The city’s building official paid a visit to the home of mayoral candidate Toni Harp Thursday and gave her son a two-month deadline to complete “minor” repairs and obtain a permanent certificate of occupancy.
The visit by Acting Building Official Daniel O’Neill and a staff electrical inspector occurred after the building department received inquiries about the house from the New Haven Register. The Register’s Mary O’Leary subsequently broke this story Friday revealing that the home, on upper Westville’s Conrad Drive, lacks a permanent certificate of occupancy.
The home was designed and owned by Toni Harp’s late husband Wendell. He and the city fought for years over permits. In 2003 he obtained a temporary certificate of occupancy for the house. Since then, the city had never returned to inspect it to see if further needed work had been done. The house is now owned by Toni Harp’s son, Matthew. His mom, a state senator and Democratic candidate for mayor, lives there, too.
Building Official O’Neill and Matthew Harp both said they hadn’t realized the house does not have a permanent certificate of occupancy. Toni Harp also said she it had been her understanding that there had been a certificate, based on this 2007 appraisal.
Page three of the appraisal states: “Subject property is a new construction (CO has been issued) and is in good condition for the neighborhood.”
Under this state law, the city can’t boot the Harps from the premises. If someone has lived in a house for six years under a temporary certificate of occupancy, and the city hasn’t followed up in that time, then the occupancy is considered permanent, O’Neill said.
“They still need the piece of paper and need to work toward that. But I don’t have the lawful authority to order them to cease the occupancy,” O’Neill said Friday afternoon.
O’Neill said his inspection Thursday turned up some problems, which he termed “mostly minor stuff”: “The owner has some electrical issues to address, some sheetrock to install, some guardrail systems to install. Nothing that we discovered goes to the level of ordering him to not occupy. Not even close. Smoke detectors are in place. All the life-safety basics are there.”
He said Matthew Harp must complete the work within 60 days and then pass a new inspection to obtain a permanent certificate of occupancy.
Harp must also “give me a construction value” that accounts for work done on the house since the 1990s, when Wendell Harp originally applied for permits. At that time he paid based on having done $237,000 of work. Much more has been done since, O’Neill said. “I have no clue what that value is going to be,” he said. Whatever the figure turns out to be, Harp will owe $27.26 for each $1,000 of work.
“The work is going to be done,” Matthew Harp said Friday afternoon. “This is not an issue that should reflect on the campaign. The city and I have worked out a plan that seems reasonable. Had I known beforehand — about the lack of a final certificate of occupancy — it would have been done.”
For decades Toni Harp has served this community in many capacities. She has been honored and praised for her work. She was re-elected year after year to her state senate seat for her honorable service to the people of New Haven. Never was heard an offending word about Toni Harp. She was always seen as a respectable, responsible, reliable person of integrity and honesty.
All that changed after she decided to run for mayor.
Suddenly she became the wicked witch of Westville who lived in palatial splendor in a semi-suburban million-dollar mansion. One mayoral candidate accused her of living, not in New Haven at all, but in Bethany! This same candidate called her a slumlord. Others called her a tax cheat. She was described as a pawn of unions and other special interest groups. Accusers charged that she was a stranger to the black community, aloof and uncaring about the needs and concerns of the inner city. Some implied that she was not very bright and inarticulate.
Every stone was overturned to find some dirt on Toni Harp and tie any hint of scandal to her and her pursuit of the mayor's office.
Where were all these accusations years ago? Had Toni Harp duped all of New Haven all these years into thinking she was a sincere public servant doing whatever good she could to help make New Haven a better, safer community in which to live?
The Register now digs up a non-news story about "the house" that the Harp family and the city building officials had inadvertently overlooked for years. There appears to have been no criminal intent and an agreement seems to have been worked out between Matthew Harp and the city to resolve the matter. What else will they try to dig up to attempt to assassinate the character of Toni Harp?