nothin Marks Promises New Leadership | New Haven Independent

Marks Promises New Leadership

Markeshia Ricks Photo

After decades behind the scenes organizing people, Jill Marks said, she is ready to step to the forefront.

As the wife of local labor organizer Scott Marks and a mother of six, Marks took her first step toward an out-front political life, right into one of the eight Democratic alder primaries scheduled for Sept. 16. She is on the ballot against three-term incumbent Claudette Robinson-Thorpe.

Marks, who was born and raised in the Hill neighborhood, said she is running against a woman she once campaigned for because we need new leadership. We need a voice that connects the people downtown back to the ward.”

She said she has worked for 20 years in the community and organizing through the labor-spawned activist group New Haven Rising and her church, the New Growth Praise Center. She said she believes that Beaver Hills’ Ward 28, where she has made her home for the last seven years, needs special attention” by someone with a good strong commitment” to the neighborhood. She also said it needs the leadership of someone who has the time to attend Board of Alders committee meetings where decisions are made, and at regular meetings were alders vote.

Marks referenced the fact that in the last year, Robinson-Thorpe’s attendance had noticeably declined. (Read about that here and read here what Robinson-Thorpe said about her attendance and that decline.)

People want change, and I think showing up in the right place at the right time can make that change happen,” Marks said.

Marks said in addition to showing up to meetings downtown, if she is elected alder she plans to focus on families in the neighborhood and making sure they have access to jobs that allow them to make ends meet.” She said she would also focus on quality-of-life issues such as sidewalk repair, increasing the number of police walking the beat in the neighborhood and keeping taxes low and affordable so that people aren’t priced out of their homes.

When asked what strategies or budget cuts she might employ to help keep taxes low, she acknowledged that she’s hasn’t worked out details yet. Coming in new, I know that there are certain things I would have to learn,” she said. She said she’s committed to learning about the city’s budgeting process. What I know is that people are complaining about taxes on their homes, and I want to do whatever it takes to help them stay in their homes,” she said.

Though she is a political newcomer, Marks has received the endorsement of the Ward 28 Democratic co-chairs and the Democratic Town Committee. She also received the backing of UNITE HERE Local 34. UNITE HERE had originally recruited Robinson-Thorpe, a member, to run for the seat; Robinson-Thorpe broke with the board’s labor-backed majority (which she termed a dictatorship”) earlier this term following internal arguments about leadership positions, helping to form a dissenting People’s Caucus” and then being replaced as head of the Black and Hispanic Caucus.

If she is elected, Marks said, she will, in many ways, pick up where Robinson-Thorpe left off — pushing the renovation of the Goffe Street Armory and programming for a new teen center — and hopefully, build on them.

My thing is mostly, people coming together to tackle issues together,” she said.

Previous coverage of the Sept. 16 Democratic alder primaries:
Local 34 Endorses 6 For Alder
Berrios-Bones: Stay The Course
Burwell Confronts Language Barrier
Robinson-Thorpe Ready For Primary Fight
8 Primaries On Tap
Newhallville Gets A Primary
Clyburn: A Voice At The Table”

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