Elicker Taps Fernandez For Yale Talks

Situation Ethics:

It would be great if this working group could shake some Real Nutmeg out of the Invasive English Ivy, but c'mon Mayor, the public deserves to know who these shakers are!

My guess is that Elicker has some participants on this team whose service is predicated on the anonymity.
Who knows -- Maybe John DeStefano???

His excuse for this lack of transparency is lame at best.
How is this NOT a public matter....?

Great choice. Both Henry and his wife are selfless supporters of our city, especially the most disadvantaged. His work with LEAP alone is saintly. If there is a way, Henry will find it.

SMH. Is this for real, or a joke?

In a major win for New Haven Yale agreed to plant 500 trees around the city and install 10 solar panels on some low income apartment buildings. Mayor Elicker shouted out to the people that it was a huge win for the city but they aren't done yet.

Serf,

Justin's Folly?

If this stunt works, Henry just cemented his position as the candidate to beat in 2021!!!!

Noteworthy, "This is a failure and a broken promise". That's ridiculous. The mayor said while campaigning that he wanted to get Yale to pay more. Now he's trying to make progress on that. How does that constitute a failure or broken promise?

This mayor has been incredibly transparent with almost everything. As Bill S pointed out, it's likely that some people who agreed to participate requested anonymity. Seems reasonable to me.

Not sure what in this article upset you or why you felt the need to attack our mayor. Do you not want to Yale to contribute more considering their tax exempt status?

I am an Elicker supporter but transparency requires always being transparent. Always. Otherwise, he is not transparent. From here, how do we know when he is transparent, and when he is not? When he claims to be so?
Introduce us to the team Justin. This is public business on city matters. Or is it something else?

I'm all done with this mayor. The idea of pushing the governor to shut down snd destroy working families livelihood is appalling. Hopefully someone runs against this disappointment

Sorry but I'm having a hard time being upset at not knowing about this low level local task force because all of my attention is focused upon the much large kamikaze mission that Rudy Giuliani is on. Trump voters, have you learned how to laugh at yourself yet? Rejoined reality yet? Sorry at all?

Opin1 -
To have an opinion does not as a prerequisite, require one to be upset or mad. At times, I am but in this case, it's an observation. That you don't like it is of no consequence to me.

The failure and broken promise is to be transparent, not trying to shake down Yale for $50 million. Mayor Elicker is transparent when he feels like it and not so much, when he doesn't. Saying Elicker is almost always transparent is like saying he is almost always perfect. Either you are or you're not. Period. We're not grading on the curve.

This working group is operating on behalf of the public. That makes its business all of our concern and we should all be interested in who is alleged to represent our interests and what "creative" ways they are deploying to try to turn on the money tree. In the past administrations, the city has sold Yale our public assets - parking lots, streets etc.

As for wanting Yale to pay more - I don't care one way or the other. Yale is one of our largest taxpayers to which they add additional PILOT payments, fund numerous programs, launched New Haven Promise to send our kids to college. It's more than a decade of construction projects has generated millions and millions of dollars in city fees.

The city's financial problems are a direct result of its own making. It has nothing to do with Yale. I've listened to that BS line for 15 years. It's always PILOT, always Yale and always Yale New Haven Hospital. The city never takes responsibility for the waste, the pure stupid decisions regarding money, runaway pensions etc and it never listens to FRAC, to citizens unless you're one of their chosen ones. The financial record the city has is the record it earned. Nobody else is to blame. Nobody else has responsibility to fix it. Especially when city leadership from the mayor to the BOA - are lifting a finger to fix it.

The major problem with revenue generation is the large tract of untamable property within our borders. Yale does provide benefit because it employs large numbers of residents and stimulates other businesses because of its large footprint. Can they pay more? Yes. The question is what is fair. On the other hand, there are tax-exempt churches on every corner. Many are storefronts that have replaced stores. Maybe we should have a complete separation of church and state and stop subsidizing religions. Full disclosure: I am Christian but Jesus never asked anyone to pay his bills.

I too wish that Henry Fernandez could represent the City ... to Yale ... and to state government ... and as Mayor.

If he brings home the money, can we have him do the rest of the job?

It's entirely Justin's prerogative to call in backup and have "his team" meet with anyone he wants. But we - the public - get to know who "his team" is.

We - the public - get to know who's in the room representing us. So we know who to hold responsible (and praise if it works).

Typical backroom deals. What happened to the guy who ran against Destefano? Because this guy seems to be running a Destefano playbook (and with the Destefano team). I just wish he was better at it...

NHV should probably hire David Swensen to manage its money vs just demand more handouts from Yale.

Our fiscal mess is the direct result of years of poor spending and investment choices. More revenue will not solve this, I guess they could also hire an econ 101 professor to demonstrate this as well.

New Haven deserves better than this.

The residents of the city have a right to know about who is involved and what is being discussed whenever it involves city business. Nobody involved in this process has a right to be anonymous when it involves anything that relates to city finances or city operations or anything else that involves the city and impacts the residents. Everyone in this city has a stake in city matters.
I applaud Justin Elicker and Henry Fernandez for what they're trying to do, but New Haven has a history of selling off assets (like city streets) to Yale in exchange for crumbs of financial contributions. And I agree that they're not the only non-taxable entity in the city, Yale and YNHH are just the largest ones. By all means try to get Yale to pay more to make up for the tremendous amount of non- taxable property they have, but also go after the State of CT to change the laws regarding who qualifies for tax exempt status so that it doesn't bankrupt the cities and towns that are the homes of multimillion dollar private colleges and universities. Change the way taxes are collected and dispersed in the State of CT so that every community pays their fair share for the services that a few communities provide but all CT residents make use of, in terms of hospitals, higher education, courthouses, jails and prisons, addiction rehab and halfway houses, federal and state services buildings, low income/public housing, religious institutions and other non-profit non-taxable organizations and institutions. A few municipalities around the state are shouldering the burden of these services disproportionately and suffering financially as a result. It is time for CT to also change how municipalities fund education and other services. The disparities in educational funding are appalling between the wealthy communities and the poorer cities and towns. Some community mill rates are becoming untenable, condemning their properties as unsellable and forcing them into insolvency. It's time for a change.

New Haven: "We want more money."

Yale: "No."

New Haven: "Ok."

Consequences for Yale: None.

This isn't how any of this is supposed to work. I don't volunteer sales tax at the store, volunteer my car tax, or volunteer my income tax to the state. The tax is determined by the government, and I pay it. Why does Yale get to decide on this?

Oh Mayor, Mayor . . . just when we thought we were rid of him. Don't be surprised when you get primaried by you know who, whose political aspirations you just resuscitated! Dumb.

The City needs to look long and hard in the mirror. A few recent items:

Yale would be wise to tie some strings to any more funding. Begin with the following:

Very disappointed in the lack of transparency from this administration. It's no different from the Harp administration. Everything is a secret. I've filed multiple FOIA's that have been ignored. I've also requested many documents from the Finance Department during FRAC meetings and most have gone unanswered. I give this administration an F when it comes to transparency.

Dennis,

Sounds like it's time to File a formal complaint with the Freedom of Information Commission, and get the process started for a hearing date in lieu of requested information.

Do it again and again and again for each separate request you have filed that has gone unfulfilled.

But remember, The City has no obligation to 'create' information for you, only provide you the information that currently exists.

Good Luck!

How about some Republican members, Mr. Mayor? There are those of us who love this City, and also who have ties to Yale. (E.g., myself, Class of 1967.) Nevertheless, Henry Fernandez is a good start! Maybe he can convince the Mayor to drop the pointless Nicole Jefferson persecution.

Bill -

Indeed. The Good Luck! is the operative phrase. Too much work and it would require a trip to Hartford. Easier to vote out those who are not transparent. Interesting how during election season candidates speak of the Big Tent. After election season we have the Little TeePee.

In all my FOIA requests I make it clear that I don't want the City spending time and money "to create". Give me what you have and I'll work with it. I recently asked for a list of all open FOIA requests and was told they don't have such a list! I mean even the Harp administration had a list and provided it. You know you're in trouble when you get the people in the City's Corporation Counsel office lying to us.

My sense is that even the NHI is getting tired of the Administration. Last week there were 2 articles criticizing the current establishment - the first two in 10 months.

Dennis,

The nice thing is that you rarely have to go to Hartford for the Hearing -- the City generally provides the info after much leg-dragging. The FOI Commission also maintains a list of 'open complaint's that have been assigned case numbers.

I have gotten information in as quickly as the statutory 3 day, but the more you ask for info, the longer wait time. (from my experience).

Thanks Bill - It's just such a time suck and you never know what you're going to get back. I would like to see the community come together and tag team the FOIA requests - not just for this administration but for any administration moving forward. Set up a website/google doc where everyone can see all the outstanding requests. I can then email Corp Counsel and champion your requests and you could do the same for mine, for example. Right now we each fight our battles separately and the City fights us off like lilliputians.

Dennis,

What 'thwarted' my FOI requests ultimately was the high cost involved -- 50 cents a page really adds up, and is almost 'punitive'.

A good second recourse is to ask to 'inspect' the documents -- then the City will set up a time, and you can copy what is relevant. Otherwise you be pay for someone's 'kitchen sink'.

Response to FOI requests is a pretty good indicator of transparency, it would be nice to see 'the list'.