Mayor Proposes 11% Tax Hike

March 2, 2018 - 

Mayor Toni Harp is calling for a 11 percent tax increase and a $1 million reduction in the rainy day fund in a proposed new city budget that she described as the most difficult one she has ever had to draft.

It includes 11 new positions and assumes the city will receive millions of dollars in new contributions from big not-for-profits like Yale and labor union concessions.

The mayor unveiled her proposed budget Friday. It would cover the fiscal year starting July 1.

Harp said she hopes to counterbalance an anticipated decrease in state aid and building permit fees next fiscal year with concessions from municipal employees, intradepartmental efficiencies, and hoped-for increases in voluntary contributions from partners like Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

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Riders: Fare Hikes Add Insult To Injury

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018 - 

The state’s ready to cut train service and raise the cost of riding the bus, which will fall particularly hard on disabled people, riders testified Tuesday night.

And when a state official compared Connecticut public transit favorably to that in New York and Boston — they called that just insulting.

Dozens of New Haven residents delivered that message to staffers from the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CT DOT) during a three-hour public hearing about proposed fare increases and service reductions to the state’s buses and trains.

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City Says No To Pesticides

Wednesday, September 6, 2017 - You can still legally use toxic chemicals to keep your lawns green — but now the city officially would rather that you not.

Such was one of the decisions of the Board of Alders on Tuesday night, when it voted unanimously during a regular meeting at City Hall to approve a resolution in support of the voluntary non-use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers on lawns and gardens in New Haven.

The nonbinding resolution recommends that residents first consider the health and environmental consequences of such actions with the hope that more people will choose safer lawn care alternatives instead.

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City Prepares For More Floods

Water resources consultant Murphy with a FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) of downtown New Haven.

Friday, July 21, 2017 - Anticipating higher sea levels, harsher hurricanes, and more frequent floods in the not-too-distant future as a result of climate change, officials are embarking on an outreach campaign to inform residents in flood-prone neighborhoods about how best to protect themselves against the threat of rising water.

They are also pointing residents to a 15 percent, nationally-subsidized discount on flood insurance that New Haveners are now eligible for thanks to the city’s recent efforts to bolster and protect its floodplains.

The latest stop on the city’s floodplain awareness tour came this past Tuesday night, as City Plan Department staffer Susmitha Attota and water resources planning consultant David Murphy presented background information and flood protection tips to the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team (DWSCMT) during its regular monthly meeting at City Hall.

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1 Labor Contract Settled

Clerkin presents Local 844 contract at Thursday night’s hearing.

Friday, June 16, 2017 - A city union that represents over 400 emergency dispatchers, school security guards, and a diverse array of public administrative and clerical staff has come to a new collective bargaining agreement with the city after working without a contract for nearly two years.

During a Board of Alders Finance Committee hearing at City Hall on Thursday night, City Budget Director Joe Clerkin presented some of the key provisions of the new five-year contract between the city and AFSCME Local 884.

The local represents 411 city employees in a variety of non-managerial positions, ranging from data control clerks and accounts payable auditors in the city’s Finance Department to school security guards to 911 dispatchers.

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Zoning Overhaul Hearings Postponed; Criticism Aired

Wednesday, May 17, 2017  - Two hearings scheduled for a plan to dramatically change how New Haven makes major zoning decisions have been postponed, and the proposal ran into some initial public criticism Tuesday night.

The Legislation Committee’s proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance governing “Community Impacts” came under sharp criticism from members of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team (DWSMT) on Tuesday night during their monthly meeting at City Hall.

The plan would create a new “high impact” category of zoning approval that would require Yale University to go through a new layer of review — and detail a wide-ranging list of “community impacts” — before it builds anything in New Haven. (Read a previous full article about the proposal, and arguments for and against it, by clicking here.)

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Plans Revived For Wooster Sq. Apartments

Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - A historic industrial building in the Wooster Square neighborhood that has sat vacant for years may soon be home to nearly two dozen new apartments and a street-level café or microbrewery.

Real estate developer Peter Chapman presented this vision for a building he owns at 433 Chapel St. during the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management team’s monthly meeting at City Hall on Tuesday night.

Chapman first bought the building at the corner of Hamilton Street — just on the other side of where I-91 bisected the historic neighborhood into residential and industrial zones back during urban renewal — from the city in 2002 with the intention of converting the six-story brick warehouse into 14 apartments and a street-level commercial space. After years of delayed development and political troubles stymied his first attempts to rehab, and then to sell, the building, Chapman told the management team on Tuesday night, he is now on firm financial footing. He said he has a plan for the building that fits well within the city’s zoning requirements; and that he, just like everyone in the neighborhood, is eager to see it once again occupied.

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Budget Critics Warn Against Reliance On Struggling State

Alders at Monday night’s budget hearing at City Hall.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017 - Weeks before the city has to finalize and approve a new fiscal year budget, a handful of government watchdogs expressed their deep concerns that the proposed budget relies too much on expected aid from a state on the brink of financial disaster.

Such was the prevailing sentiment at an hour-long public budget hearing held by the Finance Committee of the Board of Alders at City Hall on Monday night.

Although the aldermanic chambers were crowded with city employees waiting for a closed-door executive session meeting later in the evening about union negotiations, only a half-dozen citizens testified before the committee, which has spent the past few months holding hearings on the mayor’s proposed $554.5 million operating budget for Fiscal Year 2017-18. The Board of Alders must approve a final city budget by the end of the month.

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Garage Eyed As Temporary “Commons”

Powers presents to neighbors.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017 - As Yale closes up its “Commons” for a $150 million rebuilding, it’s looking to a York Street garage to serve as a temporary replacement for student dining and big events.

The university is seeking city permission to convert the former dialysis center-turned-parking garage at 150 York St. into a temporary event space that will host both town and gown functions. The university already owns the building, and is waiting on City Plan Commission approval of its updated site and usage plans before beginning construction.

On Tuesday night, two Yale representatives presented the university’s latest plans for 150 York at the monthly meeting of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team on the second floor of City Hall. The university has already submitted its new plans for the building to the City Plan Commission, which is scheduled to vote on the proposal later this week.

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First Responders Seek A Clearer Connection

Briscoe testifies.

Monday, April 10, 2017 - The city department that handles 911 calls is looking to upgrade a critical component of its communications technology to ensure that notifications sent to the fire department are appearing in a timely and accurate manner.

The technology it uses right now, which was first installed over two decades ago, is faulty and unreliable, and may exacerbate delays in dispatching emergency responders.

So testified Director of Public Safety Communications (PSAP, or “public safety answering point”) Michael Briscoe at a a Board of Alders Finance Committee hearing held at City Hall last Thursday night on the Harp Administration’s proposed $554.5 million operating budget.

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Lights, Cameras ... Action! Eyed For Parks

Edgewood basketball court, among those slated for resealing.

Friday, April 7, 2017 - New Haven basketball players can look forward to smoother surfaces and clearer three-point lines at courts throughout the city. Wooster Square will be better lit at night. And more security cameras may pop up in city parks.

City parks director Becky Bombero outlined those and other planned improvements during a presentation at a hearing held by the Board of Alders Finance Committee at City Hall on Thursday night on the Harp Administration’s proposed $554.5 million operating budget and $68.7 million capital budget for the coming fiscal year.

Bombero, joined by Deputy Director of Parks & Squares Bill Carone and Deputy Director of Recreation Bill Dixon, went through nearly each item of her department’s propsed $4.29 million city capital budget for fiscal year 2017-2018, zeroing in on the various improvement projects, both big and small, that are already or are about to be under way. The parks department’s proposed city capital budget marks a $1.395 million increase over this year’s; its proposed general fund budget is flat at $5,293,300.

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Youth Center Mired In Delays, Overruns

DANIELA BRIGHENTI PHOTO

Thursday, March 30, 2017 - A year after expecting to open a new center for disengaged and homeless youth, city officials offered explanations for a series of mishaps and delays — and asked for another $200,000 to complete the job.

The center is question is “the Escape, a drop-in center for New Haven teens that will also provide 15 beds for homeless young men between the ages of 17 and 24.

It was supposed to open by January 2016. Then March 2016. It still needs lots of work.

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Bike Share Hits A Newhallville Speed Bump

Legislative rider: Alder Adam Marchand samples prototype at hearing.

Thursday, March 23, 2017 - Lawmakers were urged to approve a new bike share program in New Haven — as long as it includes neighborhoods away from downtown.

Which might not prove so simple, at least at first.

A public hearing Tuesday night drew enthusiastic support for the planned new project, which would eventually make at least 300 bicycles available for short-term rental at 30 stations located around the city. The Harp administration has chosen a company to run the program, which is similar to New York’s Citi Bike, and now needs Board of Alders approval to roll it out.

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Would 5 Miles Per Hour Make A Difference?

Antunes, at center, with Alders Delphine Clyburn and Sal DeCola.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - Two Alden Avenue neighbors offered different takes on how to slow down cars on their street — while lawmakers tried to figure out how much control they have over how fast people can legally drive in town.

The two-hour trip down Transportation Policy Road took place Tuesday night at a hearing at City Hall of the Board of Alders’ Public Safety and City Services & Environmental Policy committees.

The hearing concerned a proposed bill by Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow to explore the best ways to calm traffic and possibly lower the speed limit on city (as opposed to state) roads from 25 to 20 miles per hour.

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Top City Lawyer To Oversee New Department, Old Drama

Rose (center), his executive assistant, Counsel Pernal Paula Marie (right), Deputy Corporation Counsel Phoenix Cherie (left) at hearing.

March 17, 2017  - A hearing about the city’s top lawyer’s budget turned into an examination of why his office is taking over the labor relations department, when he plans to fill a top vacancy there, and whether he’s assuring that city officials are up to date on how to properly handle and dispose of official public records in the wake of a still ongoing controversy over a high-profile firing.

Corporation Counsel John Rose Jr. fielded those questions when he presented his proposed new budget at a three-hour-plus budget hearing held at City Hall Thursday night by by the Board of Alders Finance Committee.

Few of the questions had to do with the relevant numbers in the mayor’s proposed budget, however, which asks for Corporation Counsel to incorporate the three-person staff and $425,000 budget of labor relations into its purview.

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Zoning Overhaul OK’d

Marchand reviews example of mixed-use development before vote.

March 13, 2017 - Karyn Gilvarg and Tom Talbot of New Haven’s City Plan Department have been working on amendments to the city’s zoning ordinance that make it friendlier to mixed-use development: the idea that stores and apartments and offices can be mixed all together in dense city blocks rather than separated in specified districts.

The Board of Alders Legislation Committee has unanimously approved their proposed text edits, allowing the changes to be voted on at the next full Board of Alders meeting.

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New Food Cart Rules Advance

Hot dog man Sweeney: “Don’t put dollar up front!”

March 10, 2017 - The city came one step closer to realizing a new regulatory framework for monitoring New Haven’s food trucks, carts, and stands thanks to a vote following a three-hour public session at City Hall.

Before the vote Thursday night, some vendors told lawmakers they remain concerned about the unintended consequences that these regulations might have on the traffic safety of both their employees and their customers.

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Paperwork Snag Could Cost City

Alders Dolores Colon, Adam Marchand, Evette Hamilton at hearing.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - Alder Al Paolillo Jr. ran both of his hands through his hair as he tried to process what city Budget Director Joe Clerkin had just said: $1.6 million from the state might not make it into city coffers because of uncompleted paperwork.

That’s not money designated for future capital and infrastructure investments; that’s money the city has already spent and counted on getting back.

“So we’re not getting the [money] from the state?” Paolillo asked. “And the state just told us this?”

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Rose: Heed Us, Or Pay Your Own Bill

Rose at Monday night’s hearing.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - Can the city’s chief legal adviser deny representation to a department head who refuses to heed his advice? Should the city have to foot the bill when a city employee then seeks outside counsel?

These two questions occupied the first half of a nearly three-hour meeting held by the Board of Alders Finance Committee at City Hall Monday night.

A unified front of alders pushed and pulled with city Corporation Counsel John Rose Jr.over just how far the city’s legal department should go to defend municipal employees caught up in legal disputes, especially when those clients disregard the advice offered by the city’s appointed attorneys.

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