4‑Year Terms Back Up For Debate

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Alder board prez Walker-Myers, Elicker: Let's talk about it.

Four-year terms for local elected officials are back on the table, according to a new memo describing the mayor’s and the Board of Alders president’s priorities for debate in a once-in-a-decade charter revision process.

A memo circulated by aldermanic staff on Monday conveyed a list of suggested topics for an upcoming commission to consider when drawing up proposed amendments to the city charter, which serves as New Haven’s constitution governing how government works. Those proposals will then fall to voters to accept or reject.

One of the possible questions — considered in different forms in the past, and continually rejected — would lengthen the term of mayor from two to four years, as other communities such as Hamden have done in recent years.

The memo also suggests considering whether to lengthen terms for the alders and city clerk from two to four years each as well.

Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers emphasized in a Thursday phone interview that she and other alder leaders are not taking a position on the listed questions, but rather forwarding them as recommendations to be considered as part of a public process.

These are mere suggestions for the charter commission to look at,” Walker-Myers said. We’ll see what people think.”

When the last Charter Revision Commission weighed this same question of four-year terms in 2013, it voted by a narrow margin not to advance such a proposal. Members of the then-recently elected UNITE HERE-controlled Board of Alders rejected a proposal for four-year terms as part of a broader effort to increase the power of the legislative branch in New Haven’s strong-mayor form of government.

Proponents of four-year terms for the city’s most prominent elected offices argue that a two-year term system prompts politicians to campaign nearly constantly, leaving less time for them to focus on governing; and that shorter terms incentivize politicians to make decisions that will garner short-term popularity rather than prioritizing long-term success.

Opponents of four-year-terms, meanwhile, hold that longer terms are less democratic and reduce voter-driven accountability.

Some — like Steve Mednick, the New Haven attorney who advised Hamden’s recent charter revision process — have suggested that combining two-year alder terms with a four-year mayoral term would allow voters to respond to the mayor’s performance mid-term while freeing up the executive branch to focus on long-term goals.

In a separate Thursday interview with the Independent, Mayor Justin Elicker said he supports a proposal for four-year mayoral terms.

Campaigns take a lot of time and are very demanding, and of course mayor is a very full-time job as well. With a two-year term you basically have one year where you can devote to governing and then you’re back in campaign mode,” he said. Elicker echoed the argument that a four-year term would allow for more time to focus on long-term challenges. A lot of things take a lot of time to implement and the two-year election cycle makes it much more challenging to focus on the work.”

Meanwhile, according to the memo, Elicker has submitted a request to no longer require that department heads live in New Haven if their appointments do not need to be approved by alders.

Under such a policy, the fire chief, police chief, chief administrative officer, controller, community services administrator, and economic development administrator would still need to live in New Haven. But department heads like the parks and public works director, health director, and tax assessor would no longer need to reside in the city.

Elicker told the Independent that this proposal is a response to difficulties that the city has faced in hiring for top positions. We always want to advocate for people who work for the city to live in the city,” he said. For certain department heads that is crucial, like public safety. You want your police chief and fire chief living in the city, being close. But for others, it’s not necessary, and the residency requirement makes the city much less competitive and able to hire.”

He pointed to the controller position, which the city has been working to fill for over a year while Michael Gormany serves in the role in an acting capacity. (The proposal outlined in the memo would still require the city’s controller to live in New Haven, but Elicker noted that the details could change over the course of the revision process.)

Requiring people to live within city borders limits the applicant pool for top positions, Elicker argued.

The memo also forwards a proposal to debate whether to increase alders’ annual compensation from $2,000 to $5,000 (and from $2,400 to $6,250 for the board president), while building in the possibility for additional raises based on cost of living increases.”

Another proposed topic for consideration: to require that all of the city’s Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) receive full Board of Alders approval. The Board of Alders is currently suing the mayor over such an MOU, through which the city agreed to pay retired fire union president Frank Ricci a $386,659.92 annuity in addition to Ricci’s pension benefits. 

Elicker expressed support for this proposal as well, calling such a system an important check and balance.”

Other suggested questions for debate outlined in the memo include:

  • Changing how minority-party representation works in appoints to boards and commissions. When every city alder belongs to the same political party (as is the current case with the all-Democratic board), commissions and boards that require both a majority and minority party alder representative would be allowed to include two alders with the same party affiliation, under Walker-Myers’ proposal.
  • Revisiting lifetime appointees to the Parks Commission.
  • Using gender-neutral language throughout the charter.
  • Clarifying language to affirm that only seven people can serve on the Board of Education, after an ambiguity in the 2013 amended charter led to a lawsuit pitting the Board of Alders against the Board of Ed.

An official list of priorities is expected to come out next week. According to the memo, Walker-Myers plans to form a new Charter Revision Commission in January. The commission will review the alders’ priorities and submit a new set of detailed proposals back to the Board of Alders.

I want them to look at these things,” Walker-Myers said. What’s going to end up being submitted is a different story.

Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter, who has been active in statewide pro-democracy and election reform campaigns, said during an interview Thursday on WNHH FM’s Dateline New Haven” program that he supports the move to a four-year mayoral term. A longer term could lead to a longer-term view,” he argued.

You always hear about our members of Congress who have to spend all this time fundraising and working on the election every two years. The life cycle is really short to be focused on just doing the work.”

He argued that alders — like their legislative-branch counterparts in the U.S. Congress — should maintain two-year terms in order to give citizens a chance to weigh in on the city’s direction and send messages, if needed, about what we need to do differently.”

Winter also supported a proposal that the incumbent alders have not put on the charter revision agenda: shrinking the size of New Haven’s 30-member legislative body.

Thirty is such a large number for a community our size. If you’re a city staff person having to respond to 30 different alders, that’s a big challenge,” he noted. He acknowledged that having more alders with smaller districts theoretically brings citizens closer to their representatives. But he also argued that a small body would give each alder more clout, more of an ability to focus their energy.” And it could lead to more contested elections.” Which also matters in a democracy.

Click on the video above to watch the full interview with Alder Steve Winter on WNHH FM’s Dateline New Haven.” The discussion on charter revision begins at the 43-minute point.

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