Leonard Honeyman Photo
When dignitaries from around the state assembled in New Haven to break ground on a $198 million new community college campus, one notable was notably absent from the podium — the mayor. The Rell administration chose not to invite him to speak.
So Mayor John DeStefano made other plans. Instead of joining in the celebration of a major downtown development marking the culmination of years of effort by his administration to fill in an empty expanse of prime real estate, DeStefano headed to Hartford Tuesday morning — to attend a committee meeting on smart growth.
That left it to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, some of her top officials, and Dorsey Kendrick to mark the official groundbreaking on the new downtown campus of Gateway Community College on the long-vacant blocks bounded by North Frontage Road, Church Street, Crown Street, and Temple. (Pictured above at the podium: Gov. Rell and Kendrick, Gateway’s president.)
This is not a parody news story from the Onion. This really happened.
The governor of a state (albeit one leaving office) left a mayor off the program of a major news event in his own city.
Even the last Republican governor, John Rowland, never did that to John DeStefano, even though the two were famous foes. (DeStefano, a Democrat, ran against Rell for governor in 2006.)
Pat Nolan, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Works, confirmed DeStefano was not among the three officials slated to speak at Tuesday’s event.
“We did have a very limited time,” he said, so the state limited the event to three speakers: the governor, the chancellor of the community college system, and Commissioner of Public Works Raeanne Curtis — “it’s pretty much her project.”
The DPW started limiting the programs to three speakers about a year ago, Nolan said.
“It works out better, because they all tend to say the same thing anyway,” he said. Otherwise, the events “tend to drag on.”
Word spread quickly through City Hall Wednesday about the snub. DeStefano’s administration informed Gateway officials late Monday night that he wouldn’t attend. He had an important meeting “out of town.”
What was the important meeting?
“I’m a member of the [state House] speaker’s committee on mandates and smart growth,” DeStefano explained Wednesday afternoon. “I had a meeting.” He traveled to Hartford to attend the 10:30 a.m. meeting, then returned right to New Haven.
DeStefano said he didn’t have anything else to say about the matter.
DPW’s Nolan said he was “surprised to hear” that DeStefano wasn’t showing up at Tuesday’s event. Officials who are not on the list of speakers are still acknowledged by the governor, and sit up on the stage with her, Nolan said.
About 200 state, education and city officials were on hand for the official groundbreaking. (Work actually began a few weeks ago.) Many of them got a turn dumping sandy soil out of a long trough.
Speakers, including Gov.Rell, Connecticut Community College Chancellor Marc Herzog and Gateway President Kendrick, talked about the changes having a community college campus downtown would bring to the city, its businesses as well as the students.
As the building of the 360,000-square-foot campus shifts into high gear, the top community college officials are already thinking about the next step – what to do with the Long Wharf and North Haven campuses that the students now attend.
“Finally,” was the sentiment most heard in conversation with and among city and Gateway officials.
Kendrick and Rell said the students and the city would both benefit in many ways. Rell talked about the money investment, one that took nine bond issues to gather, and the investment in students.
“Students will have a state-of-the-art learning environment,” Rell said. Their skills and education will bolster our workforce – one that is already one of the most productive in the nation. The entire Gateway community will add to the vibrancy of downtown New Haven,” she said.
Kendrick took it one step further.
The students will add to the economy of the downtown and “also will learn how a downtown works with their exposure to a downtown. They may be able to get internships,” she said. The students, in addition to those attending Yale a few blocks away, will be able to benefit from each others’ presence, each adding in their own way, she said.
She said she hopes the students would be able to take advantage of what she called the amenities of Yale.
She said the campus “will create more access to higher learning. It will connect the college closer to our business community and to our community partners. The most important thing this new campus will do is to visibly show that we have value all the stakeholders in our community and that we support that value by providing pathways to learning for a lifetime from K to university achievement,” she said in remarks prepared for delivery.
“I hope 20 years from now, individuals who come to New Haven will look at Gateway as a gateway to better quality of life,” she said in remarks during a subsequent reception at the Shubert.
Public works chief Curtis, who grew up in New Haven (and once served as a Republican alderwoman), said her department is “excited to about placing this new campus in the middle of one of the finest cultural centers in the country.”
Herzog praised Kendrick as having learning the “three P’s – persistence, patience and prayer. You have idea how hard it is to be her boss,” he joked.
Rell twice mentioned the state legislators who she said were a vital part of the campaign to build this campus and asked them and the local aldermen to stand.
Kendrick said she wasn’t put off by the mayor’s absence. “The mayor and I have a great relationship,” she said.
While the guests at the Shubert reception were feasting on canapés and other finger food, Herzog and Kendrick said in an interview that they are looking at the next step for Gateway — the future of the buildings the state owns on Sargent Drive in Long Wharf and in North Haven.
Herzog said the downtown campus cannot accommodate the automotive program housed in North Haven, but “we are looking at” bringing it to the Long Wharf campus. Kendrick said no conclusions have been reached and no timetable exists for this.
But Herzog said that move might not have to wait until the downtown campus is finished in time for the fall semester in 2012.
The downtown campus will comprise 90 classrooms, 10 meeting spaces, 22 computer labs in four levels, as well as a 600-space parking garage.
Rell is no fool. .... I would have left him off the program too!