Coordinators Confirmed

Alders overwhelmingly approved promoting Scott Jackson, Mehul Dalal, and Michael Piscitelli from acting to permanent status in their current roles as top City Hall coordinators.

Local legislators took those votes Monday night during the regular bimonthly full Board of Alders meeting in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

The alders voted unanimously in support of confirming Piscitelli , a trained city planner and 20-year veteran of City Hall, as the new permanent economic development administrator. That position is responsible for overseeing the Economic Development Administration, the City Plan Department, the Department of Transportation, Traffic & Parking (TT&P), the Commission on Equal Opportunities (CEO), the Office of Building Inspection & Enforcement, the Arts, Culture, & Tourism Division, and the Livable City Initiative.

They voted 22 to 3, with one abstention, in support of confirming Dalal , a physician and former chronic disease director for the state’s Department of Public Health, as the new permanent community services administrator. That position is responsible for overseeing the Health Department, the Youth Services Department, the Project Fresh Start Prison Reentry Department, the Office of Housing & Homelessness Services, the Food Policy Council, and the Elderly Services Division.

And they voted 24 to 2 in support of confirming Jackson , a former Hamden mayor, state labor commissioner, and state revenue services commissioner, as the new permanent chief administrative officer. That position is responsible for overseeing the local police department, fire department, public library, Department of Public Works, engineering department, and parks and recreation department.

All three candidates were tapped by Mayor Justin Elicker upon his entering office in January.

Click here, here, and here for articles about the Aldermanic Affairs Committee’s recent nterviews with each candidate. Those public hearings covered topics ranging from public safety overtime reform to city lead hazard inspection compliance to what kind of “community benefits agreements” with developers best serve local residents in the long run.

The quickest and smoothest vote of the night took place for Piscitelli.

“Michael Piscitelli has served the city faithfully in various roles for 20 years,” said Fair Haven Heights Alder and Aldermanic Affairs Committee Chair Rosa Ferraro Santana. ​“He has proven to be a valuable asset and reliable resource.”

Downtown Alder Abby Roth agreed. She said she first met Piscitelli over a decade ago when he was head of the city’s transportation department and she was a safe streets citizen advocate.

“He makes time for people, listens carefully, and encourages engagement,” she said.

“Importantly for this role, Mike is a pragmatic idealist striving for all of New Haven to thrive while understanding the challenges. His hard work, integrity, calm diplomacy, and collaborative nature have enabled him to be effective in the past, and I believe will enable him to do an oustanding job in this role.”

Warming Shelter Debate

Dalal, meanwhile, faced a vocal and persistent critique by Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn (pictured), who laid into the social services chief for not extending the city contract for an all-female warming center on Winchester Avenue.

“I believe the appointment is not in the best interest of my community, nor is it in the best interest of human need for the most vulnerable groups of people who are simply trying to survive in our city.”

Roth followed Clyburn’s testimony by throwing her support behind Dalal, and behind the data he has cited in previous interviews regarding how few women the warming shelter served and how the $60,000 city contract could be put to better use in helping more homeless and housing insecure families by other means.

She said that she attended the Homeless Advisory Commission meeting in January at which city staff presented on the relatively small number of women helped through this service.

“The numbers were very low for the shelter,” she said. ​“Money going towards that shelter with very low numbers would take away money from other shelters that had many more people at them.”

East Rock Alder Anna Festa also testified in support of Dalal.

“He’s a very community-oriented individual, compassionate, empathetic,” she said. ​“His experience on the state level will only benefit our city.”

After the commission hearing, Dalal said that the city’s contract with the Winchester Avenue shelter is slated to end on Tuesday. The city will pay the shelter’s operators for all of the services rendered between Jan. 2 and March 3, he promised.

“We had critical needs identified for the remainder of the money,” he said. ​“Most likely, it will go to support families that are experiencing homelessness who can’t be put up in a traditional shelter or even a warming center.”

He pledged to continue talking with Clyburn and concerned Newhallville community members to come up with some solution and to implement some programs ​“that will provide good benefit for those communities while being smart about the resources that we have.”

“I really do feel that I have a career of helping those who are underserved,” he continued. He described his time as a clinician and in public health. My focus on that is to strategize around how we can lift up everybody, especially those who are most affected by poor outcomes.

“I hope that over the next few months, I’m able to win back [Alder Clyburn’s] trust on that account.”

Grocery Tax Grievance

Jackson, in turn, faced outspoken opposition from West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith (pictured) — not for any actions he’s taken during his two months as acting CAO, but for a controversy he found himself at the center of when serving as the commissioner of the state Department of Revenue Services last year.

“As commissioner of the Department of Revenue Services, Scott Jackson enacted a $90 million tax on working families,” Smith said. That tax came in the form of a ​“grocery” tax that Jackson’s DRS interpreted as applying to food ranging from salt to nuts to bagels to health bars.

“General Assembly representatives and senators were blindsided,” she said.

After the vote, Jackson said that he did not invent any new tax during his time as DRS commissioner. Rather, he simply followed the letter of the law as passed by the Democratic-controlled state legilslature.

“For 40 years, grocery stores were explicitly excluded” from the state sales tax, Jackson said. ​“And as they passed the final budget, with no testimony, no opportunity for testimony, during the crush of the 11:50 to midnight budget, they added grocery stores.”

He said that, if state legislators had asked DRS about the inclusion of the word ​“grocery” in the new sales tax law before they passed it, he would have cautioned them against it. But, he said, that’s not what happened.

“That’s the way it was written. The black letter of the law. We don’t get to opine on black letter law. The law is the law.”

He said the dispute quickly became partisan, with Democrats critiquing his interpretation of the law and Republicans supporting him. He said he was ultimately able to delay the implementation of the new grocery tax after talking with both chambers of the state legislature, the governor’s office, and the state budget office.

“I am someone who believes in following the law and following the rules,” he said. ​“I did not violate any constitutional provisions. If I had, I can guarantee you that the governor would have terminated me that day, on the spot.”