Thomas Breen photos
Decker, Holmes at Thursday night’s announcement.
A political science graduate student who already doubles as a zoning commissioner and a union organizer is looking to pick up the batons of criminal justice reform and community engagement from an East Rock alder who has decided not to run for reelection.
The grad student, Charles Decker, a sixth-year Yale PhD candidate in political science who also serves on the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) and has been one of the leading organizers of Yale’s graduate teacher union UNITE HERE Local 33, formally launched his Democratic campaign to become the next alder for East Rock’s Ward 9 on Thursday night from his campaign treasurer’s apartment at Orange Street and Bishop Street.
Ward 9 covers parts of East Rock and a sliver of Fair Haven. It is bounded by Humphrey Street to the south, Orange Street to the west, Willow Street to the north, and Blatchley Avenue to the east. No one else has filed to run for the seat.
Two dozen neighbors, graduate students, labor organizers, and local politicians showed up on Thursday night in support of Decker’s campaign.
One of those supporters present was Jessica Holmes, a fellow Democrat who has served as Ward 9 alder since 2011. Holmes said that she has decided not to run for reelection so that she can continue to pursue her full-time career as a nurse at a short-term rehab facility and so that she can spend more time with her partner and two children. Both Holmes and Decker are supported by the UNITE HERE unions
Holmes with former Ward 9 Alder and current Connecticut State Rep. Roland Lemar.
“As alder, you have to be able to work with lots of different people,” Holmes told Decker and his group of supporters. “You have to have a lot of patience, and a lot of grit. You’re not going to be able to give people the answers that they want immediately, or the changes that they want immediately.”
“But,” she continued, “you can make sure that you leave the door open for people so that their voices are heard. Together, you can inch, bit by bit, towards moving the city in a direction that so many of us believe in, towards a prosperity that includes all neighborhoods.”
Holmes cited the reopening of the State Street bridge and the conversion of the old Star Supply factory on State Street into the Corsair apartment complex as two examples of major recent development projects in East Rock that took a long time to be completed, but turned out much better than they otherwise would have because of local politicians’ and developers’ openness to public input. Holmes played a leading role in bringing together the Corsair developer with the neighborhood to hone a plan all could support.
She also cited the current debate over the Civilian Review Board, a citizen-manned police accountability board for which she has drafted legislation currently under review by the Board of Alders, as another opportunity for local political leaders to work together with the community to make New Haven better.
“We can’t legislate away police brutality,” she said. “But we can grow police accountability.”
Markeshia Ricks photo
Decker (center) during the Local 33 fast earlier this year
Decker made headlines recently as one of the grad student leaders who went on a fast to seek to pressure Yale to negotiate a first contract with Local 33. (U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro pushed him in a wheelchair to one protest event.) His Yale studies focus on criminal justice policy, similarly identified community policing, along with community-based hiring and community-based development, as policy pillars that motivate him to run for local office.
“I’m the grandson of a police officer,” said Decker, 30, a native of Washington Heights in New York City who moved to New Haven in 2011.
“That being said, I am also a young black man. Yes, I go to Yale. Yes, I’m a zoning commissioner. Yes, I’m running for alder. Yes, my mother taught me from a very young age how to deal with the police so that I would be as safe as possible. But I also walk around every day with the knowledge that there might be a time that I might not get a chance to open my mouth, and then none of that actually matters.”
He pointed to the Civilian Review Board as a perfect opportunity for the city to foster the kind of mutual trust and respect between the police and the community that he sees as central to successful community policing, while still ensuring accountability when there is police misconduct.
Decker (right) at a zoning hearing.
Decker described his three years serving as a commissioner on the BZA as offering a lesson in how government can work fairly for all citizens, regardless of their political experience or economic status.
“On the BZA, oftentimes we hear applicants that seem exactly the same on their merits,” he said. “Where they differ is in their resources.”
He told the story of how, a few months ago, two applicants who lived two blocks away from one another brought similar proposals to the BZA. One wanted to turn her top floor into an apartment so that she could rent it out; the other wanted to turn her top floor into an apartment so that she could offer some privacy for her elderly mother who was about to come live with her.
The first applicant brought an attorney, big blow ups of the site plan, and a 20-minute presentation on relevant rules and regulations. The second applicant, who had never been to the BZA before, came with only her story.
“It would have been easy for us to judge these applicants very differently,” he said. “But I’m proud to say that we judged them exactly the same. We granted a common-sense approval for both. What that taught me is that, if you’re from the community and you need something from the city, you shouldn’t need to bring an attorney and an architect and dazzle the BZA.”
“I want to continue to make sure that local government actually works for New Haven residents,” he said. “It’s that spirit that moves me to run for alder.”
Decker is currently running unopposed for the Ward 9 alder position.
Supporters of Decker’s campaign at Thursday night’s event.
"We can't legislate away police brutality," she said. "But we can grow police accountability." - Jessica Holmes.
Wrong. We can do both, but not with the seriously deficient proposal for a Civilian Review Board that the Board of Alders proposed.
Sometimes I can't tell the Unite Here administration from the DeStefano administration.