Hamden’s next mayor may run for a four-year term rather than two if a town charter change aiming to improve governmental accountability and productivity is approved.
Lengthening the time Hamden’s top leader spends in office is one of the amendments that a reinstated Charter Revision Commission (CRC) is looking to make in the town’s “constitution.”
This is the second year in a row that the volunteer body known as the CRC has asked the Legislative Council to consider growing the mayor’s two-year term to four.
Hamden’s CRC typically convenes every decade to edit and update the municipality’s “constitution.” In an unusual series of events, a second, smaller CRC was appointed this year by a new administration after hundreds of hours of work undertaken by a previous commission was voted down by an old council before the public could vote on the matter. So the second one was convened this year.
If a fresh Legislative Council moves forward the most recently written charter — a reworked version of last year’s draft, with a few twists, which you can read here — then Hamden voters will get the chance to determine which elements of the document are adopted through their November ballots.
Residents will decide whether or not Hamden should require the opportunity to tune into public meetings virtually in addition to in-person, a “first of its kind” technological provision in any municipal charter, according to attorney Steve Mednick, who drew up the charter revision proposal for the commission. They will vote on what level of oversight the town’s police commission should carry out. And, among many other governmental quandaries, they will get to determine how long a mayor serves their town starting in 2023. (Lauren Garrett’s current reign would not be automatically extended.)
As an added bonus question, this year’s CRC wants Hamdenites to consider electing their town clerk to four years as well. Chosen congruently with the mayor, Hamden’s town clerk currently serves two years at a time.
Commissioners maintained that “best practice” means sticking with two-year terms for council members to strengthen that body’s check on mayoral powers.
Charter revision commissioners Jay Kaye and Patricia Vener-Saavedra address the council.
Hamden’s Legislative Council kicked off their first virtual workshop — several more of which will take place before counsel Mednick turns those changes into ballot questions — this past Wednesday. They started their meeting by voting in favor of adding a land acknowledgment to the start of the charter — and then tabled the decision of whether or not to OK four-year mayoral terms.
The issue has been one of the top topics of debate throughout the past two charter revision sessions. Click here to read a previous article exploring how municipalities around the state have opted for two-year or four-year mayoral and Legislative Council terms. Hartford, Bridgeport, and Middletown are among cities that elect their mayors to four-year terms.
Proponents of four-year terms have argued that an extra two years in office will incentivize more candidates with higher qualifications to seek out the job by increasing the reward of running, recenter those candidates’ focus on developing and instituting meaningful policy rather than making politically-pressured decisions, and allow elected officials more time to effectively adjust to their new role. The commission said they similarly opted to give town clerks two more years considering the learning curve to the job.
On the other hand, greater complacency, less responsive government, decline in motivation to keep taxes in check, Connecticut’s lack of recall provisions, lower voter turnout in non-mayoral elections, and lower public vigilance have all been argued as potential cons to longer terms.
During public comment held at Wednesday’s meeting, multiple speakers critiqued the idea of a four-year mayoral term, citing that latter series of arguments.
“When you’ve got two years and you know that second year is coming up, I think that makes sure you want to stay focused on doing that job the best you can so you get elected again,” resident Chris D’Acosta said.
“I believe four years is way too long,” Joy Wildman said. “It’s a good time to slack.”
“If you’re a good mayor, you’ll get voted in every two years,” George Civitelli added, concluding live public input.
“Right! Right!” the audience exclaimed as Civitelli finished providing commentary.
“My opinion on the four-year term is that I don’t like it — for four years you’re stuck with them if you don’t like them,” Councilwoman Wetmore said after listening to the public speak.
“I have to listen to my constituents and lean that way … I just have to listen to them.”
Other than Wetmore, council members leaned in favor of four years, arguing that the change is key to a town like Hamden — or any municipality with long-term debt and no long-term plan.
“I’m probably one of the few people that would’ve liked to see this go to a town manager” for of government, Cory O’Brien said. During the first round of charter revisions, the CRC considered switching from mayor to town manager — a chief official who is hired by the town’s legislative body rather than elected — as a way to bring professionalism over politics to the job.
“Not that I don’t trust our capable mayor now, but I’ve seen how bad some of our previous mayors were,” he continued. “That’s why I’m going to support the four-year term. We’re in the place we’re in financially because our previous mayors have constantly been thinking about reelection and have not been thinking about what’s best for the town long-term. It’s been about what’s the best short-term … We need to get plans put into place and measure those mayors against plans that are forward thinking.”
Councilman Justin Farmer agreed, and further pointed to the position of town clerk, a job for which it “takes two years just to get the training.”
CRC representatives also offered their perspective.
Commissioner Patricia Vener-Saavedra echoed Farmer’s argument for mayor: “You spend the first year, year and a half learning the ropes — it doesn’t make sense, it’s like — what do you call it? A guinea pig!”
Her colleague Jay Kaye described the decision as important to “continuity and congruity.”
The commission paired the four-year term, he said, with the creation of a chief operating officer, budget analyst, and finance commission to create multiple layers of oversight and increase fiscal responsibility and awareness.
“It’s about making your lives easier,” he said to the council, “and also making the administration’s life easier too.”
The continuous pressure to work towards reelection rather than long-term change, including fiscal stability, Kaye said, is a “vicious cycle” in town.
“We’re trying to break that cycle at least for the next 10 years,” he concluded.
Once the council votes on each individual change proposed by the commission, including four-year mayoral terms, they will decide how to frame each issue to voters on a potential ballot.
Attorney Mednick said that he typically advices communities to pick out two to three topics that are addressed as individual questions (“Should Hamden’s mayor have four years in office rather than two?”) while grouping the additional concerns into one “omnibus” ask (“Do you approve of a charter draft with four-year mayoral terms, a chief operating officer, and greater opportunity for public comment during open meetings?”).
“When they’re ready to take final action, we’ll sit down and look at what the council believes to be the most politically sensitive issues,” Mednick said.
He asserted that more so than singling out individual matters from the expansive charter rewrite, “the idea is to try to provide a balanced document that lays out a philosophy of how the government of Hamden should operate.”