Elicker's new spokesperson, Lenny Speiller.
Mayor Justin Elicker has chosen a former top spokesperson for the Achievement First charter school network to serve as his new spokesperson at City Hall.
The new spokesperson, Lenny Speiller, lives in New Haven.
He replaces Kyle Buda, who left his job this week as Elicker’s spokesperson to try to help reelect an incumbent Ohio Democratic Congresswoman running in one of the few districts considered competitive in the otherwise mass-gerrymandered 2022 elections.
“I’m back off to the Midwest, Toledo Ohio to be exact, to manage a congressional campaign for Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur,” Buda wrote Wednesday in an email to “friends and colleagues.”
Speiller starts the job in March.
Elicker was asked Wednesday why he chose Speiller as the new spokesperson.
“He has a very strong background in communications and I think his experience will help us continue to improve the way that we communicate to the public about a lot of the work the city is doing and inform folks,” Elicker responded.
“I’m honored to be joining Mayor Elicker and his administration, and I look forward to working with the mayor and my colleagues in government towards advancing a shared vision for our city where New Haveners can thrive. I also look forward to working with members of the New Haven press corps in the critically important role they play in reporting the news and informing the public,” Speiller stated.
Speiller served as senior director of external communications for Achievement First from November 2014 through January 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. In that role he oversaw both the communications and marketing team, as well as “government and legislative affairs, advocacy initiatives, community relations and the school choice process for Achievement First’s network of high-performing public charter schools, which at the time served over 12,000 students across 34 schools across three states.”
From July 2010 through July 2012, he served as the executive director of the Office of Public Affairs for the New York City Department of Education, where he “managed government and legislative affairs for the nation’s largest school district during the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg,” according to that profile.
The profile lists controversial charter school leader Eva Moskowitz and former Mayor Bloomberg as two of his top “influencers.”
Most recently he has run an “advocacy, campaigns, communications” firm he founded called Civicus Strategies.
