Thomas MacMillan Photo
Mayor Toni Harp made a last-minute plea to her neighborhood anti-blight chief Monday, offering him a $26,000-plus raise to turn down a new job he has already accepted in Hartford.
Harp made the offer in a meeting with Erik Johnson (pictured), executive director of the Livable City Initiative (LCI), City Hall’s front-line agency dealing with economic development and code enforcement in New Haven neighborhoods.
Johnson had accepted a new job as deputy economic development chief for the city of Hartford, according to his new boss-to-be, Director of Development Services Thomas Deller. Deller said Monday that Johnson has agreed to start his new job, which pays $125,000, on July 7.
Johnson informed people around New Haven late last week that he was leaving the Harp administration to take the Hartford post. But he hadn’t formally given Mayor Harp his resignation.
Instead of doing that on Monday, he agreed to consider the offer to stay at a higher salary, Harp said Monday afternoon. Harp said she offered to match the Hartford salary dollar for dollar. Johnson’s New Haven salary had been slated to rise to $98,230 in the new fiscal year beginning July 1.
Johnson could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. Reached earlier in the day, he declined comment on his situation.
Hartford’s Deller said Monday afternoon that he hadn’t known that Johnson was considering an offer to stay in New Haven after all.
“I guess I’m going to have to talk to Erik,” he said.
He was asked if he will up Johnson’s salary to hold onto him.
“I usually don’t enter bidding wars,” Deller responded. “Erik and I sat down and reached an agreement. I’m sure we’ll sit down and have a discussion and take it from there.”
Following is an earlier story, with more background:
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Johnson: Outta here.
Erik Johnson is set to leave his job at City Hall just as his department is in the midst of some ambitious anti-blight and neighborhood development efforts.
Johnson has accepted a new position as a deputy development chief in Hartford. He will wind up his work as executive director of the Livable City Initiative (LCI), city government’s neighborhood anti-blight and development agency, in June.
Mayor Toni Harp tried in recent weeks to convince Johnson to stay on board, in part by seeing if New Haven could match some of a pay increase he will receive in Hartford. In the end, Johnson decided to pack up.
Johnson, who grew up in Newhallville, could not be reached for comment Friday. He began telling people around town about his new job on Thursday.
“We are very excited for Erik. He has been an amazingly talented and versatile part of this administration and the previous administration. We will miss him terribly,” said his immediate boss, city economic development chief Matthew Nemerson. “When you have very talented people, you want to see them fly higher and meet new challenges.”
Nemerson said the administration hasn’t yet decided if it will hire a permanent new LCI chief by July 1 or appoint an interim director. “We have excellent candidates we’re considering,” he said.
Johnson is departing as some key LCI initiatives are in crucial stages. He has been working with Newhallville-based cops, activists, and heads of other city departments to craft an intensive anti-blight and redevelopment project in that neighborhood. Two major development deals he helped negotiate — the construction a new 5.39-acre retail-office-hotel complex on Legion Avenue across from Career High School and a dense mini-city of apartments, stores, and offices at the old New Haven Coliseum — recently won local approvals and now need shepherding to actual construction. The rest of the envisioned remaking of a 16.2‑acre strip of undeveloped land along Route 34 West, a project Johnson has spent years developing, awaits its next conclusive planning stages. He won approval for a framework for a makeover of the “Hill-to-Downtown” area linking the train station to Yale Medical School environs and the center city, with the real detail work yet to begin. And Johnson had just launched an ambitious online marketing campaign to convince people to buy homes in the city.
In Hartford, Johnson will serve as deputy to Director of Development Services Thomas Deller. He will earn $125,000 in the job, Deller said Friday. If he had stayed in his New Haven job, his salary was slated to rise to $98,230 in the new fiscal year beginning July 1.
Deller said he will “look to” Johnson to help him rethink how Hartford approaches housing and neighborhood revitalization and economic growth.
“I’ve been looking for a deputy for two years. Erik and I started talking 10, 12 months ago,” Deller said. “I like his thought process. I like his skill set.”
In recent years, Johnson made perhaps his most distinctive mark by demonstrating how a public official can admit a mistake and then work with outraged citizens to try to make it right.
The mistake was the choice of a Bridgeport-based developer to rescue the declining former Dwight Co-Ops on Edgewood Avenue. The developer broke all of his promises, stiffed the city, and left the complex in wretched condition. Johnson repeatedly apologized to neighbors; sent city crews to clear snow and make emergency heating repairs; and spent countless hours negotiating with federal officials and prospective developers to find a more credible builder to step in. Click on the video above and click here, here and here for sample stories about that saga, after which tenants repeatedly thanked Johnson for sticking with them.