City traffic czar Paul Wessel sent the following e‑mail to people in town Wednesday announcing his departure from City Hall for a new job.
It is with both excitement and sadness that I inform you that I will soon move on from my position with the City of New Haven in order to join Connecticut’s campaign to achieve universal health care.
The last six years has been a heartening experience of seeing how dedicated public servants, elected officials, local organizations and residents make the life in Connecticut’s best city even better.
My work in LCI, Economic Development, Empower New Haven and Traffic & Parking, and with the Police, Public Works, Engineering, City Plan, and other city departments, has reaffirmed my sense of the power and responsibility of local government. I’ve worked with many extremely dedicated professionals who care deeply about our work and our city. It has been an honor to do so.
In a contracting fiscal environment, the Traffic and Parking team continues to do an incredible job of helping make the city more drivable, parkable, walkable, bikeable, and rollable. In recognition of this fiscal reality, the Department’s staff moved parking ticket collections up from $2.9 million to $4.2 million in FY 05, and is on track for producing over $1 million dollars in new, recurring revenue through our introduction of new, more parker-friendly parking meters. I applaud the women and men of Traffic and Parking who have and will continue to make this all happen. I am proud to have worked along side you all.
I am taking on this new challenge in part because of my respect for the work that we strive to do as the City. As local government, we have the most direct contact with citizens and hear most urgently their pleas. We often, however, get left dealing with the failures of state and federal policies. In specific, as good job as city staff do in providing essential public services and in generating the necessary revenue to meet local, the burden of state and federal inaction on health care policy threatens to overwhelm us.
The City of New Haven, like Sikorsky, Toyota, Apicellas Bakery on Grand Avenue, or the non-profit Connecticut Childrens Museum, is an employer struggling to provide health insurance for its employees. Constant cost increases for ever-more restrictive health insurance is now the norm. If things don’t change, within my daughters lifetime, the City will pay over half its budget to protect the health of its employees and their families.
For a variety of historical and structural reasons, most health care in this country is funded by employer-based plans. For my parents generation, this worked well. For my generation, its crumbling. And unless we do something, for my children and their contemporaries, it will be a disaster.
A few pertinent facts:
- From 2000 to 2004, CT workers health premiums grew by 56% while wages increased by only 14%.
- For small businesses, the average least costly health insurance in 2005 equaled 75% of the gross income of a full-time minimum wage worker.
- Half of American bankruptcies are triggered by medical debt.
- 80% of uninsured Americans either work or are in working families.
While the levees of the heath care system are crumbling, and increasing numbers of people – even those with health insurance – are on their rooftops trying to avoid the rising tide of medical debt, the good news is that we can do something now to stem the tide.
This is the opportunity to which I soon will be turning. The Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut seeks to engage people and communities in shaping a system that provides universal access to quality health care. It was the fruit of the settlement of lawsuits brought by labor, community, and church activists and the Attorney General and State Comptroller when the for-profit Anthem took over the not-for-profit Connecticut Blue Cross.
I will be working with Foundation staff and a large number of grantee organizations around the state to help give voice to small businesses, labor unions, Chambers of Commerce, advocacy groups, and everyday citizens in the 2007 Connecticut General Assembly. Working together with our elected officials in 2007, we will create a health care system for Connecticut that is universal, portable, affordable, and high quality.
I will continue to live here in New Haven and be active in a variety of local community and economic development projects, both as a volunteer and on a consulting basis. I look forward to broadening and deepening the work I’ve done with many of you. If you would like to contact me after September 22nd, please email me at [email protected] .
For more information on the universal healthcare campaign (and to tell your own story), please go to www.healthcare4every1.com .
Get educated. Get Talking. Get Active.
Paul-
People often don't realize the challenges and obstacles confronting city officials; the wheels are slow to turn and you've made some extremely positive changes. Initiatives you've set in motion will continue to bear fruit long after you have departed. Good luck in your future endeavors and I look forward to hearing about your exciting new position. See you around, and congratulations!
-Jonathon Hart