Shafiq Abdussabur Resigns As Alder

It’s not about the money. It’s about being free. We saved your spot at the table.

Thank you Alder Abdussubur for your passion to serve not just the constituents in your ward, but the years of serving citizens of new haven over the years. You continue to show your passion for helping others even in this decision. I know there are greater things in your future.

Wow!!!!!

"HIs company employs over 200 people, 65 percent of whom are Black, 33 percent Latino, he said. Many are also ex-offenders. If his contract gets renewed, he said, he’ll be able to ​“hire 75 more people from New Haven.”"

According to these self-reported, unverified figures, there are 130 African American folks cleaning the schools. I call BS and I smell fish.

I am furious. The city needs to relook at this contract/policy. Please allow my alder to continue to serve. I will be severely disappointed if New Haven is so far gone that we cannot find a way for this to be amended. Shafiq is a shining star of sensibility in the city and that we need more leaders like him. Bring back Shafiq.

Aren't there other alders who have conflicts of interest in various areas? Couldn't he recuse himself from decisions relevant to his company? City government does so much more than school cleaning contracts that he could participate in. Shafiq has bee a wonderful, dedicated alder who has already accomplished a lot for our community. I hate the thought of losing him.

Isn't the current non-union cleaning company for NHPS owned by a very loud local pastor? This pastor is very involved. Is that a conflict of interest? Many members of BOE and BOA and City of New Haven are in office. Of course there is a conflict of interest.
The current alder made his choice--- leave him alone.

Alder Abdussabur has acted honorably. But I do not know that he made the best decisions in the circumstances.

Conflict of interest provisions are designed, in part, to prevent a public official from enriching themselves contrary to the public interest. It is wrong for a public official to manipulate bid specifications or the bidding process to benefit their firm. There is no evidence that Alder Abdussabur did anything like this.

At the same time, a firm should not be barred from bidding just because it is connected with a public official. I don’t think anyone intended to freeze Alder Abdussabur’s firm from bidding on this contract. I think that when he became aware of this possibility, the best course of action would have been for him to have publicly informed the relevant officials of this situation. Assuming they revised the process to allow his firm to bid, Alder Abdussabur would have needed to recuse himself from any involvement in bid design or selection. And the bidders’ names and other identifying information should have been redacted from the bids, so that the officials choosing the winner were unaware of which firm was associated with Alder Abdussabur.

NHPS Teacher, Alder Abdussabur said that his firm has approximately 130 African American employees. He said nothing about the firm or firms that currently clean the schools. And while the schools where I have volunteered (F.A.M.E. and East Rock) are clean, I doubt there are 130 cleaners working in the district.

NHPS Teacher, I completely agree with you! Also, we all know Alder Abdussubur runs a program for ex-offenders, who's running the program while he's still in office? What's his position on on this program and other ventures that he has under his belt and how he's able to get funds from the City? Conflict??? Funny how some Alders are able to learn the tricks of City Hall and now is bidding for a nice contract with the City?

Wow -- someone with integrity who steps forward before being ousted. I'm sure the Alders who work for the city don't see a conflict, but . . . Shafiq did the right thing here. Focus on your business and stay away from city contracts unless you want someone to hold that over your head if they don't like the way you're voting. Anyone who works for the city and thinks they are an "independent" legislator is delusional!

Shafiq is the best Alder Ward 28 and the City have seen in years!

His stepping down is a massive loss to us all. Thank you for your service and hope to see you soon back in public office.

I can't help but wonder: presumably he knew that the contract expired on that date, and that there would be another round of bidding. Why did he run for alder if he knew this was coming? And once he was elected, why wait until the very last minute, and resign from his seat that same day?

I have no doubt as to Mr Abdussabur's integrity, and I admire him for it. It just seems that the timing of this is very unfortunate.

NHPS Teacher, at what point in this article did you read that 100% of Abdussabur's employees work as cleaners at NHPS? What an extraordinary assumption to make, and then become suspfishious about. I fervently hope that your reading comprehension (and willingness to cast aspersions based on nothing at all!) is not representative of most NHPS teachers.

I agree with Mr. McCarthy's statement that Alder Abdussabur acted honorably. However, I think he misses a key point in his advice on how the situation could have been resolved. One of the elements of conflict of interest is "the appearance of impropriety", which would certainly be the case if Alder Abdussabur had proceeded as advised. Disclosing his conflict with the bid documents is the right thing to do -- which brought him to a decision point. Which he has made. Disclosure makes his company ineligible to bid on the contract. Had City officials changed the bid documents as a result of his disclosure, two things would have happened: (1) the city opened itself up to legal challenges by any and all other bidders; and (2) we would be reading a different headline and story in The Independent! That disclosure and resulting action would have been the conflict of interest. Lastly, I have years of experience managing high value contracts and I can tell you that language like what precluded Mr. Abdussabur from bidding doesn't make it into contractual language by accident. Either someone did intend to freeze Mr Abdussabur from bidding, or it is simply good governance to have such language in city contracts? Take your pick.

@NHPS Teacher, what makes those numbers unverified and self-reported? I imagine this article was fact checked prior to publication. Weird take

I think some folks in the comments section are not reading this the same way that I am. Alder Shafiq has been the alder. He also has a cleaning company. This was not a problem with the current contract that is just expiring. The new contract bidding has just started and is, knowing the city, is probably last minute and rushed. For some reason the process has been altered without forewarning to the public and also current bidders. Alder Shafiq has to make a quick decision and but it can be assumed that he just didn't resign on the spot. One has to assume there was some discussion about this change and it was affirmed that the change was indeed a new policy. Then alder Shafiq resigned in order to save his company and the jobs of fellow New Haveners. This feels intentional and I would really like to hear from the BOA or the BOE why this change is happening and why there is not a process for recusing oneself for certain votes if there are conflicts of interests. I am again frustrated as a citizen of this city where we keeping making poor choices and shooting ourselves in the foot. Alder Shafiq is beloved in our ward and we have been very happy with his responsiveness and expert policy level advocacy. We need to figure out how to get more people like Shafiq more involved not less. Being alder is a really tough job and the fact that he is willing to put in the hours and get to know our concerns and hopes proves his dedication. I hope there is some follow up about this from the folks in charge.

Thank you to Alder Shafiq Abdussabur for doing the honorable thing and stepping down from his position as alder to avoid a potential conflict of interest. The entry level jobs his company provides to the people in the city and especially the prison re-entry population is very important.
I want to echo the comments of some of the people above that there should be a way that a city employee like an alder can also have a company who may have potential work contracts with the city be able to recuse themselves for job related city decisions and for the company’s bids to be blind so the city doesn’t have the appearance of favoritism. The city doesn’t want to lose or discourage good employees in city government just because the employee’s day job company may not want to miss out on work bids from the city. I’m sure the city government can put their collective heads together with the city lawyers and figure out a solution that can work for everyone.

@justchecking The exact wording in the article is:

“ His company currently has a contract with the city that expires at the end of this month. The new five-year contract his company is now bidding for has language stating that a contractor may not be a city alder.”

So, if that is correct, Mr Abdussabur’s company already had a contract with the city before he was elected to the Board of Alders last year. That contract is expiring at the end of this month, and in order to avoid the potential conflict of interest between his role with his company and his role as an alder, he resigned as an alder, announcing his resignation on the day it became effective.

My question is this: when did Mr Abdussabur realize that there was a potential conflict of interest? And if he knew before he ran for alder that he might be faced with a potential conflict of interest, why did he run?

I find it very unfortunate that someone who is as dedicated to bettering his community as Mr Abdussabur clearly is felt that he had no choice but to resign so soon into his term after doing such a fantastic job rallying the entire community around his candidacy.

JPadilla, thank you for your thoughtful reply. If Alder Abdussabur raised his issue after bids had been submitted, and the city then changed the bid specs, it may well have faced a law suit.

I contemplated him raising the issue earlier in the process, although I was not explicit on this point. Public entities routinely hold meetings at the front end of the bidding process to address potential bidders’ questions and concerns. I don’t think there would have been a problem if (1) Alder Abdussabur raised his issue in a public, noticed meeting before anyone submitted bids, (2) the city revised the bid specs and re-started the bidding process, and (3) Alder Abdussabur recused himself from any involvement in the bid award process.

Naturally, the awarding authority could leave the bid specs unchanged. I would not fault them for doing so - reasonable people disagree on what constitutes the appearance of impropriety.

Kevin McCarthy thank you for the good points you pointed out regarding this issue.

If these kinds of things can be done fairly where most of the Alders agree that's fine, however in the future it might be that it could set a precedent and a slippery slope no one wants to confront and correct.

There was another option: Alder Abdussabur could have bid on the contract and if he won the award, then he could resign. As it stands, if he doesn't win the contract, he resigned for nothing. The contract says the "contractor" cannot be an Alder, but Mr. Abdussabur's contract would have expired by then meaning he would have been in limbo as neither contractor or awarded bidder (therefore eligible). Just saying.

As a Beaver Hills resident who gladly voted for Mr. Abdussabur and a member of Local 34 that actually lives in the city this entire situation is very disappointing. This clause seems to be targeting either Mr. Abdussabur's business, which employs union workers, or Mr. Abdussabur' service as an alderman, which targets my neighborhood's choice of who we want to represent us. In my mind, this raises some serious questions. Will my union brothers and sisters that also serve in leadership in the city stand with a business that wants to employ more local union members? Will my union brothers and sister fight for our neighborhood's democratic right to choose who we want to represent us?