When New Haveners step into voting booths in November, they’ll get to vote not just for mayor and alderman, but on changes to the city charter, including shaking up the school board and whether to drop the “man” from “alderman.”
That’s the result of a Monday evening vote by the Board of Aldermen. City lawmakers voted unanimously to send two ballot questions to voters in the Nov. 5 general election.
Question 1: School Board
The first question to appear on the November ballot is whether or not to move to a hybrid, partially elected Board of Ed, with two non-voting student members. The second question concerns a host of other comparatively minor changes to the charter, including a provision that the word “aldermen” be changed throughout to the gender-neutral “alders.”
The ballot referenda are the result of the months-long process of charter revision, the decennial process of revising the city’s foundational legal document, the charter.
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Alderman Michael Smart (pictured), chair of the special commission that reviewed and drafted proposed changes to the charter, said the commission decided to separate the Board of Ed question from all the others since it’s a more controversial matter.
The Board of Ed question will read: “Shall the Charter be revised to establish a seven member Board of Education comprised of the Mayor, four members appointed by the mayor and two members elected by two districts, supplemented by two non voting student representatives?”
All members of the school board are currently appointed by the mayor (the mayor himself also sits on the board). Supporters of appointed boards of education say they ensure mayors are involved in public schools — and held accountable for them. Supporters of an elected Board of Ed say elections would increase the transparency and responsiveness of the board.
If voters approve a hybrid Board of Ed, the city would be split into two new voting districts, each comprising half the city. Candidates would then run for those two seats in an election in November of 2015.
The charter revision commission had initially proposed removing the mayor from the Board of Ed, but reconsidered this at the request of the Board of Aldermen.
Question 2
The second ballot question will read: “Shall the City approve and adopt all other Charter changes as recommended by the commission and approved by the Board of Aldermen?”
Click here for more info about the proposed changes, which include:
• Aldermanic approval of all the fire and police chiefs, as well as the “coordinators”: chief administrative officer, head of economic development, head of community services, and the budget director. Aldermen would also approve all mayoral appointments to all boards and commissions.
• Revising the charter’s preamble to include language on gender identity and expression in the preamble, which now expresses the city’s intention to include people “in all aspects of city life” without regard to things like race, color, religion, sex, and age.
• The charter would include language on the Civilian Review Board, which would make that police-oversight body an established and permanent part of city government.
• The charter would allow the city to create “best practices” standards for job qualifications required of mayoral appointees.
The revisions do not include several changes that were initially suggested, like giving aldermen a raise, changing the number of wards, and extending term lengths for mayor and aldermen. Those were all abandoned after discussion by the commission.
Term limits, which were also suggested, are also not part of the proposed changes. Under state law, the city doesn’t have the power to enact such limits on its own.
Aldermen also voted Monday to create a set of politically neutral explanations of the proposed charter changes, to be distributed to voters throughout the city, in Spanish and in English.
Get ready to call him “Alder” Hausladen.
The matter passed with very little discussion. Downtown Alderman Doug Hausladen said he is “proud of the city of New Haven” for moving to the gender-neutral term “alders.”
East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker, who’s running for mayor, said he supports having a hybrid Board of Ed, as a way to balance transparency and accountability.
“Congratulations,” Board of Aldermen President Jorge Perez said after the unanimous vote. “We’re going to have charter revision in November.”