Melissa Bailey Photo
After hearing words of encouragement from Gov. Dannel Malloy, Tirzah Kemp turned to a state House Republican and took the next step — trying to get suburban legislators to support people returning to New Haven from jail.
Kemp (at left in photo, with Melissa Driffin) made her pitch to state Rep. Tim LeGeyt (at right in photo) on the first floor of the state Capitol Wednesday afternoon. She was one of 40 people who hopped a yellow First Student bus from New Haven City Hall to Hartford for New Haven Day, a lobbying effort timed to coincide with the governor’s budget address. At the Capitol, the crew joined up with 20 other New Haveners, including a half-dozen aldermen and members of non-profits and activist groups.
For the first time in a generation, New Haven political and civic leaders got a proposed budget from a governor this week that it wants to fight to preserve for the most part, rather than fight to change.
So this week marked the start of a months-long effort to convince the suburban-dominated state legislature to keep the budget largely intact as it works it way through the approval and amending process; as well as to pass some other top-priority bills.
On the ride up to Hartford Wednesday, aldermanic President Carl Goldfield said he had already heard Malloy would hold cities harmless this year on most state grants. The critical next step, he said, is to “make sure the legislature” follows through.
On the bus, mayoral staffer Adam Joseph passed around a list of bills that City Hall has set as a priority.
The list includes: creation of a gun offender registry; a bill that would give local police chiefs more say over yanking licenses of problem bars; red light cameras; entertainment districts; the Connecticut DREAM Act; municipal worker residency requirements; stormwater authority; binding arbitration reform; local option taxes; and support for transportation, education and economic development initiatives.
Joseph urged the crew to pick a bill, grab a legislator, and appeal for their support.
“You have 30 seconds to make your impression,” he advised.
Westville Alderman Greg Dildine hits the Capitol.
As the bus pulled up to the Capitol, Joseph gave these words of parting encouragement: “There is no better advocate on behalf of New Haven than y’all.”
With those words, Tirzah Kemp stepped off the bus. Kemp works at City Hall as the community organizer for the city’s prison reentry initiative. (When called, she also serves as a level-headed emergency storm responder.) She was one of a half-dozen members of the city’s prison reentry roundtable who trekked to the Capitol Wednesday to lobby legislators on the topic.
The city’s prison reentry initiative, funded exclusively by federal grants, helps find resources for the 25 people per week who return to New Haven from prison each week, said coordinator Amy Meek. Meek and Kemp helped launch a new program that opened up public housing spots to ex-offenders; they also help ex-cons find social services and jobs.
Meek (at right in photo, with state Rep. Susan Johnson of Windham) said the Hartford-bound group had two goals — to raise awareness of the initiative, the only one of its kind in the state, and to push for specific legislation that would keep ex-felons from re-offending.
At the top of their legislative list is a bill that would create a “gun offender registry” that cities could use to keep tabs on people with gun convictions once they return from prison. The bill was proposed by three New Haven state legislators, state Sen. Martin Looney and Reps. Bob Megna and Roland Lemar.
In his budget address, Gov. Malloy didn’t address that specific policy. But he did call for changes to the criminal justice system that would emphasize treatment over incarceration.
“There are simply too many people who’ve been arrested and jailed for minor, non-violent or drug offenses who, if given access to an alternative forms of punishment would take advantage of that additional chance to choose a different and better path,” Malloy said.
“Despite the reforms of the past decade, we are still spending money we don’t need to spend imprisoning people who, if given access to the treatment they need, would pose no threat to any of us, and who can eventually become productive members of our society.” Malloy said.
Malloy said he’s committed to working with “city police chiefs, mayors, and community activists to turn the tide on neighborhood gun violence.”
Meek called his words “encouraging.”
When his speech wrapped up shortly before 1 p.m., Malloy’s budget and his policy initiatives fell into the hands of state legislators, where they’ll be subject to political winds and horse-trading on pet issues.
As legislators trickled down the staircases from the grand Hall of the House of Representatives, where the budget address took place, Kemp and crew stood at the ready.
They were stocked with boxes of Pepe’s pizza, provided by the city-hired Capitol lobbyists, DePino Associates.
State Rep. LeGeyt (at right in photo), a Republican representing the towns of Avon and Canton, grabbed a slice from city budget staffer Becky Bombero.
At the prison reentry roundtable, he heard a pitch about a topic that’s far from home. Tirzah Kemp told him about City Hall’s effort to help ex-offenders “integrate into society.”
As she made her pitch, she stood next to Melissa Driffin, an ex-con who has benefited from the program. Driffin said since her felony conviction, she went to college and got a bachelor’s degree, but the felony charge has thwarted a two-year effort to find work. Kemp is helping her appeal to the state to get her record expunged, as well as set up job interviews.
Kemp explained to LeGeyt that ex-offenders face many obstacles and need resources to get back on track, or else they may become poised to reoffend.
LeGeyt said he has “no idea” how many people return from prison to Avon and Canton each week.
He agreed that “it’s a problem” for prisoners to reintegrate back into society, just as it is for veterans returning from war. But he said he’s not on the same page as Kemp in terms of who should pay for it.
“Dollar signs are meager now,” LeGeyt said. “There’s always more need than the government can afford to buy.”
He urged Kemp to look at non-governmental sources for funding, such as churches and volunteers.
New Haveners found more support from their own legislators.
At the Capitol, aldermen met with their former colleague, state Rep. Lemar, who represented East Rock as an alderman himself before winning election to the state legislature. Lemar said has introduced or is supportive of everything on New Haven’s lobbying list, with one caveat.
Lemar said he won’t support an increase in the sales tax unless it is coupled with a state version of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which returns money to the working poor. Malloy included both proposals in his state budget.
While he cut $1.76 billion from current-year spending levels, Malloy saved cities from the budget axe and even proposed sending them more revenue.
State Sen. Toni Harp, who represents parts of New Haven and West Haven, said she’s optimistic that New Haven’s funding won’t get stripped in the legislative process.
“I think that the funding to the cities is going to survive the legislative process,” she said. Harp has been co-chair for six years of the powerful appropriations committee, which decides how the state’s money is spent.
Harp said having the governor on cities’ side makes it easier to retain municipal funding throughout the legislative process, she added. In the past, when the governor cut funding out of New Haven’s budget, Harp would have to take money from another town or line item in order to restore the cut.
“The really good thing about his proposal is that all the towns are pretty much held harmless, so we don’t have to fight among ourselves,” she said.