The voice of City Hall is heading south.
Jessica Mayorga (pictured), ubiquitous spokeswoman for the DeStefano administration since March of 2007, has given notice that she’s leaving the job “some time in the spring” to move with her family to the Baltimore area. Her husband is finishing his residency at Yale and taking a position at University of Maryland Hospital. Mayorga is originally from the Montgomery County area.
The city is also looking for a new spokesperson for the school board; Elyse Lyons, Mayorga’s assistant in City Hall, is temporarily helping to fill the schools position three days a week.
Mayorga, who’s 30, said she will miss New Haven and the relationships she formed here.
“I didn’t realize how sad it would be to leave until I put the for-sale sign on my house,” she said.
Mayor John DeStefano said he hasn’t “begun” to think about Mayorga’s replacement. He noted that she may be in the post as long as five more months.
“I’m not saying anything nice yet, because she’s not leaving for some time. I’ll say something nice when she’s ready to go,” he quipped.
The hard-working Mayorga found herself handling New Haven government’s message for a cascade of statewide and national news events in her four years here — beginning her first week on the job, when New Haven was disbanding its police narcotics unit in the face of a corruption scandal.
Then New Haven rolled out its immigrant-friendly ID card. A firefighters’ reverse discrimination case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The body of a murdered Yale student was discovered inside a wall.
In all cases, the 24/7 national media noise machine was cranked up to 11. And Mayorga’s cell phone rang nonstop.
Mayorga, a 2004 alumna of Harvard’s graduate education school, said her favorite story to handle has been the roll-out of New Haven’s school reform drive.
“That was naturally fascinating to me,” she said. “It’s a model for the rest of the nation.”
A Google search for “Jessica Mayorga” and “New Haven” late Tuesday produced 22,400 results.
We're going to miss you Jess. Its going to be really hard to find a suitable replacement. Jessica worked very hard for the City..