Thomas Breen photo
AnneMarie Rivera Berrios at City Hall confirmation hearing.
A special ed middle school teacher made the cut for the Civilian Review Board and a local bike shop co-owner got turned down for the Board of Zoning Appeals, as alders interviewed over a dozen of the 36 candidates whom Mayor Toni Harp has appointed over the past month to serve on boards and commissions.
Those votes took place Tuesday night during the latest Aldermanic Affairs Committee meeting in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
The meeting was the committee’s second this month — an unusually high frequency for any aldermanic committee other than the Finance Committee, which holds multiple meetings a month during the rush of budget-making season every spring.
Tuesday night’s Aldermanic Affairs Committee meeting.
Aldermanic Affairs decided to meet twice in November because Mayor Harp submitted 36 names in late October and early November for recommended appointments and re-appointments to the city’s nearly four dozen municipal boards and commissions.
The majority of those appointments came after Harp lost the Democratic Party mayoral primary to challenger Justin Elicker in September and before she lost the general election to the new mayor-elect in November.
Per the City Charter, the Board of Alders must vote on an appointment within 60 days of the mayor’s submission, or else that appointment goes through by default.
Which is how the Aldermanic Affairs Committee found itself slated to interview 16 appointees Tuesday night, just a few weeks after it held a committee meeting on Nov. 13 that had another 11 board and commission candidates on the agenda.
The committee only wound up interviewing 12 people Tuesday — because five didn’t show up.
Those were Chris Bernard, who had been appointed to serve on the Homeless Advisory Commission; Emily Lorin, who had been appointed to serve on the Peace Commission; Lynda Faye Wilson, who had been appointed to serve on the Commission on Equal Opportunities; Carol Anastasio, who had been appointed to serve on the Peace Commission; and Ryan Knox, who had been appointed to serve on the Housing Authority Board.
Committee alders unanimously recommended that the full board vote to “Leave to Withdraw” all of those candidates, which is effectively a recommendation that those appointments not be confirmed.
The one candidate who did turn up Tuesday but also earned a “Leave to Withdraw” recommendation from the committee was John Brehon (pictured), a co-owner of Devil’s Gear Bike Shop. The mayor had submitted Brehon as a candidate to serve on the Board of Zoning Appeals, which hears applications from property owners and developers seeking some kind of special relief from the zoning code — whether because they want to build an apartment complex denser than otherwise allowed, or because they want more or less frontyard space than permitted, or because they want less parking than required by city law.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Brehon said he has a degree in biology. He previously worked as a pharmaceutical representative in Monterrey, California. He moved out east because his wife is from New Haven. For the past several years, he has worked as a partner at Devil’s Gear, where he regularly fixes and sells bikes. He’s also a partner with the New Haven Bikeshare Mechanics, which services the city’s bikeshare program.
“Believe it or not, when it comes down to zoning, I don’t know that much,” Brehon confessed.
But, he said, he’s a “fast learner” and “will look for some guidance from my peers and also do my own homework” about how best to evaluate applications for variances and special exceptions related to the city’s zoning code.
“Do you have any legal experience?” Board of Alders Majority Leader and Amity Alder Richard Furlow asked.
“None whatsoever,” Brehon said.
Mayoral appointees for various boards and commissions at City Hall Tuesday.
The committee alders did take favorable votes on the other 10 appointments, however, including one candidate for the Civilian Review Board, another for the BZA, and several others for the Environmental Advisory Council, the Historic District Commission, and the Peace Commission.
AnneMarie Rivera Berrios, a Hill native who now lives near Peat Meadow in the Annex and who works as a special education middle school teacher in the East Haven public school system, won the committee’s support for her bid to serve on the new civilian-manned police accountability board.
“I am a firm believer in equality and that you have to have the facts in front of you before you make a judgment or a conclusion,” she said.
She said she works closely with the neighborhood’s top cop, and has had generally positive interactions with the police as an adult.
“I would be the person to say, ‘Let’s get more information,’” she said about her prospective role on the CRB. “‘Let’s ask more questions. Let’s look at all the paperwork.’”
In your opinion, how do you think the police are doing today? Furlow asked.
“I would say mediocre to well,” she replied.
The committee alders also gave a recommended approval to Luis Victori (pictured), a Spanish-born architect and Forest Road resident whose name had been submitted for the BZA.
Victori said he has degrees from the University of Chicago, including an accreditation in energy and environmental sustainability.
“I live and want to live in an urban environment that is also sustainable,” he said. “Now is the time in which we can adopt some policies and strategies for our city to become more sustainable.”
Furlow said that Victori appeared to have appropriate professional credentials for the position, but worried that his interest in sustainable design might be more appropriate for City Plan Commission as opposed to BZA, where commissioners vote more frequently on parking relief than on more explicitly environmental policies.
“Every small decision they’re going to make [can] make the city more beautiful, maybe,” Victori replied. “More sustainable, maybe.” He said he believes that all commissions ultimately “work together” in determining how the city looks, develops, and advances into the future.
He said he too does not know much about city zoning law, but that he can learn — and that he will follow the law, even if he disagrees with it.
“The laws are the laws,” he said, “but the laws are not permanent. The laws should change according to the time in which we live and the way the world is moving. If the law is saying something that looks bad, we have to approve, and then we have to fix it.”
The other appointees that the committee alders gave recommended approvals to Tuesday included:
Diana McCarthy-Bercury for the Environmental Advisory Council
Alexandra Daum for the Historic District Commission
Robert Proto for the Commission on Equal Opportunities
Javier Cabrera for the Fair Rent Commission
Constance Tomas-Razza for the Peace Commission
Yusuf Gursey for the Peace Commission
Millie Grenough for the Peace Commission
Erica Holahan for the Peace Commission
Emily Lorin for the Peace Commission
Frederick Brown for the Peace Commission
Below is a list of all of the board and commission appointments the mayor has submitted to the Board of Alders between Oct. 23 and Nov. 7.
Robert Forman for the Aging Commission
Kisha Hull for the Aging Commission
Paul Maccio for the Aging Commission
Loretta Casey for the Aging Commission
Arthur Kohloff for the Aging Commission
AnneMarie Rivera Berrios for the Civilian Review Board
Steve Hamm for the Civilian Review Board
Howard Blau for the Democracy Fund
Diana McCarthy-Bercury for the Environmental Advisory Council
Lynda Faye Wilson for the Commission on Equal Opportunity
Javier Cabrera for the Fair Rent Commission
Jackson Stovall Willis for the Democracy Fund
Donald Spencer for the Aging Commission
Chris Bernand for the Homeless Advisory Commission
Susan Cooper for the Humane Commission
Sarah Morocco for the Humane Commission
William Kilpatrick for the New Haven Housing Authority Commission
Emily Lorin for the Peace Commission
Constance Thomas-Razza for the Peace Commission
Frederick Brown for the Peace Commission
Erica Holahan for the Peace Commission
Carol Anastasio for the Peace Commission
Millie Grenough for the Peace Commission
Yusuf Gursey for the Peace Commission
John Brehon for the Board of Zoning Appeals
Luis Victori for the Board of Zoning Appeals
Wendy Gemba for the Fair Rent Commission
Cynthia Williams for the Commission of New Haven Youth
Roberto Dupuy for the Commission of New Haven Youth
Mark O’Farrell for the Commission of New Haven Youth
Willie Newton for the Commission of New Haven Youth
Lauren Pittman for the Commission of New Haven Youth
Pedro Rivera for the New Haven Parking Authority Board
Wayne Hobbs for the Peace Commission
Isaias Miranda for the Board of Police Commissioners
Ryan Knox for the Greater New Haven Transit District