As the Board of Aldermen convened for its regular meeting Monday night, an item with a multi-million-dollar footprint was taken off the agenda.
Aldermen decided to pass over consideration of the acceptance of a TIGER grant from the feds, saying that they want to hear more about the plan.
In October, the city won a TIGER grant for $16 million from the federal government to undertake a major overhaul of the Route 34 corridor called Downtown Crossing. The Board of Aldermen has to approve the plan before the city can receive the money.
Accepting $16 million in federal money might seem like a no-brainer. But there’s a catch. The city will have to kick in as much as $7 million of its own to complete the project. The word at Monday’s meeting was that the multi-million-dollar price-tag was giving some aldermen pause, since the city is already facing a multi-million-dollar hole in its budget. The board voted to pass over grant approval Monday, so the administration and aldermen can iron out their differences.
Public meetings will be held next week and the following week, so that aldermen can have their questions answered before they vote on the proposal at their next meeting.
According to several aldermen, Hill Alderman Jorge Perez spearheaded the effort to pass over TIGER grant approval. Before Monday’s meeting, he said it’s still unclear how much the Downtown Crossing project is going to cost the city. It could be anywhere between $2 million and $7 million, Perez said.
He said he’d like to know if spending that money — likely through bonding — will mean the city won’t be able to go forward with other projects.
Aside from a greater understanding of the trade-offs, Perez said, he’d like to know what the projects benefits are. He said it’s unclear to him what the city stands to gain from the project in terms of jobs or taxes.
“There should have been a meeting,” he said. Aldermen ought to have been briefed on the project already, he said.
Perez said he doesn’t know why the item was sent to the Board of Aldermen’s City Services and Environmental Policy Committee rather than to the Finance Committee or the Community Development Committee.
After Monday’s meeting, board President Carl Goldfield — who decides which committees get which proposals — acknowledged that the City Services Committee probably wasn’t the best place for consideration of the Downtown Crossing plan.
“I think I missed it,” he said. If he could do it over, he’d send it to the Community Development Committee, he said.
The Independent live-blogged Monday’s meeting from City Hall. Read the agenda here. Read on for the live blog.
Live Blog
6:35 p.m.: We’re live from the aldermanic chamber in City Hall. Aldermen just held a very brief public information meeting across the hall. Administration staffer Elizabeth Benton told aldermen she is working on scheduling two public briefings on the TIGER grant, next Monday at 7 p.m. and the following Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
The latest agenda shows that newly elected East Rock Alderman Matt Smith has put up his first item. He’s asking for unanimous consent for his resolution acknowledging today as “New Haven-America Recycles” day.
6:49:Here in the chamber, some of Smith’s colleagues are coming over to introduce themselves to the new guy.
7:01: Board President Alderman Carl Goldfield just banged the gavel. City Clerk Ron Smith is calling the roll.
All aldermen answer “here” to the sound of their names except Aldermen Blango, Paca, and Goldson, who say “present.”
7:01:Alderman Tom Lehtonen offers the meeting’s divine guidance. He speaks about the importance of community involvement. “Do what you can to show you care,” he says.
7:01: Alderman Greg Morehead, filling in for Democratic caucus chair Katrina Jones, has control of the agenda. He asks for unanimous consent on Item 1, an order about tax refunds. It passes unanimously, as it does every meeting.
Morehead notes Items 2 through 8, which are Communications, or notices of new business that will be sent to committee.
He moves Item 9, disposing of several sliver lots and passing other properties — on Saltonstall Court — to Mutual Housing. The item passes unanimously.
On to second readings. Morehead moves Items 10a through 10g, appointing people to several city commissions.
Alderman Lehtonen, chair of the Aldermanic Affairs Committee, rises to vouch for the vetting of the appointees, which was done by his committee. The item passes unanimously.
7:08: Morehead moves Item 11a, approving a tree-planting program.
Alderman Elicker, chair of the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee, rises to speak on the item. His committee heard the item initially. The item passes unanimously.
Morehead moves Item 11b. It’s an emergency procurement to repair and replace a water pump at the Ailing golf course.
Elicker: Last July a worker saw smoke coming from the pump. It had to be repaired immediately.
Unanimous passage.
Morehead moves 11c, which would designate the city sidewalk around the Connecticut Mental Health Center as a smoke-free zone.
Elicker sums up public testimony in favor of the measure.
Alderman Darnell Goldson rises with a question: What happens to a person who is caught smoking in this zone?
Elicker: The security guard will ask the person to stop. But the person can continue. The smoke-free zone is not legally enforceable.
The item passes unanimously, with the exception of a lone “nay” from Goldson.
7:12: Morehead moves Items 11d and 11e. These authorize HUD [federal Department of Housing and Urban Development grants for the city.
Elicker: These two grants were awarded to approve access to affordable housing, protect the environment and provide transportation. One of them would provide $2 million for a new master plan for the Church Street South housing projects. The grant will also cover some planning work at the train station. The city will hold public meetings with Church Street South.
Alderwoman Migdalia Castro asks to abstain from anything having to do with the parking authority. (She works for the agency.)
Alderwoman Delores Colon, Church Street South’s representative, stands to officially request that nothing beyond tonight proceed without the knowledge and cooperation of Church Street South.
Alderman Joe Rodriguez stands to urge that a community meeting be held in the community, not at City Hall, preferably at Church Street South.
The item passes unanimously.
7:17: Morehead passes over 11f. He moves 11g, regarding a procedure for naming corners.
Elicker: The current procedure is almost impossible to follow. Two-thirds of owners near a corner have to be contacted. The new procedure would be a simple petition.
The vote is a roll call, because it is an ordinance amendment. Everyone votes yes. The item passes unanimously.
7:17: Morehead moves Item 12, which would allow the New Haven Ecology Project to lease 20.5 acres next to West Rock State Park for education. The New Haven Ecology Project runs the Common Ground School on the land.
Alderman Marcus Paca, chair of the Community Development Committee, rises to speak. It’s a 10-year lease, he says, for $180,000, which is an 80,000 increase over the previous lease.
Goldson rises to thank Paca for his leadership. He says: This school is in my ward. They have a lot of programs. The street outside the school needs repair badly.
The item passes unanimously.
7:23: Morehead moves Items 13a through 13c, from the Finance Committee — the reading and filing of monthly budget reports.
They pass unanimously.
7:24: Morehead moves Items 14a through 14e, from the Tax Abatement Committee, abating taxes on five properties.
Committee Chair Alderman Michael Smart rises to speak on the items. He briefly outlines the circumstances of each application for abatement, mostly it’s unemployed and/or elderly people who testified that they can’t afford their taxes.
The items pass unanimously.
7:28: The next item is also from the Tax Abatement Committee. It’s an order that Krikko Obbott’s taxes be forgiven. He’s the pencil artist that is rehabbing a building in the Hill and turning it into a museum.
Smart: Obbott didn’t understand the process and didn’t get his non-profit status application in on time.
Unanimous passage.
7:29: Morehead moves the next item. (Castro seconds. She is a very dedicated second-er, who is rarely beaten to the punch.)
The item, number 16, authorizes the acceptance of a federal grant of $350,000 to help pay for the city’s street outreach worker program. Alderman Bitsie Clark explains.
Alderman Paca stands in support of the item. He says he wasn’t able to appear at the committee meeting and says it was incorrectly reported in the Yale Daily News that he doesn’t support it.
The item passes unanimously.
7:31: The board votes to suspend its rules, so that last-minute agenda items can be considered. (This is a standard procedure to allow for late or time-sensitive items.)
Smith’s item is up. He stands to address the board for the first time as an alderman!
Smith says this is to recognize the city’s great recycling efforts of late.
The item passes unanimously.
Morehead notes the remaining two communications on the suspension agenda. The board votes to re-emerge from suspension.
It’s all over now except for the points of personal privilege, which alderman can elect to take to address their peers on any topic.
Smart says: The Tax Abatement Committee has been working for months and is about to wrap up with recommendations on how to improve the tax assessment and appeals processes. Submit your recommendations now.
Alderman Jacqueline James-Evans: I’m putting together a dinner for kids involved with street outreach. It’s a full dinner. “I will be cooking,” she says, and the room erupts in good-natured laughter and fake coughing. “Please come.” The dinner is Nov. 23.
Blango: How many turkeys do you need?
James-Evans: 50.
Blango: “I will get you 50 turkeys. I will donate that.” [Applause.]
Paca rises to recognize some of the active constituents in his ward.
7:39: Meeting adjourned.