Winfred Rembert made it back home to Newhallville from a gallery show in Flint, Michigan, to make a campaign endorsement … for the office of city clerk.
What? You didn’t know people run for city clerk in New Haven? And that campaigns for the job hold events and raise money and collect endorsements?
Well, in truth New Haven hasn’t had a truly competitive race for the part-time clerk’s job in decades. But this year New Haven has a free-for-all campaign to fill the soon-to-be-vacant mayor’s office. And the competition is filtering down to city clerk.
Rembert (at left in top photo) joined a crowd of a dozen and a half people from Dixwell and Newhallville outside Visel’s Pharmacy at Bassett and Dixwell Monday afternoon to endorse the candidacy of Ron Smith (at right in photo) for city clerk. Smith has held the job for 10 years. He’d like to keep it.
The occasion was an official campaign launch.
“We’re going to run until we can’t run no more,” declared Smith, who is 60 and used to represent the neighborhood on the Board of Alderman before becoming city clerk. “I’m not going to sit down! I’m not going to shut up! Because God brought me a long way.”
“He’s an expert. He’s got the know-how. So he’s the man for the job,” said artist Rembert, whose stunning folk-art painted leather engravings of life in the Deep South have been the subject of a film and a book as well as a traveling exhibit that just closed in Flint and is headed next to Birmingham, Alabama. (Click here, here and here for previous Independent stories on Rembert’s remarkable career.)
In the past you wouldn’t have seen an artist, or pastors and a former high-ranking city cop, Odell Cohens, at a press conference for a city clerk candidate. Ron Smith never before had a need to hold official campaign launches for the clerk’s job. He ran on a ticket with Mayor John DeStefano, who’s retiring at the end of the year. Voters rarely paid attention to the 20-hour-a-week job, which is technically called “city/town clerk” and pays $46,597 a year.
This season Alderman Sergio Rodriguez has already launched a full-bore challenge to Smith for the Democratic nomination for city clerk. Rodriguez has created a committee, hired a campaign manager, held public events, raised money in earnest. At this point Rodriguez is running alone, not in conjunction with a mayoral candidate.
A Westville management consultant Anne Weaver Lozon is also officially “exploring” a run for the party’s city clerk nomination. She said she’ll run on a ticket with Kermit Carolina if Carolina proceeds with a Democratic mayoral campaign.
A fourth potential contender is Wooster Square Alderman Michael Smart, who had been in discussions about running for city clerk on a ticket with potential mayoral candidate Jack Keyes. On Friday Keyes dropped out of the mayoral race; Smart did not return calls Monday seeking comment about whether he still plans to run for clerk.
The clerk conducts roll calls at Board of Aldermen meetings and technically oversees the clerk’s office, where people file official papers ranging from lawsuits and liens real-estate sales to dog licenses and committee formations and petitions to run for public office. A full-time staff deputy, Sally Brown, actually runs the office day to day. The office has a $471,808 annual budget.
Smith spoke of other matters at his campaign announcement. He told the crowd of supporters on the corner outside Visel’s that the shootings of young people have to stop. Young people need more jobs, he said.
Afterwards, he was asked what role a city clerk plays in those issues.
“We all play a part, from the city-town clerk’s office down to our neighborhoods. If we all come together and fight this fight together regardless of what office we hold,” can do something,” Smith responded. “I do my job downtown but also have to do my job in the community.”
Smith also has a full-time job with the Regional Water Authority. He pointed out Monday that state legislators also have full-time jobs in addition to their part-time positions make laws in Hartford.
Newhallville plumber Sundiata Keitazulu (at left in photo beside Register reporter Jennifer Swift), aka “Nate the Snake,” who has filed papers to run in the Democratic mayoral primary, stopped by Smith’s announcement to lend his support. “He’s a good man. He’s doing a good job,” Keitazulu said.
Smith acknowledged Keitazulu’s presence during his formal remarks. Asked afterwards if he is supporting a mayoral candidate, Smith said he is leaning toward Democrat Gary Holder-Winfield.
The fact that he's a "good man" doesn't make it any less of a disgrace that the taxpayers are forced to fund a P,000/year part-time do-nothing job. The elected office of City/Town Clerk should be eliminated, and the Deputy should be raised to the rank of City/Town Clerk.