Thomas Breen photo
Paca lambastes Harp administration at DTC candidate forum on Saturday.
Is New Haven a stable city that has become safer, more responsibly governed, and more attuned to the needs of its students and workers over the past four years? Or is it barely treading water, rife with violence and unemployment, led by a mayoral administration bent on political retaliation and deceit?
Mayor Toni Harp said the former, and her challenger for the Democratic mayoral nomination, Marcus Paca, offered the latter view as they pitched their candidacies Saturday morning to 60 party leaders during a forum held by Democratic Town Committee (DTC) on the steps outside the Betsy Ross Parish House on Kimberly Avenue.
While Harp and Paca have participated in other recent political forums where they have shared sharply contrasting views on the state of the city, Saturday morning’s presentations witnessed a particularly jarring dissonance between the mayor’s claims of stability and progress and her challenger’s accusations of ineffective and unethical leadership. In the course of the event, Paca compared Harp’s approach to democracy to Donald Trump’s, while comparing his own role to that of an attorney general who lost her job when she wouldn’t obey Trump’s dictates.
Local political leaders on the steps and parking lot outside of the Betsy Ross Parish House for Saturday’s DTC candidate forum.
The DTC holds its nominating convention July 25 at Career High School, where the two Democratic party co-chairs for each of the city’s 30 wards will vote on which candidates they want to see on the Democratic ticket in this year’s elections.
In addition to nominating a mayoral candidate, the DTC will vote to endorse candidates for city clerk, probate judge, and the elected seat on the Board of Education. All of the candidates running for those offices participated in Saturday morning’s forum.
The forum took place outside of the parish hall, rather than inside as planned, because of a previously scheduled wedding.
“Like Sally Yates …”
Paca: “Do you feel safe in New Haven? I don’t.”
Mayoral challenger Paca began his 15-minute presentation to the committee by stating that the DTC must work to uphold certain democratic principles regardless of the election cycle and local political climate. Throughout his opening remarks, he strongly implied, and sometimes explicitly stated, that the Harp administration is indifferent to free and open debate between candidates.
“In a democracy, voters are given full access to information,” he said. “Only in a totalitarian system do people control information.”
He cited the national Democratic Party’s “sabotaging of the Bernie Sanders campaign” under the leadership of Florida U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz during the 2016 presidential election as an example of what the local DTC should beware of when entrenched political figures hold too much sway over the party nominating process.
“Democracy should inform and empower,” he continued, “not conceal and stifle.”
Paca then went on to describe a city that is “treading water” on everything from public safety to public education to economic development.
He lambasted the administration for not communicating effectively with the police in preparation for the white nationalist demonstration and counter-protest that took place on the Green last weekend, and cited the recent home invasion and beating of a young woman in Wooster Square as evidence of the city’s continued struggles with violent crime.
“Do you feel safe in New Haven?” he asked. “I don’t.”
On education, he promised to help recruit a progressive superintendent, work towards reducing the Board of Education’s deficit, and establish a technical high school for students who cannot or do not want to go to college.
Ward 19 Co-Chair Ethel Berger waits to ask Paca a question during Saturday’s candidate forum.
On economic development, Paca stressed that the city should not rely exclusively in preparing residents for jobs in the health care and higher education sectors. Instead, the city should work to incentivize the creation of marketing and advertising jobs, manufacturing jobs, and jobs related to sustainable energy and green technology that would help address the looming threat of climate change, he argued. He promised to convene a “business innovation consortium” that would include local corporate, non-profit, and educational leaders who would meet on a regular basis to discuss the economic priorities of the city.
In the end, Paca returned to his grievances with the current administration, laying into the current political climate at City Hall.
Unlike at previous candidate forums, Paca, who used to work for Mayor Harp as her labor relations director, spoke openly about how he and his wife were fired by the Harp administration in the spring of 2016. Paca claims that they were fired due to political retaliation for “leaking emails” pertaining to the firing of former Commission on Equal Opportunities Director Nichole Jefferson; Harp claims that they were fired due to incompetence and insubordination. (Read more about that debate here.)
“Do we want a local government where city employees face retaliation, intimidation, and termination for telling the truth or exposing wrongdoing?” Paca asked. “President Trump has fired numerous talented, committed, moral staffers, claiming that they were incompetent because they were allegedly disloyal to his political agenda.”
“Like Sally Yates, Trump’s fired attorney general,” Paca continued, “I believe in a democratic society. Government employees should only pledge loyalty to truth, the rule of law, taxpayers, and not to politicians.”
“Kept Promises”
Mayor Harp: the city is stable.
In contrast, Mayor Harp defended her two-term tenure by claiming that she has been true to her word and kept her campaign promises. She cited a litany of statistics related to crime, education, and employment that bolstered her claims.
She opened by heralding her administration’s budgetary efforts, saying that she came into office with a $14 million deficit, which she cleared by the end of her first year, and that she has left the city in the black without having to raise taxes for each of the past three years of her administration.
On public safety, she acknowledged that any violent crime is too much, but argued that New Haven is indisputably in a better place now than it was several years ago, let alone how well it compares to other cities in Connecticut.
“Did I say that there would be no crime?” she asked. “No. But I did say that we would be a safer city.” She pointed out that she had hired 155 police officers throughout her first three years in office, and that the New Haven police force was the most diverse in the state. She claimed that, while Hartford has 19 recorded murders so far this year and Bridgeport has 17 recorded murders, New Haven has only four.
She said that she is planning on opening a family justice center during her next term, if she is reelected, that would create a “one-stop shop” for families dealing with domestic violence.
On education, she pointed to Youth Stat – a collaboration among cops, teachers, social workers, probation officers, and school administrators to identify and support students most likely to get into serious trouble inside or outside the classroom – as one of the measures that have helped reduce chronic absenteeism and increase graduation rates in the public schools during her time in office.
Mayor Harp listens to Paca’s presentation before the DTC.
She also cited Hillhouse High School’s Law, Public Safety and Health Academy, an after-school program at Hamden’s Eli Whitney Technical High, and a “bioscience ladder program” in conjunction with Gateway Community College and Southern Connecticut State University as educational initiatives that are succeeding in preparing New Haven public school students for gainful employment after they graduate from high school.
On economic development, she said that her administration has helped add 166 subsidized housing units during her tenure, that she has worked with New Haven Rising to create 350 jobs for local residents, and that there is now free wi-fi on the New Haven Green. She said the city is still exploring how to establish a high-speed municipal broadband network that would help facilitate more local jobs in IT.
“I’ve kept my promises,” she said. “We’ve moved New Haven forward. And I would say that New Haven hasn’t been as stable as it has been under my leadership.”
DTC chair Mauro.
After the forum, DTC chair Vincent Mauro, Jr. said that he had heard from a number of the ward co-chairs present that Paca’s speech skewed a little too negative. “I don’t think a negative approach works,” he said. “Most people will argue that the city of New Haven is in a pretty good place right now.”
Local political leaders on the steps and parking lot outside of the Betsy Ross Parish House for Saturday's DTC candidate forum.
Give me a break.They are noting more then a paid shill Just like the Judas Goat they have been been trained to lead their flock of sheep to the slaughterhouse.(AKA) the Voting Booth.
After the forum, DTC chair Vincent Mauro, Jr. said that he had heard from a number of the ward co-chairs present that Paca's speech skewed a little too negative. "I don't think a negative approach works," he said. "Most people will argue that the city of New Haven is in a pretty good place right now."
Judas Goat Politics at work.I will say it again. We must get rid of the sell out DTC and Replace with IRV or Rank Choice Voting where we the people can choose who we want to run.