Two Old ​“Pals” Meet At City Hall

As a feud played out in public, longtime allies Mayor John DeStefano and the Rev. Boise Kimber met behind closed doors.

But don’t expect a warming of the thaw in New Haven’s most controversial and scrutinized long-running political friendship.

By all accounts, the topic at Thursday afternoon’s half-hour session in the mayor’s office was the progress of a police investigation into the Nov. 28 stabbing murder of 21 year-old Bambaata Carr inside Crown Street’s Sinergy Lounge. Kimber brought Carr’s father Dennis in to quiz DeStefano and Police Chief James Lewis on the investigation’s progress.

Not raised at the meeting was the public split between DeStefano and Kimber over the race for presidency of the Board of Aldermen. Kimber has been backing Hill Alderwoman Jackie James-Evans’ challenge to pro-DeStefano incumbent board President Carl Goldfield. Kimber even arranged for his longtime pal the Rev. Al Sharpton to make at least one phone call to lobby an uncommitted alderman. Not only did that call fail to change the alderman’s mind; the revelation of Kimber’s and Sharpton’s role (in this Register article) may have helped solidify enough backlash support behind Goldfield to seal a majority of votes.

In the process, Kimber issued a press release including rare public remarks criticizing DeStefano’s handling of the city, calling his actions not ​“transparent.”

In fact, that was only the latest development in a quiet gradual decline in a political alliance that stayed solid over almost two decades. Kimber, a visible powerbroker in the black community, and DeStefano have supported each other despite landing each other in compromising positions in two law enforcement investigations and, most recently, embarrassing the DeStefano administration before the U.S. Supreme Court.

As Kimber left DeStefano’s office Thursday afternoon, he acted as though nothing has changed, though.

“The mayor and I are good,” he insisted. ​“As I said in the Register, the mayor and I are on opposite sides on this. Other than that, he’s been my friend for 20 years or more. He’s still my friend.”

He was asked about his ​“not transparent” criticism. ​“Does that mean that we’re not friends?” he responded. ​“We will always be political allies. We may not always agree. But we will always be political allies.”

DeStefano was asked about that depiction as well as the status of their political alliance. ​“I really don’t have anything to add,” the mayor said.

Under Fire From The Start

The two are used to taking heat for each other’s actions.

Their alliance began in 1989 when DeStefano first ran for mayor. Most of the black community was united against him, with voters in usually low-turnout wards waiting for hours to cast a vote in order to instead elect New Haven’s first black mayor, John Daniels.

Kimber manned a lonely campaign outpost for DeStefano in Newhallville. It was based at his church — which had just had to return an illegal renovation grant from DeStefano’s mentor, then-Mayor Biagio DiLieto.

Kimber helped round up votes again when DeStefano finally won the mayoralty in 1993. Kimber continued to round up votes for years. DeStefano returned the favor when the state successfully prosecuted Kimber for stealing an elderly woman’s funeral money; the mayor testified on Kimber’s behalf in court. DeStefano gave a Kimber-run group federal money to build homes in Newhallville. The money included open-ended $30,000 annual payments to Kimber for unspecified ​“consultant” services for which no detailed supporting paperwork was submitted. That in part led DeStefano’s then-neighborhood housing chief to quit and the FBI to investigate City Hall’s scandal-plagued Livable City Initiative (LCI).

In 2001, the last time DeStefano was seriously challenged, black reform advocates united behind his opponent, State Sen. Martin Looney. Kimber worked hard to pull the crucial black vote for DeStefano in this Democratic primary, and helped keep him in office.

A year later DeStefano appointed Kimber chairman of the city’s fire commission, where Kimber immediately caused controversy by complaining that he saw too many names ​“ending in vowels” on promotion lists.

His prominent role in opposing promotions of white firefighters came up again in the controversial ​“New Haven 20” case that came before the U.S. Supreme Court this year. The DeStefano-Kimber relationship became fodder for national TV punditry on the case. And in a remarkably non-legalistic concurring opinion in that case, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito made what he characterized as the crude racial politics of the DeStefano-Kimber relationship a basis for ruling against the city. (Read about that here.)

And last year Kimber used his political weight at City Hall to stop Lombard Motors from towing his SUV for unpaid parking tickets. That incident led to a public outcry over favoritism in the city’s towing operation, and an extensive systemic reform.

DeStefano never publicly criticized Kimber. On the hustings, cracks in the relationship had already become apparent for years. Kimber was spotted meeting with opponents of the mayor as well as potential challengers. Only this past week has that development emerged in more public view, with Kimber’s emergence as a leading proponent of Alderwoman James-Evans’ challenge to the DeStefano team.

The powwow at City Hall Thursday did not appear to change that, pro forma denials notwithstanding. Although in New Haven politics, ​“friendships” have a way of ebbing and flowing and back again, especially among players experienced in the art of the deal.