintain this same commitment to including residents in the budget process so we all can work together to resolve our challenges. I will continue to use video and social media to bring the budget to the community in more accessible forms. In addition, I will expand the mayor’s involvement in our city’s neighborhoods so that together we can optimize government spending. I will also share budget details in Excel format with residents.
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Reinvigorate the city’s boards and commissions. The city’s boards and commissions must hear from different perspectives in order to solve community issues. For boards and commissions, I would make sure we have broad and diverse representation for the committees that handle key issues like housing, education, and policing. I would make sure that vacancies are promptly filled so that critical commissions — like the Ethics Commission and the Lead Poisoning Advisory Committee — can do their work.

• Make City Hall accessible in your home. We have so many low- and no-cost tools in today’s world that can make City Hall more accessible. As your mayor, I will ensure more meetings are broadcast via Facebook Live and update the New Haven Public Schools’ website to make certain that it provides clear information on school enrollment. Every resident who opts in to regular emails will receive information on everything from neighborhood events to important hearings. City Hall should be a place that welcomes you rather than an opaque, inaccessible mystery.

A Government that is Accountable

• Open the city’s checkbook. The public deserves to know how their money is spent. The current administration still has not released information on thousands of dollars of credit card purchases made by high-level staff, including purchases from Amazon and details of expensive staff trips. We will publish every financial transaction that the city makes online through an open data platform. City Hall should have nothing to hide.

• Ensure that it’s easy to vote. Our city elections have had major problems, from voters waiting for hours at polling places to same-day registration taking so long that voting had to be extended. While the Registrar of Voters directly manages the election process in New Haven, the mayor can play a significant role in making it easier for everyone to vote. As mayor, I will make sure that on Election Day, the city has the resources it needs to provide everyone the ability to vote in a timely manner. I will ensure the Registrar of Voters is prepared and accountable for facilitating this basic civic duty. I will also go to Hartford to support voting rights reform, such as early voting, which extends democratic rights to more people. 

• Lead on ethics and insist others to do the same. In March, I filed a complaint about Mayor Harp’s campaign finance filings because she failed to adequately disclose nearly $100,000 in donations. I did that for two reasons:

First, I believe that voters and residents deserve to know how politicians fund their campaigns;

Second, this failure to properly manage and report campaign expenses is a continuation of a common theme of the Harp Administration.

We need to bring more accountability and transparency to elections in New Haven.

• Commit to clean elections. I am participating in New Haven’s clean election program — The Democracy Fund —because I believe that government is too often run by corporations, special interests, and the rich. Campaign finance reform is a national Democratic Party priority, and for good reason. Unfortunately, Mayor Harp refuses to participate in the Clean Election Program and takes big money from city contractors. My commitment to the Democracy Fund will not stop once I’m elected. As long as I am on the ballot, I will participate in our city’s clean election program.
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Make sure the Civilian Review Board succeeds. After diligent activism by citizens across the city, New Haven has a Civilian Review Board to help promote accountability and transparency in the police department. The future success of the Civilian Review Board will determine the relationship between the public and the police. As mayor, I will work with citizens, activists, police leadership, and the police union to make sure that the Civilian Review Board acts credibly to ensure that we live up to our goals as a community policing city.

• Expand public results-based accountability to more parts of government. After introducing Compstat to promote results and accountability in the police department, Chief Esserman began to close it off to the public. If elected mayor, I would double down on the results-based approach that Compstat can give us to make sure that we are reducing crime and building stronger relationships with communities. I also think that the Compstat approach should be expanded to city government more broadly. We need to create more accountability so that all of our city government effectively serves the residents of New Haven. A citywide government accountability program would ensure that citizen complaints are more quickly resolved, that taxpayer dollars are more effectively spent, and that city government more proactively addresses the critical quality of life issues that our neighborhoods face. All around the country, people are more cynical than ever about government. We need to rebuild trust in government, starting in New Haven. A commitment to accountability and transparency in campaigns, budgets, and the functions of government would make our city an example for others to follow.
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Bring on the best team. No one person can run a city on their own. A good mayor hires a full team of department heads and leaders who reflect the diversity of their city, share a vision for a more effective, responsive government, and are guided by a strong ethical compass. I will do exactly that, making use of the great local talent we have first.