To Split Or Not To Split Traffic & Police Boards

A road-safety proposal that would allow local traffic authorities to separate from police commissions is making its way through the state legislature — as city charter revisers consider how best to act if such a law change passes.

That proposed new state law is called House Bill 5543: An Act Authorizing Certain Municipalities To Establish Traffic Authorities.

Introduced by the state legislature’s Planning and Development Committee and co-sponsored by New Haven and Hamden area lawmakers Martin Looney, Jorge Cabrera, Robyn Porter, Josh Elliott, and Mike D’Agostino, the bill would allow Connecticut municipalities with more than 50,000 people to establish local traffic authorities that are independent of police commissions. 

Currently, state law requires that police commissioners also serve as traffic authority commissioners — meaning that the same people in New Haven who are focused on voting on promotions, discipline, and law-enforcement policies for the city’s police department are also tasked with reviewing and voting on the placement of traffic lights and signs, the setting of road speed limits, and the establishment of school zones and one-way streets. New Haven’s monthly Board of Police Commissioners meetings usually start off with roughly 10 or 15 minutes dedicated to traffic matters before moving on to police matters for the next hour or two or longer.

“The goal is to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries, working towards Vision Zero for Connecticut,” reads a Joint Favorable Report published by the Planning and Development Committee on March 23 about the traffic authority-police commission-splitting bill.

On March 20, the Planning and Development Committee voted 17 – 4 in support of the proposal on March 20. And on Wednesday, the bill was referred by the state House of Representatives to the state legislature’s Transportation Committee for further review.

A handful of New Haven safe streets advocates submitted testimony in support of the state bill, describing how having a separate traffic commission will promote road safety. 

“In New Haven, as in many other municipalities, the TA [traffic authority] is housed in the Police Commission,” wrote former Downtown Alder Abby Roth. ​“The Police Commission is not a logical location for a TA because police commissions have lots of things to worry about, and the design of our streets is not their top priority. They also do not have expertise in traffic safety infrastructure. Candidates for police commission are selected for their expertise and experience in traditional policing issues; when our Board of Alders vets them, they ask questions related to policing, not to road infrastructure design.”

Fellow local safe streets advocate and Heights resident Aaron Goode agreed. ​“State law should be encouraging municipalities with sufficient interest and adequate means to establish independent traffic authorities comprised of members with genuine subject matter expertise, not discouraging or preventing that by requiring in a profoundly convoluted and antiquated statute that widely divergent responsibilities be placed under the purview of a single decision-making body,” he wrote. ​“This is especially true at a time when we are experiencing an epidemic of traffic violence and fatalities unprecedented in the last 30 years.”

“Our roads are dangerous for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike and we need a separate, committed, and resourced to address the many challenges to street infrastructure improvement,” added East Rock resident safe streets advocate Lorena Mitchell. ​“Additionally, the timing of this bill is helpful to New Haven. Safe Streets advocates seek to amend our Charter to establish an independent TA. This bill would make clear that New Haven is empowered to make this change.”

Fellow New Havener and state Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto, meanwhile, raised a number of process and qualification concerns in his written testimony about the original proposed bill.

“In the Office of the State Traffic Administration’s (OSTA) opinion, there is flexibility under the current statute that permits a municipality to choose or replace a traffic authority. If a municipality desires to change its current traffic authority, they need to complete and sign the appropriate Local Traffic Authority (LTA) form which is available upon request from the OSTA.”

He continued: ​“If the committee moves forward with drafting the proposed bill, it is OSTA’s recommendation that the language specify that the traffic authority have similar professional credentials as noted in Section 14 – 297. It would be undesirable for a municipality to establish a traffic authority which does not have training and/or experience in one of the following areas: law enforcement, engineering, public works, or executive municipal administration (e.g., Mayor, Selectman, Town Manager).”

Donna Hamzy Carroccia, the chief strategy officer at the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, also wrote in in opposition to the bill, warning that the police-traffic split represents a ​“balkanization of local government” that could be ​“detrimental to long-term policy planning and coordination.”

Charter Revision Pitched

True to Mitchell’s testimony, the issue of a potential traffic authority-police commission split came up Tuesday night during the latest meeting of the city’s Charter Revision Commission.

The meeting, which took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall, marked the latest in the city’s once-a-decade process of considering changes to the city’s foundational governing document. The commission will meet multiple times per month until mid-May, when it plans to send a report to the Board of Alders to review and vote on. The alders will then finalize a question, or multiple questions, about alterations to the charter that will appear on voters’ ballots in November.

In a section of the meeting dedicated to requested charter changes raised by members of the public, commission-hired attorney Steve Mednick dove into the traffic authority proposal.

“Under state law, your police commission serves as the traffic authority,” he said. As an alder representing Upper Westville years ago, he said, he frequently attend police commission/traffic authority meetings trying to get stop signs placed on streets throughout his ward.

“A lot of people who want to be on police commissions don’t like that” — that is, the dual police-traffic responsibilities, he said. Others don’t mind.

Mednick said he’s written up proposed language for New Haven’s charter that says that, if the state were to change the law, then New Haven would ​“have the ability to adopt an ordinance creating a traffic authority separate from the police commission. It’s a pretty simple fix.”

The commission didn’t discuss the matter before adjourning for the night with plans to pick up their discussions of a host of proposed charter changes on April 18.