Retiring Alder: Potholes Can Impede Lawmaking

Potholes got fixed. A law passed protecting kids’ health. Abby Roth had reason to celebrate — and to feel exhausted.

After some soul-searching, Roth (pictured) has decided not to run for a second term as the Ward 7 alder representing portions of downtown and East Rock.

She worked hard while maintaining a low profile in her first term, and will leave office with a new appreciation for the demands on New Haven’s elected officials, particularly those closest to the grassroots. That, and thoughts on how to enable busy civic-minded people like herself to last longer in the role.

“It was a hard decision” not to run again, Roth, a Democrat, said during an interview at Koffee? on Audubon, which is in her district. ​“I learned a lot about the city. It was fascinating to meet alders from all over the city” and to learn more about the issues her neighbors deal with.

“To do the job the way I felt I wanted to do it is very time-consuming, to understand the issues, to follow up with people, to go to all the meetings. I am in constant fast-forward mode … juggling my [day] job, I’m non-stop running from one thing to the next.”

The Democratic ward committee has endorsed co-chair Alberta Witherspoon to replace Roth.

From D.C. Back To New Haven

Roth, a 1990 Yale College and 1994 Yale Law School graduate, returned to town in 2007 after serving as an attorney for the U.S. Departments of the Treasury, Justice and Homeland Security. She took on a demanding job at the Yale School of Management, where she serves as special assistant to the dean. She also got involved in civic issues.

That led her to run for the Ward 7 seat last January after the incumbent, Doug Hausladen, took a job overseeing transit for the Harp administration. She has since spent 20-plus hours a week on the alder job — participating in alder and block watch and community management team at least two or three nights, responding to constituent phone calls and emails each day, holding office hours, and producing a constituent newsletter.

She found the work rewarding. When she heard city human services chief Martha Okafor pledge to tackle tobacco-related disease, Roth proposed a smoking ban at parks, ball fields, school property, and playgrounds. A modified version passed in May (excluding parks from the ban, except for Lighthouse Point Park, where a smoking section would be created). She asked officials tough questions at alder hearings on issues ranging from criminal justice to traffic calming. She organized colleagues to press the mayor to take stronger action on ​“a pattern of disrespectful behavior” by the police chief, then had a productive meeting with him about efforts to slow traffic. She participated in discussions about adapting to the city’s changing landscape; three separate projects (two on Union Street, one at the former Coliseum site) are slated to bring 2,000 new apartments at the periphery of her ward alone.

Meanwhile, she helped constituents get potholes fixed. She tackled complaints ranging from noise at a restaurant to early-morning garbage-pick-up schedules.

“It feels good to help people,” Roth said. ​“There are so few problems in the world you can solve.”

Sometimes constituent service dovetailed with policy. Roth saw how individual incidents or complaints can lead to broader governmental initiatives. For instance, she became part of the group seeking traffic-calming solutions for Olive Street (on the border of her jigsaw-puzzle-piece-shaped ward) after a driver ran over 81-year-old Dolores Mariconde Dogolo.

Overload

But sometimes a pothole is just a pothole. And doing both potholes and policymaking can overload alders in their part-time, largely volunteer roles. (Alders receive a $2,000 annual stipend.)

In working on the smoking-ban proposal, for instance, Roth saw how her colleagues had little time to digest the details and involve themselves in refining it. Some did, notably Alders Darryl Brackeen and Jessica Holmes. The debate and the refinement took place at the last moment.

“There’s a lot coming at people,” Roth observed. ​“I felt like tons of time went to constituent issues. Most of the time people don’t have time to look [at bills] until the last day”

The solution?

Roth didn’t take a stand on the long-running debate over whether to shrink the Board of Alders from 30 to, say, six or 10 members; and perhaps pay them a true part-time salary. Proponents say that would empower each alder and give her or him more time to craft legislation and act as a check on the executive branch. Opponents — who prevailed in the latest charter-revision process — argue that a large board promotes democracy: alders have fewer constituents to represent, and get to know and respond to more of them. Roth said she sees virtues to both sides of the argument.

She did offer a suggestion: that alders get more help with constituent service to free up more time for lawmaking.

“Maybe the ward committee chairs should help with constituency issues,” she suggested.

From Opponent To Fundraiser

Roth finishes her term with another evolving view: on Mayor Toni Harp.

Roth worked for Harp’s opponent, Justin Elicker, in the last mayoral election. Since then, as an alder, Roth has generally praised the Harp administration’s performance, and held a June 24 fundraiser at her Audubon Court home for Harp’s reelection.

“I think she’s doing a very good job,” Roth said, citing Harp’s positions on issues such as public health, crime prevention, job creation and snow removal, and how she’s approaching public transit as a civil right. Roth praised Harp’s style: ​“Not a lot of drama. She quietly gets a lot done.” She singled out several of Harp’s ​“outstanding” appointees: Hausladen; public works chief Jeff Pescosolido (“I send him an email at 5 in the morning; he writes me back at 5:05”), and Okafor, with whom she worked on the tobacco ban.

Those officials won’t have Roth to work with as an alder next year, but they may still hear from her — she would like to dedicate some of her time out of elected office to activism specifically issues like traffic safety and criminal-justice reform. Working with government officials in New Haven has proved different from her work with government officials in D.C. ​“In Washington you felt removed from change ever happening,” she observed. In New Haven, you can make change happen.