City Hall Snags Bysiewicz’s Spokesman

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I thought their was a hiring freeze??

I would like to know the salary for this new hire. Could the NHI staff please include salaries in stories about political appointees?

hopefully Adam will work for the election campaign and we can get the Mayor elected to Governor

How can you expect the mayor to run the City of New Haven without a legislative liaison? This is a position that requires a complete and exhaustive understanding of the nuances of city government and I think we should consider ourselves fortunate that this guy has agreed to stand up for our illustrious mayor and let him focus on the long run vision he has for us. Perhaps he can also pick up some duties for Kelly Murphy - building relationships is a particularly challenging thing for her in light of the continuing clusterf... of Connecticut. I feel about CT the way I feel about New Jersey! What a cesspool of humanity. Thank God that New Haven has Yale - it could be another Hartford or Bridgeport! More power to the City of New Haven!

Well, since the CAO was beat up by Staveners when he was filling this role, Let the new Kid on the block try.

Also, I thought it was the secretary of state's turn to run for Governor. Isn't Mr. DeStefano just content running for Mayor and waiting for the new administration to find another use for his talents.

Why does the New Haven 20 website encourage me to go to adversity.net (scroll to bottom) which is a right wing attempt to dismantle affirmative action programs complete with lots of race baiting? Are these the folks funding the New Haven 20?

Here's a taste of a few quotes from the adversity.net website (really check for yourself):

"Former Black Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell CONVICTED!
In March 2006 Atlanta's divisive, race-baiting, high-living, corrupt mayor -- Bill Campbell -- was convicted of tax evasion."

Ummm . . . why does it matter that former mayor Campbell is black? So were the mayors before and after him, who all apparently paid and pay their taxes. Want some more from the folks behind the New Haven 20? Okay you asked for it:

"Nappy Headed Ho Controversy! Or Not.
Here's what Don Imus said. And while you're at it, read up on the crazy history of white people trying to talk about nappy hair."

Who are these guys and why are they behind the self-described "New Haven 20?" Here's more from their website:

"The federal government fired or retired 6,280 white guys last year, but they HIRED 6,912 new minorities! See our Annual Report on federal over hiring of minorities."

Um yup. That's believable. We could all see Bush just lining up the "white guys" and firing them to give the jobs to "minorities." That's why we all voted for the black guy. Wait . . . huh?

Hmmm . . . maybe all is not what it seems. Careful who you get into bed with, and even more importantly who pays your bills.

You have to laugh over this, especially when contrasted with the mayor's Tent City appearance and wistful conversations about city cutbacks in the face of overspending in a bad economy. When given a choice between saving money and spending??? DESTEFANO SPENDS. HE'S AN ADDICT! He won't be happy until we're all homeless.

This is a waste of money and a way to pack the payroll with political hacks and cronies. When did the mayor really need someone to make sure the BOA carried his water? He can show up with millions of dollars in unbudgeted borrowing and spending and it barely raises an eyebrow - before the rubberstamp comes crashing down approving it as requested. Witness the last finance committee hearing - $1.7 million in BOE penalties; $5 million on a new power plant the city knew for 20 years was coming due and they still couldn't budget it, plan for it or disclose it in a timely basis. APPROVED for bonding in March.

To Cedarhillresident and fairhavenres:
My guess would be that his salary will be the same as the person he is replacing. This isn't a new hire, this is the replacement of an employee who left for a different job. I'm not sure if this answers your questions, but I will posit that this is a fairly reasonable exception to even a very broad and strict hiring freeze. Congrats to Mr. Joseph! New Haven is lucky to have him.

Hey, Adam is a great hire. Even at $76,000?!? (this is the figure that I think is correct. It is what was budgeted for '07-'08, although the line item wasn't part of the '08-'09 budget, as passed.) Link below, page 85:

<a href="http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Finance/pdfs/FY2008-09BOAApprovedBudget.pdf&quot; rel="nofollow">http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Finance/pdfs/FY2008-09BOAApprovedBudget.pdf&lt;/a&gt;

Frankly, with a 30 person Board of Alders, I understand the need for a full time liaison. Let's hope the Mayor puts Adam to work on some cost-cutting legislation...

A hiring FREEZE is supposed to mean that all but the most essential jobs don't get filled.This is hardly essential. It's this type of mentality that allows city employment to easily double our counterparts in other parts of the country that somehow are able to run larger cities with half the employment.

The Trix Rabbit, get another hare.

The FacChek has disclosed:

According to the 2008/09 mayor's Office budget, the position, # 160, Deputy Chief of Staff- legislative Liaison is not funded -0-.

In the 2007/08 budget the job paid Nunez $76,400.
Basically, Cedarhill resident is correct, this is a new hire, coming on the announced heels of lay-offs and a hiring freeze.

Please explain this to the fired 34.

Facchek,
thank you. We can assume that our new hire will be receiving around $76,400/annual. (I think that will be enough for a police officer with overtime. If I had a say, I would go with the police officer. Sorry Joseph.)

How many political appointees do we have on the city payroll?

the register has the new guy making 68,000.

City Hall said they plan to pay him $68,500.

How do we go about enacting term limits for mayor in New Haven? This is crazy...voters are either too complacent (i.e. on King John's payroll) or too discouraged to vote the guy out. A term limit seems to be the only way to flush the toilet on a regular basis.

Laoise King was the old liaison, right is she gone now??? Is she still on the payroll?

This may be a political appointment, but given the nature of the job (acting as the Mayor's liaison to the 30 alders), that seems to make complete sense. The definition of the job is the speak for the Mayor. A non-political appointment would would add a layer of interest/complexity and undermine the direct interplay between Mayor's office and Board of Aldermen. And of course, given the number of alders (which, for one, would like to see cut down based on more coherent neighborhoods, but that's another story altogether), not filling this role would be horrifically inefficient (ie. waste of time, money, and opportunity costs).

Even so, cutting the position's pay by nearly $8000 seems like a responsible thing to do.


Full disclosure: I'm friends with Adam and worked with him on the Mayor's bid for Governor in 2006. That said, New Haven should consider itself lucky. The City will certainly get bang for its buck here. I don't know of many who know the ins and outs better or work more with more rigor and dedication than Adam Joseph.

$76,000/yr down to $68,000/yr!

So it looks like the City is saving 10%?

Maybe if we did that to all the salaries we could become a truly Livable City.

ok NHR reported this

In addition to the now-filled liaison job, the city is advertising openings for a Youth@Work coordinator, at a salary of $54,223 to $85,485; a deputy director for Administrative Services, at a salary of $59,630 to $93,464; a neighborhood specialist; $44,780 to $71,868; an elderly services director, $60,668 to $99,116; an executive director for the Livable City Initiative, $72,268 to $118,326; a public health nurse earning $41,460 to $49,485; a school crossing guard for $10.78 per hour; and a parking enforcement administrator, $54,223 to $85,485.

This is a hiring freeze how many people lost their jobs 34 right and cut to homeless shelter The unfair appraisals of property's in low income community(gentrification)??

This is on top of the 5 mill approved for a new Hvac system, two mill the state wants back for the over assessment of a property (ok last week by the board of finance). Not to mention the New Assessor coming in from BPT. UGGG

TO STEVE BECK: I have lived in New Haven for the past ten years. WHO ARE YOU TO CALL NEW JERSEY A CESSPOOL. I AM A Jersey CITY, NEW JERSEY NATIVE AND DAMN Proud of it. Have you ever lived or worked in the Garden STATE! WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM! I'll gladly bring you to NJ and introduce you to the citizens you call cesspool!

If DeStefano can not find the time to talk to the BOA himself it means only one thing. He expects to be busy next year running for Governor again.
This youngster knows this is another chance for power and fame and is willing to take a pay cut.

As a challenged taxpayer I think it would have been better if DeStefano had not appointed him and saved the cash for something needed. A property tax cut or people doing something useful. An extra policeman. An EMT trained firefighter. 2 grass mowers at Parks.

I personally would vote for a dead dog if it appeared on next years ballot to get DeStefano out.

The mayor is entitled to appoint his own staff to be paid from the General Fund.  However the  timing is lousy, subsequent to layoffs which reminds me that JOHN DESTEFANO HIRED HIS GUBERNATORIAL DEPUTY CAMPAIGN TREASURER AS A LEGAL SECRETARY, THE SAME WEEK HE LAID OFF 6 WOMEN IN FEBRUARY 2007!

SHE IS PAID FROM THE SAME FEDERAL BLOCK GRANT THE LAID OFF WOMEN WERE PAID FROM. THE SAME BLOCK GRANT THAT HAD BEEN SO SERIOUSLY REDUCED (NEARLY $700,000)THAT 6 WOMEN WERE AXED!

DESPITE HAVING HER NAME PUBLISHED(IN A NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT ARTICLE TITLED "SIX WOMEN LOOSE CITY JOBS" 2/8/07)IT FAILED TO AROUSE THE CURIOSITY OF THE MEDIA. WHY?

THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A VIOLATION OF THE HATCH ACT!

I want the LCI Director's job - where do I apply? I have all kinds of good ideas to make New Haven more liveable.

Gary-

The LCI post is not suitable for you. Integrity is not valued in this city hall, it is condemned.

I take any of those jobs they are double my pay, and then maybe I can afford the freaken Property taxes!

If I got the job as LCI Director - would I have to donate to the mayor, campaign for him and drag the Vito's of the world to the polls? That might be awkward for me.

Gary-

It is the unwritten rule if you want to protect your job in the DeStefano City Hall you must pay the "employment tax" by contributing to his various campaigns.

While it is illegal to require payment as a condition of employment, I personally don't believe it unreasonable to expect department heads or any of the mayor's staff to pay this tax
because he appoints them-they serve at his discretion and are very well compensated.

However to expect this from the legion of worker bees is outrageous. Those who don't pay or support an opposing candidate are laid off. It's as simple as that.

I'll have to agree with Mr. Maciunas. Having worked with Adam briefly during the gubernatorial election in 2006, I know that he is not only a very talented and ambitious worker, but a very nice and approachable person, which seems to be exactly what this job needs.
I would also like to offer that perhaps people who post above are overlooking the necessity of this job. Yes, it is appointed directly by the mayor, and yes, Adam Joseph did work for his gubernatorial campaign, but not all of the appointed positions are filled by purely political appointments. This is an important position, and it would be incredibly hard to run the city without someone who specializes in coordinating between the mayor's office and the legislative office. Perhaps the people who were fired were not filling positions that are quite as crucial to running the city efficiently? Many of the people who have been posting about how tragic it is that 34 people were fired were clamoring for budget cuts several months ago. One of the unfortunate things about budget cuts is that they usually mean that several people must be fired. Despite this, there are positions that are necessary, and firing 34 people does not mean that it would be immoral to fill a crucial position later. I don't know any specifics about the 34 people who were fired, but I doubt that most of the people posting here know how they worked, or what they did at City Hall, and none of the people who posted here are the ones responsible for hiring and firing City Hall staff. Adam Joseph is one of the most qualified and hardworking political staffers in Connecticut, and he will be excellent at his job. Isn't that what's best for New Haven? Maybe it would be a good idea to give him some time on the job before everyone starts to speculate about how evil and corrupt his appointment is, especially considering that NHI posters probably don't have detailed information on this hire. I have absolute faith that Adam will be a great influence on New Haven, and see no reason to think otherwise based on the circumstances of his hiring.

Yaakov Stern

Hiring freeze is just that, Hiring freeze! The second in command could of filled the spot and her job could of been left empty.
Your right we want cuts and we realize that people will be losing their jobs because of those cuts. But some of the cuts due to bumping were ridiculous! One really talented women that worked her ass off and did far more than her pay check paid for lost her job, she was bumped by a politically connected person that does jack crap! What ended up happening with the cuts where the same across the board, hard workers lost their jobs while paper pushers kept their jobs. Not johnny fault I know put still, it was not right in many cases. I want people that work for their pay not someones kid or friend keeping their job and struts around wasting our tax dollars!

We that are crying for cuts would stand right next to Johnny if he was not pulling a "Kimber" (I love this new phrase!) This hiring was a Kimber! Hiring freeze is a hiring freeze. This was a break in an confidence that people may have been starting to feel! I am still waiting for Johnny to help that tax paying property owners of this city NAHHH he is no Obama! Does not care about the people that are like his mom and dad where when raising him...remember the middleclass Johnny the WORKING POOR!!!
I am sure this guy is the nicest guy, but crap I am a nice person to and so our most of the owner occupied home owners in this city! Don't see him doing us any favors by hiring in a hiring freeze!

I can imagine that you need to fill employment needs from time to time. Lets wait and see if they hire back laid off workers. That would be the real crime.

By definition, until hiring is actually frozen you cannot say that a hiring freeze is truly in place. If you have good people on staff you should be able to shift them into the more important positions as needs shift. How do you explain hiring new people to struggling taxpayers and to city workers facing the axe? You have to turn off the faucet before you can clean up the mess.