Thomas Breen Photos
Protesters inside City Hall before vote.
Pro-Dominguez top cops at City Hall for the vote.
The Board of Alders resoundingly rejected Renee Dominguez as the city’s new permanent police chief Monday night, praising her as a person and a cop but saying she has failed to present a plan to move the department forward.
Alders took that voice vote Monday night during the latest bimonthly full Board of Alders meeting, which was held in-person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
While no official tally was recorded, it was an overwhelming margin, and a resounding defeat for the agenda of Mayor Justin Elicker.
The vote was to approve Dominguez to serve as official chief for the final two months of a four-year term that she inherited from two predecessors.
Meanwhile, the department faces an uncertain near-term future because of unclear language in the city charter about what to do in situations like these. (See more about that lower down in this article.)
Elicker now has the legal right to resubmit her appointment to the board for a second vote.
In a statement released after the vote, Elicker vowed to do just that — which would start a new 30-day timeline by which the alders would have to vote on Dominguez’s appointment, again.
And rather than acknowledge the alders’ concerns in his email statement, Elicker dismissed the opposition as a slap to “the women and men of the department that strap on a vest each night and head out to patrol our streets.”
Thomas Breen Photo
Chief Dominguez at Monday's aldermanic hearing.
Dominguez said after the vote that she will continue the process, accept the mayor’s re-nomination, and seek the permanent chief spot.
“It’s not what we were hoping,” she said about Monday’s vote. “I’m looking forward to being clearer with the alders on what our plan is” for the department going forward. “I do love this city. I’ve been here for 20 years. I do love my officers.”
At the meeting, the alders also voted unanimously to confirm the appointment of Regina Rush-Kittle as city chief administrative officer.
The vote against Acting Chief Dominguez followed weeks of intense lobbying by both supporters of Dominguez, including the mayor, who said she earned the right to the job through her performance this year as acting chief; and opponents, who decried fraying community-police ties, the disappearance of cops of color from top ranks, and the failure of the department to solve more than two-thirds of the homicides in town. Members of Unidad Latina en Accion held a protest on City Hall’s first floor before Monday night’s vote. (Watch some of it here.)
Downtown Alder Eli Sabin.
Downtown Alder Eli Sabin raised those issues on the floor during debate over whether to confirm Dominguez. He urged his colleagues to turn down her nomination.
“I believe that we need to see more concrete plans about how we are going to build more trust between the community and our law enforcement,” he said. “About how we are going to increase diversity in our police department. About how we are going … to increase the clearance rates for homicides and nonfatal shootings. And how we are going to make sure that our police department is trusted by our residents.”
Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow.
As top cops watched silently in a packed pew right behind the alders, and activists stood nearby in opposition, Majority Leader Richard Furlow of Beaver Hills spoke of how the board has pushed for a public-safety agenda and an agenda of racial and economic opportunity in the city for the past decade. He argued that Dominguez had failed to show evidence of such a plan.
“We need assistant chiefs that look like us,” he said.
“We need a plan to solve open and cold cases. We haven’t heard that plan. We need a plan to help our new recruits to be trained to deal with the diversity and dynamics of our great city. We haven’t heard that plan.” He called on his colleagues “give a resounding ‘nay’ to this appointment until we are able to get the answers” to those types of questions.
Newhallville/Prospect Hill Alder Kim Edwards.
Westville Alder Adam Marchand and Newhallville Alder Kim Edwards echoed that sentiment.
“I love her as a person,” Edwards said about Dominguez. “My issue tonight is I really feel when the appointment was made, a plan should have been presented. I needed to see something.”
East Rock Alder Anna Festa.
Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steven Winter and East Rock Alder Anna Festa spoke in favor of approving Dominguez’s appointment, saying she deserves a chance over the next two months to prove she could do the job well.
“I believe that we should give Chief Dominguez an opportunity for the next two months, have all eyes for the next two months, see what kind of leadership she surrounds herself with,” Festa said.
“I don’t think it’s entirely fair to hold her entirely accountable” for all the department’s shortcomings, Winter said.
Dominguez has been running the department since March.
A 19-year New Haven Police Department veteran who rose through the ranks from patrol officer to assistant chief, Dominguez has led the department as interim and then as acting chief since March after the retirement of her predecessor, Otoniel Reyes. Dominguez, Mayor Elicker, and Dominguez’s supporters have repeatedly touted her appointment as providing “stability” for a department that has seen a flurry of leadership changes in recent years. They have also celebrated her as appointment as the first-ever female permanent police chief of any major city in Connecticut.
Monday’s vote marked the culmination of months’ worth of public debate about the direction of the police department, the disappearance of nonwhite cops from the top ranks for the first time since 1993, Dominguez’s embrace of controversial “Thin Blue Line” imagery, and the department’s failure to solve over two-thirds of the city’s homicides. That debate has intensified over the past few weeks after Mayor Justin Elicker officially tapped Dominguez for the top role in early November.
Since the City Charter requires that a police chief begin their term on Feb. 1 every four years, Monday’s vote was about whether or not Dominguez should serve as the city’s “permanent” police chief only through Jan. 31, 2022.
In his release issued after the vote, Elicker insisted Dominguez is leading the department “in the right direction.”
He called the alder vote “disheartening to the women and men of the department that strap on a vest each night and head out to patrol our streets. Chief Dominguez has clearly proven herself as a capable leader of this department. She ably answered each question posed by the Alders and has worked to address specific concerns they raised. I will be re-submitting Chief Dominguez and urge the Alders to approve her appointment at that time.
“Failure to confirm her at that time will be a major blow to public safety in our community. And further, it will send a signal to professionals we hope to recruit that they should not pursue opportunities within the city of New Haven because well qualified candidates may be rejected. Having seen her in action daily, I strongly believe Chief Dominguez is the right fit for the job. Let’s confirm her appointment and get on with the important work of keeping our community safe.”
As interim chief, Dominguez has worked with Elicker to hold weekly press conferences updating the public on efforts to stem gun violence amid an uptick in shootings. During her aldermanic confirmation hearing last month, she pledged to support more police walking beats, to uphold the philosophy and practice of “community policing,” and to prioritize rebuilding the police department’s ranks so that the NHPD is “fully staffed” five years from now.
What Comes Next?
Thomas Breen file photo
Acting Chief Dominguez hours before the vote at a press conference on the violence threats and lockdowns at New Haven schools Monday.
Now there is a legal question about what exactly will happen next.
Article IV, Sec. 1, A. (3) (a) of the City Charter states that the mayor can resubmit the nomination of a police chief who has been rejected by the Board of Alders — but the resubmission has to come by the Board of Alders’ next meeting, and no one can have their name submitted for the police chief role more than twice.
Here’s what the Charter says: “A rejected nominee may continue in office in an acting capacity pending resubmission of the candidate’s name for approval at the board’s next regular meeting; however, a person’s name may not submitted more than two (2) times.”
That doesn’t mean that the alders have to vote on Dominguez at their next meeting later this month. Instead, it means that, once Elicker formally resubmits her name, the alders will have to vote on her appointment within 30 days. The Aldermanic Affairs Committee could host another committee hearing during that time to re-review her nomination.
Further complicating the matter, that same section of the Charter places a six-month cap on how long an acting police chief can fill the role as “acting” rather than “permanent.”
Here’s what the Charter says there: “Other than to membership on a Board or Commission, the Mayor may designate an individual to hold a position in an acting capacity pending the selection of a nominee, but no person may hold such a position for more than six (6) months without being submitted for confirmation by the board.”
Since she officially took over as “acting” chief on July 1 after Reyes’ retirement on June 30, Dominguez would have hit the six-month mark as “acting” chief on Jan. 1, 2022.
Will Dominguez be able to continue to serve as acting chief after she hits the six-month mark? Will she have to revert back to her previous role of assistant chief — while still leading the department? Or will the mayor have had to pick a new “acting” chief in her stead?
Elicker was clear that he intends to have Dominguez go through the approval process before the alders again, and make her case at a committee hearing. After Jan. 1, she faces a board with new members, at least some of whom are not inclined to support her.
Top cops at Monday night's meeting.
Wow. Dag on smack down.