Brianne Bowen Photo
Toni Harp turned last week’s mishap into a rousing “Tally Rally” as her campaign turned in over 4,800 signatures of voters — twice the number needed — to get her name on the Democratic mayoral ballot.
Harp, one of four Democrats running for mayor, turned in 397 petitions with those signatures to the Registrar of Voters Office Tuesday afternoon in order to secure her place on the Sept. 10 primary ballot.
She was supposed to get that place without petitioning because she won the Democratic Town Committee’s endorsement at a convention last week. But the DTC failed to file the necessary paperwork on time, so her campaign pressed over 300 New Haven volunteers into action collecting the signatures.
“We started last, but we ended first!” Harp told a triumphant rally on the steps of the 200 Orange St. municipal office building after she submitted the petitions. Three other Democrats — Henry Fernandez, Justin Elicker, and Kermit Carolina — are in the process of circulating their own petitions to make the ballot.
Harp’s haul occurred over just four and a half days, a signal of the depth of her campaign support, she said.
Campaign manager Jason Bartlett told the crowd to keep collecting signatures, as insurance. The registrar must verify the names of 2,406 voters to certify a candidate’s spot on the ballot.
“We’re not taking any chances,” Bartlett said. “I want as many signatures in that vault [at the registrar’s office] as possible.” He said that the campaign did not pay any of the people who circulated petitions for Harp. He said “98 percent” of the circulators live in New Haven.
Police Union 530 leaders had Harp’s back outside the registrar of voters office.
Harp was joined at the rally by city clerk candidate Michael Smart, whose name also appeared on her petitions; and by leaders of the police and fire unions, who have endorsed her candidacy.
Carolina Pays Up
Paul Bass Photo
Candidate Carolina, meanwhile, stopped by City Hall two hours earlier on Tuesday afternoon to make a different deadline — and to make a point about Harp.
Carolina (at right in photo) stood in line on the penultimate day for people to pay taxes before facing a late fee. He brought a wad of Benjamins to pay the $770.71 due on his 2007 Lexus — as well as the $622.20 owed on his wife’s 2008 Volvo and the $133.82 due for his mother’s 2000 Honda Civic.
“I feel it’s important that I support and encourage my family to pay their taxes,” he said, drawing a contrast to the fact that Harp’s family’s real-estate business owes the state $1.1 million in back taxes and penalties stemming from a legal dispute.
“It should be a qualification to run for public office to set an example” by paying all taxes owed by one’s family, Carolina argued. “As mayor, I can’t make other people pay their taxes if I’m not paying mine.”
Fernandez Targets Slumlords
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Standing outside a problematic senior housing project in Newhallville, mayoral candidate Fernandez Tuesday afternoon unveiled plans for improving housing code enforcement, including a closer scrutiny of the housing authority and “problem landlords.”
Fernandez (pictured) revealed his new policy proposals in front of the Constance Baker Motley building on Sherman Parkway in Newhallville. Tenants there have complained that the housing authority has ignored their reports of mold and water leaks, as the Independent reported Monday.
It’s clear that the city has problems with the enforcement of the housing code, Fernandez said. He said that when he was the head of the city’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI), and later economic development director, he made significant improvements to enforcement. This included new training for inspectors, computerizing operations, and increasing the total number of inspections.
Fernandez laid out a series of “principles” and “strategies” for improving code enforcement. (Click here for the full proposal.)
Among the principles:
• Landlords with a record of housing code violations would not be allowed to bid on city contracts.
• The city should pay particularly close attention to Section 8 housing, where taxpayer dollars are paying the rent.
• Principles are not to be ignored based on “political considerations, who someone may know, or who they may be related to.”
Among the eight strategies:
• All housing code violations would be available and searchable online so that potential renters can look up their potential landlords.
• “The city will create a new designation of ‘Problem Landlord’ which will be assigned to residential property owners who repeatedly maintain properties in such a fashion as to raise serious life safety or health issues for tenants or who maintain properties in such a fashion as to invite crime.” A list of problem landlords would be publicly available, and problem landlords’ properties would be subject to annual inspection, not just every three years.
• The city would work with the housing authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to prevent slumlords from getting public subsidies.
• The housing authority would be required to submit quarterly reports to the mayor and Board of Aldermen on maintenance, work orders completion, and outstanding problems.
• All bidders on city development projects would be required to obtain a statement from city housing code enforcement showing that they do not have any outstanding violations, or any history of being a slumlord.
Slumlords have wreaked havoc on neighborhoods like Newhallville. Click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here to read about some of them.
Water damage in the Constance Baker Motley community room.
Fernandez’s new code enforcement principles not only describe an approach to dealing with problem landlords, but are part of a campaign tactic aimed at rival Democratic mayoral candidate Toni Harp.
Harp’s son Matthew Harp’s company owns and manages a Section 8 building on Rosette Street, which was recently found to have a broken door, urine in the hallway, and drug paraphernalia in the basement. Those are “exactly the kind of issues we’re talking about,” Fernandez said. Based on news reports, Matthew Harp’s property certainly demonstrates “the kind of issues that would get someone designated as a problem landlord,” Fernandez said.
Asked last week about how city government would deal with complaints about her son’s company, Toni Harp said she would insist on “a high standard for everyone — including my son. If there are complaints filed, they will be looked into for whoever the landlord is, whether it’s Mandy [Management] or Pike or Renaissance.” She also vowed to have city government’s anti-blight agency, Livable City Initiative (LCI), raise its standards in enforcing code violations.
Paging Capt. Renault
Also on Tuesday, in a letter reminiscent of the police-raid scene in Casablanca the Harp campaign was shocked—shocked! — to learn that Henry Fernandez would say that you can find syringes and used condoms on the streets of the Fair Haven neighborhood, where he lives.
Fernandez made the statement in an interview with the Hartford Courant. In reference to his young son, he remarked “I have to shield him from drug dealing and prostitution. … I have to explain to him about syringes and drug paraphernalia and even used condoms on the street. That is immoral. That is wrong. That’s a city we have to change for my son and for all children, and that’s why I’m running.”
Fernandez’s statement may not come as a surprise to people who live in Fair Haven, or cops or LCI workers in Fair Haven. But according to a press release issued by Harp’s campaign, the statement outraged Fair Haven aldermen who back Harp’s campaign (who on other occasions lobby the police to do more to stop drug-dealing and prostitution and squatting in Fair Haven).
“Henry is putting down the Fair Haven community to try to validate his candidacy,” the release quotes Harp as saying.
Fernandez shot back with this retort: “I live in Fair Haven. Sen. Harp lives in a mansion with an elevator and an indoor swimming pool, next to a golf course. She has a separate mansion in Bethany she says she uses just for parties. She is out of touch and has no idea that there’s crime in our neighborhoods, or as parents we need to shield our children from that crime. How out of touch must you be if you don’t think there’s drug-dealing and prostitution in Fair Haven?”
Ok I am an Elicker supporter and proud of it.
But I always give prop's when they are due and Henry has been spot on with a lot of things.