Doors Open At Town Hall

Out went the plush purple couch in the mayor’s office. In came a round table with four chairs and a Purell centerpiece.

Lauren Garrett made that furniture switch upon taking over as Hamden’s new mayor. It reflected what her administration characterizes as a deeper shift in how Town Hall operates.

By opening up her personal office, Garrett said, she is laying the foundation for a more accessible, open and efficient government center, at the same time as she’s replacing people in top town positions to carry out policy promises made on the campaign trail.

Now, when you walk into the Mayor’s Office — though access to government center is currently limited to pre-scheduled appointments while Omicron cases remain high — you’ll no longer be greeted by a series of room dividers that made up what Garrett named the ​“mayor’s office maze.” Instead, you enter a big open space free of cubicles that leads the way to Garrett’s desk. 

The ongoing changes to the space, like fresh coats of yellow paint provided by Public Works or the placement of green plants around the building, function as a ​“reflection of the work that we do,” Garrett said. ​“It’s about the way that we present to the public, to business partners, and constituents.” 

As Garrett welcomes state delegates, local leaders, and residents to come sit at her table, she has also been sending out invitations to potential new town department directors. Since ousting Curt Leng, who served as the town’s mayor for over six years, Garrett has used the first two months of her term performing two parallel deep cleans: A physical reorganization of workspace and a departmental overhaul of government jobs.

By February, Garrett said she anticipates having put together a final team of collaborative leaders united around a clear political platform and agenda that involves jumpstarting economic development, investing in sustainable infrastructure and green tech, and strengthening the town’s commitment to equity and social justice.

“The office itself … you could tell it wasn’t used for any kind of business,” Garrett recalled of her initial move-in. She remembered staying in the office after hours on her first Monday on the job with Chief of Staff Sean Grace, listening to a Council meeting and figuring out how to organize stacks of paper and files flying ​“all over the place… into some semblance of order.” Next steps, Garrett said, include digitizing those documents.

While scheduling preliminary meetings with existing town employees during her first week in office, Garrett heard the same line repeated: ​“I haven’t been in this office before!” In the past, the mayor’s office was understood as private rather than a space for dialogue — or small events, like the swearing in of commission appointees such as Gary Tinney, a new addition to the town’s Fire Commission.

Garrett’s plan to streamline government and open more doors also involves changing leadership in at least seven departments: Engineering, Public Works, Human Resources, Finance, Economic Development, Town Planning, and Community Services. 

Mark Austin and Craig Cesare were cut early on from their roles as directors of Engineering and Public Works. Garrett said both of those terminations were part of efforts to modernize the two departments and grow their focus on environmentalism. (Read about Cesare’s replacement, Matt Kott, who previously worked in the engineering department, here.) It remains unclear who will take over Austin’s job.

Garrett also axed Julie Smith, who worked in a supervisory role at the Keefe Community Center, and Kathleen Schomaker, who served part time as the energy efficiency coordinator. 

Garrett said Smith’s job as community development director essentially involved supervising two different supervisors overseeing community services and youth services: ​“It was a bit superfluous … Ultimately it just wasn’t necessary.”

Meanwhile, Garrett similarly said she let go of Schomaker, who ran against a Garrett-aligned slate for Legislative Council last September, because Schomaker’s ongoing projects could be distributed to other officials.

Garrett said she is ​“not entirely sure” whether she may choose to hire someone else down the line to fill a similar position with a revised job description. But with the hiring of new town leaders who all have sustainability at the top of their agenda, Garrett said, Schomaker’s work can be integrated into and across all departments. 

The town will take back $110,000 and $32,500 budgeted for Smith’s and Schomaker’s salaries, respectively. Garrett said that money will go towards two new roles: A technology director, who will lead initiatives like creating a town-wide maintenance schedule so residents can publicly access information about public works’ whereabouts and responsibilities; and a town planner, a position outlined in the town charter that Erik Johnson, the town’s acting economic development director, has been filling while on double-duty for more than half a year. 

“There’s a lot going on there right now,” Garrett said of the economic development department. ​“They’re writing an economic development plan … drafting a lot of new zoning regulations, putting together an affordable housing plan, there are cannabis ordinances that are going to be written. That’s a lot of work and we need more people on that.”

Meanwhile, Curtis Eatman will return his former job of town finance director. 

“I knew that he knew what he was walking into,” Garrett said of her decision to rehire Eatman. ​“And he had a lot of relationships already. The feedback I got from other department heads is that they really liked working with him.” 

Garrett framed Eatman as a strong example of the kind of person she is looking to head departments — community minded individuals who aren’t afraid to hand out constructive criticism. 

Eatman knows the financial challenges the town is facing. He took up the job the first time around in March of 2020. In the first days of his job broke the news, ​“You have a deficit,” to the town.

“That was unbelievable,” Eatman said. Now he is returning to Hamden after another stint serving as Bloomfield’s finance director with the goal of bringing down long-term debt, growing the fund balance, addressing the deficit discovered in the town’s last audit, and strengthening the wealth and efficiency of each town department.

Eatman told the Independent that his time serving in the economic development department allowed him to work closely with different department heads, especially those tackling engineering, planning and public works, and gave him insight into the internal processes of each department and the ​“ability to better relate to those departments” and understand their needs.

Eatman added that the conditions he is working under have changed since Garrett moved in. ​“She’s definitely big on collaboration… keeping everyone abreast and bringing the Council along,” he said. ​“There’s a willingness to have communication and a willingness to be open… which is quite different.”

Brigitte Cogswell, the new head of personnel, was promoted from her position as human resource officer following Ken Kelley’s retirement. 

Cogswell, the first African American to hold the position, is focused on bringing in diverse candidates for government jobs that ​“reflect the demographics of our town” and who are sourced through processes that ​“encompass who you are as a person” and not just ​“what school you went to or where you worked.”

There needs to be more ​“opportunity for people to come in and see themselves in every department,” Cogswell said. ​“Over the years, we can be honest, the results speak for themselves. We did not have that level of diversity in our hiring numbers.”

She said she is pushing to rename the ​“personnel” department the ​“human resources” department in an attempt to clarify the department’s desire to ​“support our employees from the time they are hired to the time they’re retired.” She said she’ll work with newly appointed commission members, such as Garrett’s recently confirmed appointees to the Police and Fire Commissions, to bring more people of color into town jobs and push for more diversity and inclusion training to ​“create a safe space” for those working to build a better Hamden.

“In the past people have been working in silos,” Garrett said. ​“It’s my goal that we work together. What we’re trying to do here is build a team.” She had a head start on that goal after winning the municipal elections alongside a close knit crew of diverse slate mates who are now filling the town clerk’s office, Legislative Council seats, and the Board of Ed. Together, they ran as a ​“change slate” offering new blood to a town looking for fresh leadership.

Garrett has been criticized for firing long-term town employees, such as the openly beloved Craig Cesare. She said she is mostly hiring experienced Hamdenites into those open town positions. ​“There are obviously some good people that have worked for the town,” she said. ​“There are certain circumstances where they just need a little bit of reinforcement on certain skills, maybe calling people back or responding to emails. I think that it helps to have an administration that is accessible, in the building, and also returning calls and emails.”

The positions for which Garrett is looking for outside hires have yet to be filled. Those include deputy police and fire chiefs as well as the director of engineering. 

Two other Hamden government newcomers who already on the job are Sean Grace and Alexa Panayotakis, Garrett’s appointed chief of staff and deputy chief of staff. The two served on Garrett’s campaigns for mayor in both 2019 and 2021. They will assist Garrett’s not just in creating community at the local level, but with connecting Hamden to state leaders and resources.

Grace ran for state senator in 2018 and was elected chair of the town’s Democratic Town Committee in 2020. ​“He’s been one of the most respected DTC chairs in the state — a lot of other DTC chairs are constantly calling him for advice and he’s done a lot of collaboration with other DTC chairs in writing letters to state central,” she said. 

“The relationships that he has built throughout the entire state are such a benefit to the town,” she said. Grace, who worked as State Sen. Jorge Cabrera’s legislative aide, helped bring Lt. Gov. Susan Bysewiecz, Jorge Cabrera, and State Sen. Bob Duff into the mayor’s office in December to talk about partnering with the state on projects.

Overall, Garrett argued, fostering collaboration among departments and agencies both locally and statewide is all about making Hamden an ​“affordable and attractive place to live.” Sustainable job creation and equitable hiring, throughout town and within government center, are the first priorities, she said. 

She vowed to make herself more accessible to town employees ​“on a day to day basis” by allowing people to ​“walk by my office, see I’m not otherwise occupied, and ask me a quick question,” is one of the easiest and most obvious ways to ​“make government flow a little better.”

“Quick little conversations can resolve problems right away that might otherwise grow into bigger problems,” she said.

That’s why, she said, she’s making time to convert the mayor’s office from ​“not a place where you would wanna have people” visit, to an informal spot where government workers can ​“sit and chat for a few minutes.”