Laura Glesby / Thomas Breen Photos
New liaison Alex Guzhnay and former liaison Barbara Montalvo.
Former Yale/Downtown Alder Alex Guzhnay is back as a regular presence at Board of Alders meetings — this time, as the mayor’s new legislative liaison.
Meanwhile, his predecessor Barbara Montalvo is moving on to a new position in Stamford after over 11 years working in City Hall.
Montalvo served as the legislative liaison to Mayor Justin Elicker for two and a half years, after previous roles in the finance division and the office of legislative services.
As the legislative liaison in charge of communicating with the Board of Alders, Montalvo attended as many alder committee and full board meetings as possible — occasionally staying until midnight, when the lights shut off in City Hall.
“Before, I was a nine-to-five person,” Montalvo reflected. After her time in City Hall, she said, “I can’t even go up and down the street” without thinking about how to make public life better. “If there’s a light post out, I’m like, ‘Has someone called it into U.I. yet?’ ”
Until the end of 2023, Guzhnay was one of the alders at those meetings, representing Ward 1 — a section of Downtown that largely covers Yale undergraduate dorms, alongside some additional streets. Guzhnay decided not to run for a second term, knowing that he would be graduating from Yale and moving out of the dorms in May.
In the intervening months, he found himself missing the work. “It left me kind of wanting to stay involved, wanting to not lose the relationships that I built on the Board and with people across different city departments,” he said. It wasn’t a hard decision, he said, to apply for the liaison job. He spent a few months helming state representative candidate Steve Winter’s campaign before starting in the role this week.
Guzhnay said that his own experience as an alder helped him understand the value of a local legislative body. “Alders are really on the front lines of receiving that community input and [hearing] what constituents across the city are thinking,” he said. “They’re all mentors, and they all helped teach me one thing or another.”
Reflecting on her time as the legislative liaison, Montalvo said she’s most proud of her work to revamp the city’s boards and commissions after a pandemic-era backlog of vacancies. By the Independent’s count, she facilitated the appointment of 144 people as well as the reappointment of 85 people to boards and commissions.
Guzhnay is excited to inherit this task — and he hopes to rope other young New Haveners into the workings of City Hall along the way. “I’m a New Haven Promise scholar,” he said, referring to the local college scholarship program from which he hopes to recruit. “That’s a nice pool of young professionals and college graduates who could bring a different perspective, a young perspective: the next generation of boards and commissioners.”
Meanwhile, Montalvo is moving on to become the legislative officer for Stamford’s Board of Representatives — the equivalent of New Haven’s director of Legislative Affairs, coordinating assistance for the city’s legislative body. Montalvo said she was told that she’d become the first woman of color to head a city department in Stamford.
“It was heartbreaking to leave,” Montalvo said, but she said she felt it was time to “change and grow.” Besides, she added, “You can take the girl out of New Haven, but you can’t take the New Haven out of the girl.”