Alders with A+ attendance, clockwise from top left: Amy Marx, Troy Streater, Adam Marchand, Sal Punzo, and Richard Furlow.
Five alders wrapped up 2023 with a perfect attendance record at full Board of Alders meetings, according to a review of board records.
Alders Sal Punzo (representing the Annex), Troy Streater (representing parts of Dixwell and Newhallville), Adam Marchand, Amy Marx, and Richard Furlow (each representing parts of Westville) attended every full Board of Alders meeting during their respective terms in 2023.
Two of those perfect attendance holders had been elected to office last year after their predecessors resigned: Streater, who took office in February, and Marx, who took office in June.
Attending full-board meetings is just one of the alders’ responsibilities. They also serve on committees, where they often sit for hours-long public hearings; negotiate with incoming developers; attend neighborhood meetings; and answer a deluge of calls from constituents about everything from power outages to the sound of gunshots.
“I think one of the things that helped me this past term is that I didn’t get sick with Covid and I don’t have children,” reflected Furlow, who has also served on the alders’ Finance and Legislation committees, on the Livable City Initiative board, on last year’s Charter Revision Commission, and on the board’s leadership team as the majority leader.
“We all work very hard,” Furlow said. “If somebody is sick and something happens, then we fill in.”
Streater said he appreciated the calls from Office of Legislative Services staffer Sharon Arenberg reminding alders when they have a meeting scheduled that evening. “All meetings are important,” he said.
Last year alders each received an annual stipend of $2,000 as their total compensation; that stipend will bump up to $5,000 ($6,200 for the board president) this year thanks to the charter revision passed in November’s election.
Some alders who missed several meetings this year contended with health challenges.
West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith, for instance, had back-to-back knee surgeries between May and August of this year, causing her to miss the summer full board meetings.
“Though I did not attend the alders’ meeting [during that time], I was still very active with taking care of the community,” Smith said. She said she resumed responding to constituent phone calls the day she got home from her first surgery.
In a given week, she said, “I can get anywhere between 30 to 40 calls a week. It varies. … It’s a flooded basement. It’s a cracked sidewalk. They call you about their children missing — I was getting a lot of calls about children missing.” Each of those calls usually involves a follow-up call with a city official or local organization, she said.
The late Renee Haywood passed away in October after spending her last term in office on dialysis. See below for the full attendance data from all other alders, accounting for full-board meetings only.
Red boxes indicate absences.
May 2024 be a year with more attendance for more alders! And as Alder Honda Smith reminds us, attendance isn't just important in the aldermanic hall, it is in the community. As New Haven Public Schools says all the time...attendance matters!