Candidates Clash On ​“Experience”

In a fast-paced final public debate before a standing-room-only crowd, New Haven’s two mayoral candidates squared off on who knows how to get things done.

The debate, between candidates Toni Harp and Justin Elicker, began at Gateway Community College’s downtown campus Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. It was the last public debate before the Nov. 5 election.

Before a standing-room-only crowd of 300, the candidates offered perhaps the most lively exchanges in the campaign so far. Elicker came out swinging against Harp for tax and alleged landlord problems with her son’s real estate business. Harp, in turn, repeatedly denounced Elicker as young and inexperienced.

The debate hinged on the question: What is the right ​“experience” a candidate needs to be mayor?

Harp, a state senator for 21 years, stressed her decades in the state legislature working with governors from three parties, her ability to build ​“consensus” among different people, and her knowledge of the state budget and state legislative process.

Elicker, an East Rock alderman, said Harp has the wrong kind of ​“experience” — experience in old-style pay-to-play politics. Elicker said he has gained experience in his four years as alderman, including stopping the mayor’s plan to monetize parking meters to fill a budget hole. He argued that being a state legislator doesn’t provide the best experience for the mayor’s job; a good mayor needs to be plugged in to the kind of neighborhood issues that he has worked on.

A key moment in the debate for Harp came when the candidates asked each other questions. Harp questioned Elicker about a proposal of his to ask the state to share revenue from speeding tickets. In attempt to prove his inexperience, Harp asked him which committees at the state legislature the proposal would need approval from, and his strategy for gaining that approval.

Elicker didn’t name any committees. He replied that he has testified at the Capitol on this issue, but that a mayor needs to know the city well, not just know how to navigate the legislature, to effectively rule the city.

Another issue in the debate was the reemergence of two controversial figures from the past, former state Sen. Anthony Avallone who left office in 1992 after years of scandals involving his conflicting roles as zoning attorney, legislator, development commissioner, and developer; and Sal Brancati, a former city economic development official who played a leading role in the DeStefano administration’s ethics and corruption scandals of the 1990s. Harp was asked twice about her alliance with the two.

“Frankly, as a Christian, I believe in redemption,” she said. She said they may bring new ideas to the table.

Elicker passed up a chance to pounce on Harp for her close relationship with the two. ​“People with strong integrity” will make the best decisions, he said.

The New Haven Independent, La Voz Hispana, and New Haven Register sponsored the debate.

If you missed the event, you can catch it later on public-access Citizens Television. The show will air on Channel 96 at 4 p.m. on Oct. 24, 29, and 31; and on Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.

A live blog follows: 

7 p.m. Folks are filing into Gateway’s community room for the debate. Visitors are being greeted with theatrical performances by Little Miss Messup of the Guilty Party, a cross-dressing former mayoral candidate, and a satirical band called the ​“Pay-to-Play Pirates.”

The pirates, who gave their names only as Captain Morgan and the First Mate, also made an appearance at Gateway in a previous mayoral debate.

They found common ground with Miss Messup, aka Bill Saunders. Both denounced old-style politics; the pirates were more pointed in criticizing Harp. Click on the play arrow to watch them meet.

7:24: Michelle Fraser, Gateway’s evening administrator, is wheeling out dozens of extra chairs to accommodate the crowd. ​“Once this goes, this room is capped out at its max, 300,” she said.

7:31: Moderator Paul Bass, editor in chief of the New Haven Independent, outlines the rules for the debate. He and Rachel Chinapen of the New Haven Register will ask questions tailored to each candidate.

Chinapen to Elicker: ​“Your opponent has said you don’t have the experience in government” and building consensus that you’d need to run the city.

Elicker’s coming out swinging. Blames Harp for Connecticut’s bad economy. ​“Legislating and writing checks is very different from running the city.”

Heckling is starting already: ​“But we don’t know you!” calls out a Harp supporter.

Harp: You really need to have consensus. Only one alderman is supporting Elicker’s campaign, she notes. ​“He is not a consensus-builder. I am.”

Applause here for Harp. Bass: ​“It’s going to be a long night.”

7:35: Bass asks Harp about $1,000 donations she received from nine out-of-town doctors who work for Hamden-based Connecticut Orthopaedic Specialists. Their company took in around $800,000 this past fiscal year as authorized orthopedic caregivers for New Haven government’s workers’ compensation plan, according to the city. They donated to Harp’s campaign after losing their contract with the city. Bass asked why she thinks they gave her money.

Harp said the company is a great firm, and she’d hate to see them lose work. She noted that they already struck a deal with the city to win back their contract. She didn’t answer the question about why they donated to her campaign.

Bass to Elicker: ​“Hardly any African-Americans or Latinos” voted for you, or have given you money. Can you govern New Haven well with practically no black or Latino support?

Elicker: ​“I think it’s important to acknowledge that I didn’t do as well as I should have” in the African-American and Latino communities. But he’s accessible and hands out his cell phone number to ​“everyone and their brother.”

Harp swings back at Elicker for flat-funding education while voting for a teacher’s contract that increased salaries. She said that’s why people didn’t vote for him.

7:40: Chinapen to Elicker: Is Project Longevity, the city’s anti-gang ​“call-in” program, effective?

Elicker: I support Project Longevity as one of many tools to solve crime.

Harp: Project Longevity has succeeded in reducing gun violence.

7:47: Bass to Harp: If you’re elected, will Tony Avallone and Sal Brancati have your ear? And will they and their allies get special treatment?

Avallone, a former state senator who left office in 1992 after years of scandals involving his conflicting roles as zoning attorney, legislator, development commissioner, and developer. He developed a lucrative, go-to zoning practice during the DiLieto ​‘80s, regularly appearing before the zoning board to win clients relief at the same time he served as both a state senator and city development commissioner. The administration gave him and a team of fellow politically connected developers a tax break on a development project in the Hill that Avallone simultaneously had to vote on as a development commissioner. He represented developers in disputes with his state senate constituents; he also was hired by banks to evict tenants who happened to be his constituents.

Brancati is a former city economic development official who played a leading role in the DeStefano administration’s ethics and corruption scandals of the 1990s. Click here to read more about Brancati’s misdoings.

Harp: As mayor, I’ll listen to anyone, including Elicker. I don’t assume that just because former Senator Avallone had ​“whatever you said,” doesn’t mean he won’t bring good developers to the city. People are unfairly branded sometimes. … I’m willing to look at each project that comes to New Haven and judge it on its own merits.

Elicker: We can’t move back. People want to opt in to a safe, green city. These are things that developers like Avallone and Brancati would not provide.

Bass to Elicker: Since your campaign started, your supporters have been counting the bathrooms in Harp’s house and criticizing her for her wealth. Yet you ask people not to judge you on your wealthy upbringing. Is that a double-standard?

Elicker: The fact is that Renaissance Management, Harp’s son’s business, is taking advantage of poor people.

Things are getting wild here. Bass asks the crowd to simmer down.

Harp: ​“You went into one apartment” owned by Renaissance. Harp launches into a defense of her late husband, Wendell Harp, who used to own Renaissance Management. ​“The reality is that my husband gave a lot to this city.”

Chinapen to Harp: Why eliminate the Livable City Initiative, the city anti-blight agency?

Harp: If we consolidate the department, ​“we would have a much more efficient system.”

Elicker calls for keeping LCI to protect tenants from slumlords.

7:48: The lights dramatically go out!

7:50: Bass ticks off misdoings perpetrated by Brancati and Avallone. He asks Harp if she would endorse those behaviors.

Harp: ​“Tony Avallone is someone who’s respected as a lawyer. Frankly, as a Christian, I believe in redemption. Sal Brancati as well. … Give people a chance to move forward in their lives.”

Elicker declines the chance to pile on Harp. ​“People with strong integrity” will make the best decisions.

Bass to Elicker: You’ve been in New Haven only six years, four as alderman. Do you have the experience to run the city?

Elicker: I have proven that I am someone with very specific plans on how to address the problems before the city. He cites his 75 solutions.

Harp is on a tear now: It’s one thing to have great ideas and be articulate, but it’s another thing to be able to build consensus, and to work with the board of aldermen — ​“that, clearly he can’t” — and work with governors of both parties, just as she did.

Harp puts Elicker down: When I was his age, I certainly had ideas. But it takes experience to get things done.

7:55 Harp is asked about her opposition to the Democracy Fund, the city’s public financing system. She said she does not support it in tough budget times. She said Elicker can’t have it both ways: On one hand, he says New Haven is on the verge of bankruptcy. On the other, he calls for using taxpayer money to pay for campaigns. ​“It’s not time for the Democracy Fund if New Haven is Detroit.”

Elicker: People are tired of big money in politics. He notes that Harp herself supported public financing at the state level and even used the state program herself.

Harp swings back: ​“I think it’s pretty disingenuous, Justin!” ​“Either we’ve got a fiscal problem and we need to use the resources to solve it, or we don’t, and we need to use the resources to fund campaigns.”

Harp is being forceful here. She seems much better prepared than she was in previous debates.

8:00 Question: Would you support long-term borrowing, such as monetizing parking meters, to fill short-term budget gaps?

Under failed proposal, the city would have handed over 25 years worth of meter revenue — worth an estimated $111 million — to a Mayfield, Ohio investment firm called Gates Capital Partners in return for a quick up-front $50 million to spend over five years.

Harp said she’d explore her options.

Elicker: No, I will not support long-term borrowing for short-term operational cash.

Elicker defends himself against a previous attack: ​“Toni talks a lot about my inability to work with the board, but I successfully stopped the mayor” from pushing through parking meter monetization. He said the board often votes unanimously on issues, too, because they’re all Democrats.

Question: How do we encourage companies like Panorama from fleeing to Cambridge?

Elicker: Make New Haven a ​“hip” place to live, work and play.

Harp: We need to do more to connect companies to state resources.

8:04: How do you differentiate yourself from the other candidate?

Harp: I wouldn’t flat-fund the education budget while also voting to raise teacher salaries, as Elicker did. ​“If I’m going to raise salaries, I’m going to make sure that there is money there to back it up.” Making good decisions requires experience like the experience she has at the Capitol, she argued.

Elicker: Experience and accessibility. He argues that the mayor of New Haven needs to have experience with the local budget, and in neighborhoods, not just at the Capitol.

8:21: Question: do you support the conversion of two-way to one-way streets?

Elicker supports the idea.

Harp doesn’t. She said the only way the city stopped prostitution near her house (it’s not clear which house) was to change the street to one-way. She calls for keeping one-way streets.

Now the candidates are asking each other questions.

Harp: If you could only get three aldermen to support your trolley-car study, and only one alderman to support you now, how would you support your tax plan at the state?

She was referring to a failed effort to accept federal money to conduct a study to build a downtown trolley in New Haven.

Elicker: It was ​“the mayor’s fault” for how he proposed the trolley plan. I am a consensus-builder. On the Board of Aldermen we vote unanimously on so many things we do. But ​“we need a system of checks and balances,” we don’t need a mayor who agrees with the Board of Aldermen.

Elicker: How could people trust you to balance the budget, if your campaign is in debt?

Harp: ​“We don’t know if the campaign is in debt, because the campaign isn’t over. I’m baffled by that.”

Elicker to Harp: Your family is the biggest tax scofflaw in the state. How could you also vote for tax amnesty for delinquent taxpayers?

Harp: I’m really baffled by this question. I am not a part of my husband’s business. I love my husband. My son, Matthew, is not using the tax amnesty program. I trust him. He is a smart kid. I know he is going to work it out.

Harp says to Matthew, who’s in the crowd: ​“I trust you, Matthew. You’ll do a great job.”

8:18: Harp: Now I want to talk about Elicker’s Solution 10, asking the state for more revenue from speeding tickets. What’s your strategy for getting that plan approved by all the committees it would need approval from?

Elicker: I have testified at the Capitol on this issue. (He doesn’t name the committees, as she had asked him to.) You need a mayor who knows New Haven, not just the Capitol.

Harp final statement. ​“I grew up in segregation and now I’m running for mayor.” I have dedicated my whole life to helping other people. I think it’s important that we have a mayor who understands that we need to have a world-class education system. It requires someone who ​“knows how to work this system.” Someone who is a consensus-builder, who is committed and passionate about holding departments accountable.

Elicker stands up and takes the mic. ​“It is time we as New Haveners start a new way of doing business.” A new way of government, with specific policy stances. Time for a mayor who is accessible. Time for a mayor who ​“represents every person in this city.”

8:19: That’s a wrap, folks.