Thomas Breen file photo
Newly reelected Board Prez Tyisha Walker-Myers.
West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers earned another two years as the head of the Board of Alders — with promises to find “creative” ways to direct the city’s sudden surfeit of cash towards promoting homeownership, increasing trade education, and slowing the expansion of New Haven’s megalandlords.
Walker-Myers offered that legislative vision during an interview with the Independent after Monday night’s first 2022 full Board of Alders meeting.
The meeting took place in person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
Monday night's Board of Alders meeting.
As is the case at the start of every local legislative two-year term, the alders began the meeting by voting for three different leadership positions.
Walker-Myers — the board’s first female president and a chief steward with Yale’s blue-collar Local 35 union — was unanimously reelected as president. She first rose to that top spot in April 2015 when Jorge Perez resigned to become the state’s banking commissioner. She won reelection in 2016, 2018, and 2020.
Alders also unanimously reelected Dixwell’s Jeanette Morrison and Morris Cove’s Sal DeCola as the board’s president pro tem and third officer, respectively.
Beaver Hills Alder Brian Wingate.
“If you want somebody to go through the wilderness, the storm, the good times and bad, you’re asking for Tyisha Walker-Myers,” Beaver Hills Alder Wingate said in support of her reelection. “She challenges every one of us to be better, to do your homework, to exercise your right to be great.”
West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith.
“Her strength gives me more strength,” West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith said. “She’s a jewel, and we need to treasure the jewel that we have.”
“Her commitment, knowledge, capacity, tenacity, and care for this city and all its residents is unmatched,” Prospect Hill/Newhallville/Dixwell Alder Steve Winter said, as he praised Walker-Myers for engaging with him on every issue, big or small, even when they disagree.
Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez agreed. She praised her determination and commitment, particularly last year, when Walker-Myers lost a number of family members. Walker-Myers was still present at nearly every meeting and still showed up for “all the work behind the scenes,” Rodriguez said.
“This year, we have a hard time ahead of us,” she continued. Charter revision is coming up. As is local legislative redistricting. “It is important to have somebody who knows the workings [of the board] to carry this body over in this work that we have.”
Homeownership, Trades, Megalandlords
Walker-Myers helming Monday's meeting.
After Monday’s meeting concluded, the Independent asked Walker-Myers about her top priorities for the coming term.
On Jan. 1, 2024, what would she like to point to as this term’s biggest accomplishments?
Top of mind, Walker-Myers said, is finding creative, impactful ways to spend all of the unprecedented amounts of money coming New Haven’s way. That includes the state’s $50 million annual increase to its Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) reimbursement to the city, the federal government’s $100 million-plus in pandemic-relief American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) aid, a yet-to-be-determined surge in aid thanks to the federal government’s infrastructure bill, and the planned $10 million annual bump in Yale’s voluntary payment to the city.
During his inauguration speech on Saturday, Mayor Justin Elicker also singled out this avalanche of money as presenting some of the biggest opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities of the two-year term to come.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to receive as much money as we’ve received again,” she said. “I think we’ve got to do some really transformational things with the money. It needs to really touch residents in a way that will have a long-standing impact for them and their families.”
What might that type of “transformational” spending plan look like?
“If it was a perfect world, I would say a trade school,” Walker-Myers said. “Because not all kids are going to college.”
She stressed the importance of being “creative” with the money. “I think maybe putting some trades in some of our larger high schools that will help people long term develop skills they’ll need for a career,” she said.
She also said that the city and the board need to find ways to direct some of this glut of cash towards addressing the city’s “housing crisis,” especially around “homeownership and around people being able to stay in their homes after they buy it. … We have to invest in homeownership for our residents.”
New Haven’s housing problems extend to an increasing consolidation of the low-income housing market in the hands of a few megalandlords, she said. “We can’t allow all the large developers, like Mandy and Pike, to buy up everything in the city. We have to do whatever we can to push back a little on that.”
Overall, she said, all of this money — some of which, like the ARPA aid, is time-limited — “has to be used wisely. Because if not, the money will be gone, and people will be looking around and thinking, ‘What did we spend it on?’ ”
Board To Meet In Person, For Now
Walker-Myers was also asked about how Covid-19 will impact how the board operates.
Like much of the rest of city government, the Board of Alders held all of its meetings online for the first 16 months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Then, starting in August, Walker-Myers brought her legislative colleagues back to in-person City Hall meetings — but only for full board meetings, where alders take final votes on proposed legislation. The aldermanic committee meetings, where smaller groups of legislators discuss and debate proposals in detail, have remained entirely online.
Walker-Myers said that, for now, she plans on keeping the full Board of Alders meetings in person. Even as New Haven — and the state and country — are hit by an Omicron-induced surge in new Covid cases.
“It amazes me that we’re sending our kids to school, but some people are asking for the Board of Alders to be remote,” she said. “That balance is not fair to me.”
“I feel like you just have to do things as safe as possible,” she continued, referring to face masks, social distancing, and ready supplies of hand santizer. “People are still going to work. You still have stores, bars and everything open.”
She said she also plans on bringing aldermanic committee meetings back in person this term. Since committees don’t start until February, she said, she has time yet to assess and figure out whether that in-person committee plan is still the best route to go.
“You never know what happens,” she said. “We have to make sure we maintain flexibility.”
If there is a master plan that this BOA has; I would like to see it. They plan to beg for money and spend it. No matter what happens ; they do not change course.
That is what I got so far. Did I miss anything?