The new “People’s Caucus” stormed the office of New Haven’s second-highest elected city official to call for the elimination of his position and an end to employee gag orders like one he has instituted.
The Caucus—a breakaway group critical of the labor-backed majority on the Board of Alders — formally submitted its proposals as city ordinances Tuesday, then arrived en masse at the the City/Town Clerk’s Office at 200 Orange St. for a press conference. Click on the video to watch highlights.
The proposals come in reaction to a memo, first revealed in this Independent story, that City/Town Clerk Michael Smart issued upon taking office last week. The memo ordered his staff not to speak with reporters — and not to hand out any public documents without his consent, even if he wasn’t in the office. (The video shows him explaining the original order; click here to read Independent readers’ reactions.)
Following publication of the story, Smart, who was elected with support of the Yale union-backed Democratic Party vote-pulling operation, modified the order. He said staffers could now routinely hand out requested public documents without his OK. He kept in place the order that they not speak to the press about matters affecting the office.
That didn’t satisfy members of the alders’ People’s Caucus, which formed this month.
“The seven alders that make up the caucus refuse to stand by as our civil servants labor under a gag order. It is wrong morally and legally to tell civil servants that they cannot speak to the press or the public about matters affecting the public,” the group said in a press release.
The group announced that it will submit a bill to the Board of Alders “making such orders illegal.”
In doing so, the group said it “apologize[s] on behalf of other elected officials who have stood by as people in this office were told that working for New Haven means you lose he right to speak freely. We need to know what city workers have to say. Light is always the best disinfectant.”
Newhallville Alder Brend Foskey-Cyrus read the statement at the event in the City/Town Clerk’s Office, surrounded by four other caucus members: Beaver Hills Alder Claudette Robinson-Thorpe, Bishop Woods Alder Richard Spears, East Rock Alder Anna Festa, and Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Michael Stratton.
“The group also announced plans to submit a second bill seeking to amend the charter to eliminate the elected position of city/town clerk altogether. The group’s release called the part-time position, which pays $46,597 a year, a “completely unnecessary burden on taxpayers. This job is easily done by our city service employees who we already pay $250,000 a year. After 10 years of this legislation eliminating an elected part-time clerk, we will have saved at least a half-million dollars. To do this we are asking the Board of Alders to create a new charter revision commission immediately. The mission of this commission will be to eliminate the elected position.”
Smart Tuesday afternoon defended the existence of his position. As an alder, Smart had chaired the commission that put proposed changes to the city charter on last fall’s ballot. He said he sees no need, then or now, to add the question of whether to eliminate the city/town clerk’s job.
“People spoke” during last fall’s mandated once-a-decade charter revision process, Smart said.
“A town clerk who is accessible and can work with the staff and make the department stronger” plays an important role, he said. “If it was a situation where you had a clerk that wasn’t active, that would raise questions.”
Smart also defended his order against staffers being quoted in the press without his approval. He said government agencies need to speak with a consistent voice. When a reporter asks a question that a staffer can better answer, he will then authorize that staffer to respond, he said.
But “you want to make sure you have one message. You don’t want to have people out there” confused about a government office’s position, he said.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Stratton announced a third proposal he submitted as well: to create a “more thoughtful process” for taking down trees in town. He submitted it in reaction to a plan by United Illuminating to take down trees all over town, a plan that went ahead with little public notice or discussion. Stratton Tuesday said the clerk office proposals were the first in what will be a series of “good government” proposals coming out of the caucus.