Thomas Breen photo
Transition team co-chairs Robyn Porter, Sarah Miller, Kica Matos.
Mayor-Elect Justin Elicker Friday tapped a diverse crew of grassroots activists — including a working families legislative leader, an immigrant rights champion, and a school parents organizer — to guide his transition and chart a policy course for the next two years.
Elicker introduced the co-chairs and two dozen other members of his newly formed transition team, at a press conference held at his campaign headquarters at 161 Whalley Ave.
The event offered a picture of unity after a week of events — an election, a black-brown showdown at City Hall — that highlighted New Haven’s divisions.
Mayor-elect Elicker introduces his transition team.
The three co-chairs are State Rep. and Labor Committee Co-Chair Robyn Porter, Vera Institute Director of the Center on Immigration and Justice and former city Community Services Administrator (CSA) Kica Matos, and NHPS Advocates co-founder Sarah Miller — women who, Elicker observed, can be counted to pressure him to deliver change.
“These three women,” Elicker said with a smile. “We were joking yesterday about what I’m getting into…”
“I’m so happy,” he continued, “to have your voices and the pressure you will put to make sure we come up with the right decisions as a team. … I’m grateful that people are leaving politics behind us and focusing on policy initiatives that can improve the lives of so many residents.”
Elicker said that the primary goal of the team will be to identify short-term and long-term policy initiatives to pursue once his administration takes office in January.
The racial, ethnic, and professional diversity of the group signaled additional goals: To build trust in every community in the city, to tap into both established and grassroots sources of local power, and to continue striving to heal this city after a fractious mayoral campaign that ended Tuesday when Democrat Elicker trounced three-term incumbent Mayor Toni Harp by more than a 2 – 1 margin.
“Look behind you. Look at this multiracial diverse team of people with incredible expertise,” Matos said as she surveyed her new transition team colleagues. “That’s why I’m here.”
Indeed, the team (listed in full at the bottom of this article) includes New Haveners from all walks of life. The group includes not just longtime Elicker supporters but a cross-section of criminal justice reform advocates, immigration rights activists, financial experts and neighborhood boosters and religious leaders from Downtown to Newhallville to Westville to the Hill.
The team includes Financial Review and Audit Commission Chair Mohit Agrawal, a Yale PhD student and deputy policy director for Gov. Ned Lamont who has been an outspoken critic of the city’s structural deficit.
It also has Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen, Jr. and Board of Alders Majority Leader and Amity Alder Richard Furlow. Brackeen supported Elicker’s campaign from the start. Furlow, along with a majority of the local legislature and all of aldermanic leadership, backed Harp’s reelection bid during the Democratic primary.
There’s also Karen DuBois-Walton, the executive director of the city’s housing authority, Elm City Communities, along with Will Ginsberg, the president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.
Downtown management team chair Caroline Smith, WVRA’s Lizzy Donius, Bruni Pizarro, Local 34 Prez Laurie Kennington, Varick AME Pastor Kelcy Steele, and Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow.
On the local labor side, the team includes Local 34 President Laurie Kennington, the leader of one of the politically influential Yale clerical and technical workers union, as well as Melissa Mason, the executive director of the labor-backed job training agency New Haven Works.
Community activists on the team include Newhallville Community Management Team Chair and “One City New Haven” founder Kim Harris and Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team Chair and Collab co-founder Caroline Smith and Westville Village Renaissance Alliance (WVRA) Director Lizzy Donius.
In terms of local faith leaders, the team includes Dixwell’s Varick AME Church Rev. Kelcy Steele and the Hill’s Christian Community Action Executive Director Bonita Grubbs.
“We have captured the diversity and inclusion piece of this,” said Porter (pictured). “But for me, it’s about a sense of belonging and making sure that every person in this city feels that they belong in this transition that we’re about to make with a new establishment and a new mayor.”
“I believe the people closest to the pain need to be closest to the power,” she continued. “When you lift from the bottom, you elevate everyone.”
Miller stressed that, in addition to establishing policy priorities, the transition team will provide a “process that engages people, that brings people together after this very contentious election.”
Matos pointed not just to the people behind her, but to the list of “areas of concentration” included on a transition team one-pager that the Elicker’s campaign team had handed out at the start of the event. That list includes Budget and Finance; Culture, Arts, and Library; Environment and Climate Change; Health and Housing; and Jobs, Re-entry, and Workers’ Rights.
“When I saw this list,” she said, “I thought: This is everything that I could dream of in terms of things as a community that we can do to come together and really think about our future. Not just for us, but for future generations.”
Below is the complete list of Elicker transition team members, as well as scheduled public meeting dates and areas of concentration.
Members
Mohit Agrawal
Alder Darryl Brackeen
Jayuan Carter
Luiz Casanova
Elizabeth Donius
Dr. Karen DuBois-Walton
Kiana Flores
Alder Richard Furlow
William Ginsberg
Rev. Bonita Grubbs
Kim Harris
Jonathan Hopkins
Adriana Arreola Joseph
Dr. Edward Joyner
Laurie Kennington
Melissa Mason
Kica Matos, Co-Chair
Sarah Miller, Co-Chair
Bruni Pizarro
Rep. Robyn Porter, Co-Chair
Judy Puglisi
Alice Rosenthal
Pierette Comulada Silverman
Caroline Tanbee Smith
Pastor Kelcy Steele
Facilitators
Kia Levey-Burden
Elizabeth Nearing
Public Meetings
Saturday, November 16: High School in the Community at 9 AM
Sunday, December 8: High School in the Community at 2 PM
Areas Of Concentration
Budget and Finance
City Operations and Public Works
Community Engagement, Responsive Government, and Transparency
Culture, Arts, and Library
Education
Environment and Climate Change
Health and Housing
Human Services and Immigration
Jobs, Re-Entry, and Workers’ Rights
Planning, Transportation, and Economic Development
Public Safety
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch Friday morning’s transition team press conference.
Go Transition Team!