5 New Lead Inspector Positions Approved

Wait one minute.

What??

Let me get this straight: the three alders who most vocally supported Elicker OPPOSED hiring more lead inspectors??

What?

First he voted against funding for fair rent commission field officers. Now he is voting against lead inspectors. Alder Winter sure seems out of touch with his constituents. I wonder if he has ever personally had to struggle with rising rents and unsafe housing.

again, thank you to the only 3 alders who care about taxpayers. and to the the other 27; STOP SPENDING OUR MONEY! you can't have young children around lead paint, we know this.

does it have to cost $365,000 at the expense of raising taxes and/or taking it from other departments?
the answer is NO.
do we need more conclusive evidence before we go spending money?
the answer is YES.

we need new alders. we need alders who are property owners in New Haven and will have some skin in the game for all the financial decisions they make. we need alders who understand finance on the whole and won't jump on the virtue signaling bandwagon for the faux moral high ground. "We care." No you don't, you and make knee-jerk decisions for each passing social platitude and stick the bill to people who plan on living here for many years.

Ignorance Wins Again Notes:

The majority alders including, surprisingly, Charles Decker, are once again making fools of themselves. This amendment has nothing to do with Elicker's support or the lack thereof from Alders...What is considerably more important is the strategy and implementation of a tiered approach to measure and eliminates causality that will guide whether to hire new un-trained, un-certified inspectors, who presumably will find more cases of 5% lead poisoned children, without an approved state of CT or city health dept remedy to medigate the findings. The strategy and remedy is un-thoughtfully missing.

We need additional lead inspectors, but FIVE? What have the current inspectors been doing for all these years? How many homes do they inspect each week? It really seems like we should have been getting a lot of inspections done in 40 hours a week with the three we have. Do we really need to more than double the number of inspectors? And we wonder why the mill rate keeps going up. Start with two more and put together a plan to get inspections done. We're okay to more than double our lead inspectors but balk at adding a cop or firefighter. Ridiculous.

Three of Morrison's colleagues, Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter, Downtown Alder Abby Roth, and East Rock/Cedar Hill Alder Anna Festa, voted against the bill.
All Elicker people voting against hires to help combat the lead issues being ignored by the slum lords. Pretty telling. Scream about it but don't be about it...ridiculous.
Thank you Jeannette Morrison for continuing to advocate for the citizens of New Haven UNCONDITIONALLY!!!!

I should correct my comment. Alder Winter is prioritizing the wealthier half of his ward that is less challenged by rising rent and unsafe housing. He isn't out of touch with this side of the ward.

@BevHills730 these are priorities for me. I was the only alder present to testify (see here: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/lead_law/ ) at last week's meeting of the legislation committee where changes to the lead ordinance were proposed that I believe would weaken the ordinance by authorizing rather than mandating inspections. I do believe the lead program needs additional funding and I am happy to make the case to all of my constituents that this funding is necessary to protect our city's most vulnerable children. That said, the attorneys who have successfully sued the city half of dozen time to ensure that the program work testified that they believed resources would be better used on updating the protocols and procedures for issuing and enforcing abatement orders. I am glad that the legislation committee postponed action on the ordinance so that the lead poisoning advisory committee can provide advice on how to update these policies and recommend changes to the ordinance. The department is next in line for digitizing its records and has stated multiple times that this will greatly increase the efficiency if its inspectors. I think we ought to see how many inspectors are needed once that has occurred. I don't think it's sound to make these decisions without any information on the actual need - how many homes are currently inspected? Are there homes that are currently not inspected (legal aid testified that in their review of the program that was not the case).

On affordable and quality housing, I worked with the administration for over a year to update the city's rental registration and inspection program, which will increase fees on property owners and target enforcement on the rental properties with the most violations. This will allow the city to make better use of its limited resources, increase enforcement capacity and improve housing quality. https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/lci_residential/

Alder Winter,

Eight inspectors won't be enough, even with superhero-like efficiency. It'll put in a dent. You say you want to mandate inspections, but you only want three inspectors. Sounds like politics.

More than 80% of city homes almost certainly have lead paint, even more in poor neighborhoods. The campaign you supported said that more than 300 children have been negatively impacted by lack of action. Inspectors look at soil, water, paint, other home-based hazards, dust, cleaning practices, how the children play, and also disseminate information. They also monitor compliance.

You want the strongest lead law possible. But you don't want to fund it. That's not right.

By the way, I witnessed your testimony. You were the only alder to testify in person, but that is somewhat misleading. Many alders were there, including many alders who voted for the inspectors.

Alder Winter,

Thanks for your response.

Just to be clear you're comfortable with homes foregoing lead inspections while the advisory committee does its work? These presumably would be homes where children have been found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood.

You're also comfortable with tenants lacking access to the services of fair rent commission field officers?

Have you personally struggled with unsafe housing or affordable housing challenges?