Elicker Picks New LCI, Transportation Directors

The mayor has tapped the city’s acting Livable City Initiative (LCI) director to take over as the permanent head of City Hall’s neighborhood development and housing code enforcement department—and has picked a local transportation consultant to lead Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TT&P).

Mayor Justin Elicker announced those two latest department-head appointments Monday afternoon during a press conference held on the first floor of City Hall.

Less than a month after winning reelection to a second two-year term as mayor, and less than three weeks after nominating new permanent heads of the police department and the chief administrative office, Elicker announced Monday that he has picked Arlevia Samuel to be the new permanent head of LCI and Sandeep Aysola to be the new permanent director of TT&P.

Samuel has been serving as acting head of LCI since Serena Neal-Sanjurjo resigned in October 2020. She will start in her new permanent role immediately.

Aysola currently works as a senior associate at the transportation planning and consulting firm The Goodman Corporation. He would start in his new city role on Dec. 13. Since Doug Hausladen resigned from TT&P in June, that position has been filled in an acting capacity first by Karla Lindquist, and now by Bijan Notghi.

Both Samuel’s and Aysola’s appointments would last through Jan. 31, 2022, Elicker said. That’s because of a City Charter requirement that department heads begin new, full terms starting Feb. 1 every four years.

At that time early next year, Elicker promised, he plans to appoint both Samuel and Aysola again to new, full four-year terms to begin on Feb. 1.

Unlike with the police chief and CAO positions, Samuel’s and Aysola’s appointments do not have to be confirmed by the Board of Alders.

Elicker praised both Samuel’s and Aysola’s ​“expertise” and ​“enthusiasm” as they move into their respective City Hall posts.

“You have behind me here two of the most accomplished, technically strong professionals anywhere in the State of Connecticut who will lead these respective departments,” city Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli said on Monday.

Samuel: Meeting Individually W/ Megalandlords

As the head of LCI, Samuel leads a 53-person department of housing code inspectors, neighborhood specialists, and affordable housing development experts.

Before taking over as acting head of LCI, Samuel worked in property management in Bridgeport and Stamford, as an asset manager for the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA), as a housing manager with the Stamford Housing Authority, and as LCI’s manager of neighborhood and commercial development. She has a masters degree in urban studies from Southern Connecticut State University and a bachelors degree in criminal justice from the University of New Haven.

“It’s been an arduous task” leading LCI so far, she said. She praised her ​“great team” and said ​“we do have a robust inspection program.” There are some issues and kinks with that program, she admitted, but ​“we’re getting better. It’s not going to be an easy, quick fix, but we’re making progress.”

Asked about the biggest challenge she’s faced so far while leading LCI, Samuel pointed to winning community trust and communicating clearly with residents. Everybody has some problem that they want fixed right now, she said. ​“We are reacting, and we’re being proactive” too. ​“I think the calls to the mayor’s office have slowed down” as LCI has gotten better about responding promptly and clearly to residents’ concerns, she said.

Samuel was asked about LCI’s role in regulating some of the megalandlords that have increasingly consolidated their control over New Haven’s low-income rental market in recent years.

In response, she pointed to the city’s residential licensing program, her team’s regular inspections of apartments across the city, neighborhood specialists’ roles in spotting blight-related problems on the exteriors of properties, and LCI’s regular presence at community management team meetings.

“I personally have been having individual meetings with the owners of these conglomerates to go through some of the issues we’ve been hearing,” Samuel said. She said she’s spoken with those megalandlords about complaints from tenants, and provided information on how they can and should keep their properties safe and up to code.

Aysola: Prioritizing Safe Routes, Climate Change

According to a bio read by the mayor on Monday, Aysola has a masters degree in environmental management from the Yale School of Environment, and a masters degree in engineering from the University of Virginia. He’s a certified project manager from the Project Management Institute and has planning certificates from the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure.

While he currently works as a senior associate at The Goodman Corporation, he previously worked as a project manager for the engineering firm CDM Smith, and has “more than 15 years’ experience in managing and executing transportation planning and traffic engineering studies,” according to the mayor.

Aysola said that, after spending nearly two decades as a consultant, he was drawn to the TT&P job at City Hall out of “public service” responsibility.

“Transportation is all about empowering people, trying to build those connections,” he said.

As the director of TT&P, he promised to prioritize promoting “active transportation,” addressing climate change, and “most importantly, advancing equity.”

Asked by New Haven Register report Ed Stannard how he feels about certain specific projects — like improving the city’s bus network or converting certain one-way streets to two-way streets — Aysola demurred, saying he needs to take a closer look before expressing any convictions in favor or against.

Asked about TT&P can make New Haven’s streets safer so that not as many pedestrians and cyclists are struck and killed by cars, Aysola suggested that road design plays an important role in improving safe streets—but again declined to give any specific examples of what he would do as department head on that matter.

He did say he has followed the city’s Safe Routes for All planning process, and is eager to enact that if it’s approved by the Board of Alders.