New Elicker Administration appointees. Clockwise from top left: Fair Rent's Wildaliz Bermúdez, Labor Relations' Wendella Ault Battey, aldermanic liaison Barbara Montalvo, and City Plan's Laura Brown.
A new leadership crew at City Hall came into focus Friday, as Mayor Justin Elicker announced appointments for the directors of City Plan, Fair Rent, and Labor Relations, as well as for a liaison to the Board of Alders.
Mayor Justin Elicker announced those latest top-administration appointments during a press conference held on the ground floor of City Hall.
Department heads generally serve four-year terms that start Feb. 1 every four years, meaning that the Elicker inherited many department head contracts two years in when he first came into office in 2020.
The four new appointments announced on Friday include:
• Laura Brown as the new director of the City Plan Department. Brown will take over from outgoing City Plan Director Aicha Woods. Her first job will be Feb. 28.
According to a bio provided by the Elicker Administration, Brown lives in Westville and has spent the past eight years working across state as a Community & Economic Development Educator with the University of Connecticut Extension. She has worked on the Connecticut Trail Census, the Connecticut Trail Finder, the Best Practices in Economic Development and Land Use municipal accreditation program, and the First Impressions Community Exchange. She is also the co-chair of the Working Group on Structural Racism with UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources.
“I will be putting all of my work through the lens of equity and undoing structures that are limiting and oppressive,” Brown said during Friday’s presser. “I believe that planning and zoning should be tools that manifest the values of the city.”
Asked for her thoughts on specific zoning reform proposals — like scrapping parking minimums or banning single-family zoning — Brown deferred, saying she still needs to dive deeper into the city’s current zoning code, the ongoing work of the department, and the needs and interests of city residents.
• Wildaliz Bermúdez as the new director of the Fair Rent Commission. She will take over from Otis Johnson, and her first day on the job will be March 7.
Bermúdez served on the Hartford Court of Common Council from 2016 to 2021, and previously worked for the Hartford Department of Public Works under two mayoral administrations.
How will she ensure that more New Haveners know about the Fair Rent Commission? The Fair Rent Commission is a state-empowered local body that can mandate reductions in rent if a tenant successfully argues that they received too steep of a rent hike, or that they landlord is not adequately maintaining the rental property.
“It’s all about promoting,” Bermúdez said. Through social media. Through in-person meetings. “It’s about meeting people where they’re at, and making it accessible to the community.”
She said she’s particularly interested in working with the city’s Corporation Counsel to allow the city to better work with local tenant unions.
• Wendella Ault Battey as new labor relations director. She will take over from Cathleen Simpson, and her first day on the job will be Feb. 14.
Battey has spent the past 27 years as a member of the State Board of Labor Relations, and served as the acting chair of that board for the past five years.
Asked about some of her priorities as city labor relations director when approaching negotiating contracts with local public unions, Battey said, “Getting the workforce back to some sort of normalcy. We can’t all continue to work from home forever. Navigating those waters is going to be tricky,” but, she said, she’s up for it.
• Barbara Montalvo as the city’s new liaison to the Board of Alders. She will replace Taijah Anderson, who resigned in December, and she will start her new job on Feb. 14.
Montalvo has worked for New Haven city government since 2013, first as an administrative records coordinator for the Office of Legislative Affairs, and now as a treasury and investment analyst for the city’s finance department.
How does she think she can help the administration can forge a closer working relationship with the Board of Alders?
By “making sure that everyone is familiar with me so we can have honest communication, back and forth,” she said. To meet regularly with alders “so I can take any of the policies, projects that the city has, learn about that fully, communicate effectively and as early as possible, and take questions or concerns they have back to the administration.”
A selection made in PC heaven--- and no awful men.... be still my heart!!!
But seriously, I hope that Bermudez will bring some sanity and fairness to an otherwise rabidly anti-landlord anti-capitalist "Fair" Rent Commission.
And also-- These are all connected folks. No new blood. Just recycle 'em from dept to agency to dept. A regular citizen of NH CANNOT get on any committee or commission. I don't expect much.