Elicker Administration Pitches 4‑Year Terms

Just about every other major city has 4-year terms.

The current 2-year cycle is catastrophic to New Haven.

I agree with a 4 year term for the mayor so there isn’t endless campaigning and fundraising and instead the mayor can focus for the first 3 years on running the city and only worry about the final year campaigning, with term limits of 2 or 3 four years terms only, to give the office of mayor a limit to how long they can influence the path of the city. There should also be a recall option, where a majority of the voters would be able to vote the mayor out if a major breach of trust or dereliction of duty occurs.
And the board of education members should be at least half, if not 2 thirds elected positions, and all members of the board should reside in the city and at least 1 should be a teacher and 1 should be either a parent, a guardian or a grandparent of a current student, and one should be a high school student to give parents, teachers and students a voice in the system that directly impacts them.
Plus all major city department heads should require residency in the city, and there should be no lifetime appointments in any job in the city.

A four year term of mayor won't produce any better city government than the one you have for two years. It will be more convenient for the mayor but it will not produce any better results, no more transparency, no better thought process or exercise of the prerogatives and power imbued to the chief executive. It will mean we're stuck with that choice for four years vs having an opportunity to dump the mayor after two. If Elicker wants a four year term, then tie it to a recall process.

The board of education is a disgrace and the mayor controls it. For the people to force the NH BOE to do a better job, to be more responsive to the public, a majority of the board should be elected. It works all over the country.

A 4 year term for the mayor makes COMMON sense. That is why so many cities have 4 year terms. Our neighbor Hamden recently moved to make such a change.
A 4 year term allows a mayor to focus more time on city business, and less time on campaign business. It will be more convenient for voters, especially if the mayoral elections and held the same time as presidential elections. That would increase voter turnout.
4 year terms will also result in a huge savings to the city. Tens of thousands or more will not have to be paid to elections officials and poll workers every two years.
New Haven would be wise to make this change.
A lot of people recently have attacked and condemned the Board of Education. It is a favorite political football that some love to kick.
A candidate for mayor last week accused the BOE of not "showing up for work" because their meetings were on zoom! Days before the politician made that comment, the BOE had been in session past 10:30 PM conducting school business!
Those people are volunteers. They have an interest in serving this community and improving our school system. They draw no salary for their hours of work, research and preparations for meetings. Their work is NOT just done at public BOE meetings. That demonstrates a level of commitment that most residents, including NHI commenters, are unwilling to make. If they were, they would have run for a seat on the BOE.
Only 3 residents have ever run for the elected position on BOE in all these years. One of the elected BOE members ran TWICE unopposed!
People are not busting down doors to run, yet some talk about expanding the number of elected positions.
People may disagree and debate BOE decisions. Their are avenues to express dissent and influence the BOE, even while meetings are on zoom.
It's a difficult job that requires considerable knowledge about public education, school law, curriculum development, labor law and contracts, & more complex, critical issues involving millions of dollars.

Continued...
BOE decisions effect thousands of lives, so it is a big deal.
In a democracy boards are open to all, but in many situations on certain boards you need people with some training, knowledge and expertise to be effective. The BOE is such a board.
Parents, students and others can serve, but there should be professional educators on the BOE as well. There should be some balance of community members and experienced educators.
Many charge the mayor of controlling the BOE. Where is their evidence of that? How many critics know members of the BOE? Where were their voices when we did have a mayor who pressured and controlled the BOE, whose politicization resulted in the selection of an inexperienced, poorly qualified superintendent who the public had vehemently opposed before the decision was made?
Did Elicker threaten, arm-twist, or pressure any BOE member to vote a certain way? Ask them. People make assumptions without facts to back them up. Most BOE members make the decisions and votes they cast because they believe them to be in the best interests of the district, not because there is some City Hall tyrant dictating to them what to say and do.

New Haven is a city not a quaint little New England town. Two year mayors make the job seem like a part-time job. While being in constant campaign mode keeps the mayor in handshake mode it is often a hinderance for any real new ideas of fighting for reform or even breaking up the status quo. Meanwhile the bureaucrats and appointed officials have longer contracts so to replace them requires expensive buyouts, replacement searches and interim placeholders etc. Two years does not give a real report on how an administration good or bad. Even if the mayor is bad it is on the voters and it will give more power and maybe put more scrutiny on The Board of Alders. DeStefano was brilliant using the 2 year cycle he could claim wins and in times of trouble he was the only one in town with the experience to deal with it.

Is this the rationale? That a mayor elected every two years can't walk and chew gum? That he/she can't put in some campaign appearances....and still focus on the city's work? Congressional elections are every two years. Seems to work there. The interesting reality is that if a mayor from day one focused on what was good for the city, how to keep expenses and debt in check and how to advance opportunity for all - the politics would take care of itself. It's only when offices are prostituted for political gain that they diverge from what is good for the people. That's when they claim they have to focus on campaigning, not competence in office.

I’m torn on 4 year term. I would be in favor but I think 2 year terms work for New Haven. The city is basically a one party town with a dominant Dem establishment. An election every two years, like Rosa has, doesn’t seem to be too much to ask. Otherwise there is very little accountability or opportunity to seriously question a sitting Mayor. On the BOE, I object to the argument that only mayoral appointments can assure competency and stability. It’s not working too well right now. I believe in democracy and I trust voters!

Agreed that the mayor should have 4 year terms.
Disagree about alders until we cut the board by half or two thirds. Citizen volunteers who often know zip about a balance sheet should not be running a half billion dollar operation with electoral accountability more than 2 years out.

Notfernuthin, but if the BOA is going to let the Mayor ignore the Code of Ordinances and simply not so is job, a shorter cycle will put someone in office who will do the job...ya know notfernuthin.

No on a 4 year term and I would further add a term limit of 2 terms. Then, we will see who REALLY wants to serve the city and who wants a lifetime job or a stepping stone to higher office.

4 year terms for the mayor would not be what’s best for city employees & it’s residents! 2 year terms create some form of accountability. The pressure is on the mayor to do right by its people so he or she could gain favor & votes. I’ve seen our current mayor not act on very important issues until it is campaign season because that’s when he feels compelled to actually make things happen. Allowing 4 year terms would create more reason for the administration to drag their feet on issues and business that should be addressed promptly. Many Union contracts still aren’t settled 3 years after expiration because it was never a priority.

Spitting into the wind with my opinion.

Have a 4-year term for Mayor with recall provision allows long term vision implementation with a degree of accountability when in dire straits. Foundational changes rarely take just 2 years in planning let alone implementation especially given the number of resources available to a municipality.

I don't think we should have residency requirements for department heads, their job is to facilitate the operation of the city based on the direction of the mayor and legislative prerogative of the BOA. Both of whom DO have residency requirements.

No one can predict what would happen if we went to a 4 year term for mayor.

Yes, in a small town of 7,000 people a two year term is easy because people have the opportunity to know each other because so many have lived in that small town for their whole life.

It's ridiculous to have a 2 year (small town) term for Mayor in a City the size of New Haven - the problems are bigger, the solutions are more complicated, New Haven has diversity and that's why I live New Haven instead of the small town that I came from.

It's easier to govern in the small town I came from because the problems are smaller!

Small town, small problems. Big city, bigger problems and harder to solve.

In many small CT towns everybody knows everybody. Almost everybody is White and privileged. Many stay in office for decades! And many of those in office have family members who served decades before them and their children might serve on the same Town Council decades later.

My family still lives in the small town I was raised in and they like it...it's all White and they like to keep it the way it was decades ago. And, they can because almost nothing changes there.

City life is very different and more complicated. The problems and solutions are very different from that of a small town.

It needs a Mayor like Justin Elicker who loves New Haven and the complexities of life here.
The problems we have could never been solved or even approached by a person who was once a small town Mayor.

We live in one of the major cities in CT and we have the problems of a modern City.

Solving the problems of a big City take more time than that of a small town!

We need a 4 year term for Mayor. Let's do it!

In a democracy the People have the authority to determine term limits through their ballots.
Term limits were not an official policy in American politics until after Franlin Delano Roosevelt was elected president four times. Only then was the Constitution amended to limit a president to two terms.
Democracy and popular sovereignty: Let the People decide. Term limits are a public insult which imply that the voters are stupid.

Here's the truth New Haven has not had a Mayor worthy of getting elected to a four year term. Keep it at two years and if the pols don't like it don't run for Mayor.

On the subject of the Board of Education look at what we have with appointed people..... KIDS THAT CAN NOT READ, ABSENTEEISM THRU THE ROOF, TEACHERS THAT ARE SO SICK OF BEING BABYSITTERS THAT THEY DO NOT WANT THE JOB ANYMORE! Do you know why, it's because no one is held accountable elections by the voters will SOON change that. All the more reason for two year terms, it's time to start voting the incompetents out. Think about the hand picked talking heads here and what they have at stake, take careful notice.

I have refrained from voting against 2 year mayors that I disliked because 2 years just isn't enough time to see the glacial effects of policy. 4 year terms give one reasonable information with which to judge a mayor.

For starters, I'm in total agreement with One City Dump.

Elicker's glee club members are clamoring for him to receive a four year term. Why? So he can continue to ignore the needs of the ppl for three years, and get up from his slumber in the final year of the term to craft words that give the voters the impression he should be reelected, to start the trend all over again.

John DeStefano operated under this same "two year" system for more than 11 terms. He too was a disaster as mayor for most of those years. Since Elicker has been in office, what plan did he introduce that enhanced the welfare of the taxpayers positively in the city? Remember, that was his four year term. In my view, he has performed more as a mascot, than as a mayor of NH.

Regarding elected school board members. Clearly, every school board member should earn the right to be a school board member by the voters, and not the mayor. By doing so, the Superintendent will be more beholding to the board and not to the mayor. Conversely, this will also hold school board members accountable as well. By not doing this, the likelihood is, he or she will develop a sense of comfort in knowing that the mayor will give them more leeway, should they be found as a failing superintendent.