MacMillan File Photo
Joe Rodriguez.
Former Fair Haven Alder Joseph Rodriguez will return to City Hall — this time to answer, not ask questions; and to be voted on, rather than to cast votes.
Mayor Toni Harp has chosen Rodriguez to fill a vacant slot on the Board of Education, a body on which her allies have cemented control after years of infighting.
The Board of Alders first gets to vet Rodriguez at a public hearing and vote on whether or not to approve his appointment.
Rodriguez left his post as alder in 2011 to become an aide to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, for whom he still works. (He served a stint as Mayor Harp’s local legislative liaison in between two stints for Blumenthal.) Rodriguez also chaired the effort to revive New Haven’s Puerto Rican Festival in 2016.
“I am most confident given Mr. Rodriguez’ credentials and commitment to our City, that he will serve the citizens of New Haven in a most conscientious and productive manner,” Harp wrote in a letter to alders submitting Rodriguez’s appointment.
If the alders confirm the appointment, Rodriguez’s term would last run through Dec. 31 2021.