Walker Reelected, Exits Comfort Zone

Tyisha Walker has always been more at home working behind the scenes, shunning the spotlight. But becoming the first woman president of the Board of Alders has forced her out of her comfort zone — a position to which she was elected Monday to her first full term.

“I am very comfortable being a behind the scenes person doing the work,” said Walker, who describes herself as a humble woman of few words but many works. ​“I’m very comfortable with that. And I think the adjustment is being a little more out front, but the thing that I recognize is that this board is so strong that we’re all out front and we have a lot of really good people on the board and they make it easy.”

The West River alder became the first female president nine months ago, after former longtime Hill Alder and board President Jorge Perez resigned from the board to become state banking commissioner. Walker at the time wasn’t sure if she wanted the job long term or if she would simply serve out Perez’s term.

Monday night, during the first full board meeting of the year, Walker’s colleagues unanimously handed her back the gavel to continue as their leader for a full two-year term.

The board presidency is the second most powerful position in city government. Besides overseeing the legislative branch, the board president fills in for the mayor when the mayor leaves town.

Walker has not spoken out much publicly as president; when questioned on issues, she is wont to issue joint written statements from board leaders as a group. (Click here for a previous story about her rise first through union ranks, then political ranks, and her experience as a single mother.)

She said she sees the work of the board as a collaborative process.

“Some people consider me like a quiet storm,” she said. ​“I observe a lot but everybody on this board has got strengths. I found a lot of my family here. You know how you meet some people, and you say, ​‘Oh yeah, I work with them’? This is like family to me. I can’t actually think of anybody on the board I could reach out to and say ​‘I need help,’ and they would tell me no.”

Her colleagues said she has earned their trust.

Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison (pictured), who Monday night was unanimously re-elected president pro tempore, the board’s number-two spot, said that she wanted to be in position to have Walker’s back. (Read about her first election here.)

“I voted for Tyisha because Tyisha is very strong,” Morrison said. ​“She’s a leader and she’s a teacher. She’s one of those people who instead of fishing for you and giving you fish for a day she will teach you how to fish. When you empower people in that manner there’s no stopping them and I like that. In my role as president pro tem, I just want to be in that role to have her back. Whatever it is that she needs, you know I can be there for her because she can’t be every where.

“Tyisha needs eyes all over the place because there’s so many arms to this city government and being the president of a board of 30 people with 30 personalities that’s a lot to take on. Sometimes you just need to have someone you know you can trust who is going to be there for you. Me and Tyisha developed a relationship while coming in together in 2012 and I feel like she knows she can trust me, and there is nothing like having the trust of your leader. “

Morrison said the board has had to make some tough calls this past year, two of which put the alders at odds with the mayor’s office and the school board: A decision not to accept state money to build a new $45 million Strong School on the Southern Connecticut State University campus; and a vote to seek to remove Board of Education member Daisy Gonzalez. Morrison said Walker, who has been an ardent defender of the city charter, was instrumental in helping the board reach consensus about what was best for the city.

“Every time we have to say no, you’ve got to be together as a team because there are 30 of us,” Morrison said. ​“There are lot of arms when it comes to city government and you’ve got people trying to pick at every arm, every alder. Any time we’re making the decision where a piece of government is not going to be too happy, you’ve got to be a team.”

Walker said as president she has made a point to become more familiar with the city’s charter and to attend every Finance Committee meeting to become better versed in the city’s budget process. She said the controversies over Strong School and Daisy Gonzalez obscures the positive things that the board has done for education.

She pointed to Monday night’s approval of the reallocation of nearly $3.7 million in school construction funds to build new homes for New Haven Academy, Helene Grant and the Helene Grant administrative office. Alders amended the ordinance amendment so that no funds would be transferred to those school until education officials provide a full accounting of the status of school construction for the district — part of an ongoing quest by the alders to demand more financial oversight of city spending.

East Rock Alder Jessica Holmes, chair the board’s Legislation Committee, called Walker ​“a person with incredible leadership skills, and a person of character who has proven herself through her dedication to the city and this board, who also is incredibly hardworking and communicative.”

Holmes said if she has a question, Walker usually has an answer, or will hunt one down, including during recent negotiations between board alders and City Hall about how to preserve neighborhood street parking spaces for neighbors rather than Yale and Yale-New Haven Hospital employees.

“Most recently, I would reference the parking plan legislation where I was involved with her from the beginning discussing the problems that had come up — problems that we hear from the Hill to East Rock about trying to manage the need of institutions and residents,” Holmes said. ​“She was there to be a thought partner, and when there were legal questions, I know she worked extensively with both legal counsel from the city and obtained private legal counsel for the board to be able to work through that.”

Walker said the team approach to governance was a lesson that the board’s leadership learned from former President Perez.

She said that approach serves the board and and the city well. She said it helped the board make the decision to fund health care and pensions and put the city on firmer footing; and crystallized a need for more local jobs that led to a deal she helped negotiate with Yale University to guarantee to hire more New Haveners.

“I think that was amazing because we actually started a conversation around town,” said Walker, a longtime Yale dining hall worker who has a leadership role in Yale’s blue-collar union, UNITE HERE Local 35. ​“Now we have an agreement for Yale University to hire more and it was a conversation in a space that we created, that actually made that come to fruition. I’m really excited about that.”

Walker said that the board also directed more money into youth violence-prevention programs that are helping the city maintain some of its lowest crime statistics in years.

Annex Alder Alphonse Paolillo Jr., who was reelected as board majority leader, said Walker had a tireless work ethic.

“She has proved herself to be an extremely good leader for this board,” Paolillo said.

Amity/Beverly Hills Alder Richard Furlow said he voted to keep Walker and Morrison in place because he believes they’ve been consistent and responsive. He counts Paolillo as part of the triumvirate that keeps the board steady.

“I know I can call Tyisha any time. She’s got the answers,” Furlow said. ​“I can call Al any time. He’s got the answers. I can call Jeanette at any time. She’s got the answer. And the good thing about it is they’ll all have the same answer. That’s what’s really important — that you don’t get all these different answers. It’s one answer. I think that what we have in these three is excellent. You can call them any time and they answer. We all have jobs. You can call them at their jobs and they answer and they take the time. That’s important.”

Furlow noted that the board often gets flack about how little its members disagree or debate in public, and is accused of being controlled by union interests.

“There are some comments that people have said, ​‘They always come out and they don’t say anything,’ ​‘It’s all a yes vote,’” he said. ​“It’s not all a yes vote. It’s because we have leaders that explain everything so thoroughly when we come together in caucus we’re we are able to ask our questions and then we come to public caucus and ask questions so we’re able to work things out .so that when we come here [to the aldermanic chamber], we’re not going through this debate of back and forth because the leadership has clear answers. If there is something I don’t agree with — and amazingly enough if there is something that I don’t agree with, it’s because I don’t have the full understanding.

“We’re working as a team to push the city forward and I don’t see it as a union thing. It’s just the right choice. ”

Like Furlow, Walker said alders — all of whom are Democrats — grapple with their concerns in the regular private Democratic Party caucus before decisions are made official.

“I really enjoy Democratic Caucus,” she said. ​“That is our time to really put our heads together and figure out and forecast some things that’s coming up. I think the majority leader makes that an inviting space for everybody, and that’s important to have that space. We’re colleagues and we spend a lot of time together. It’s business but it’s fun. I enjoy it. I do. I actually like my colleagues. We’re all different. We all have different perspectives on different things but we all get along really well. We all come from a place of actually wanting to do right by the city. We get along. I like being a part of those kind of relationships and spaces.”