Nora Grace-Flood photo
Elicker with Public Works Union members Wednesday night.
Elicker listens to both praise and concerns from public works employees following the public endorsement.
Public works union members gathered in the shade of Dover Beach Park to take a break from sweeping streets in sweltering heat — and to endorse two-term incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker as the best candidate to keep the city clean and safe and its employees paid and protected.
Elicker, in turn, welcomed that endorsement from UPSEU Local 424’s New Haven chapter on Wednesday afternoon as symbolic of support from New Haven-based workers intimately tuned into changes and challenges taking place across the city, from sidewalk to sidewalk.
The public display of support for Elicker took place one week in advance of a Sept. 12 Democratic primary that will see the incumbent face off against challenger Liam Brennan — and days after the Board of Alders approved a new contract with public works laborers part of Local 424 Unit 34 that cemented raises and health insurance upgrades for the crew.
Union Vice President Robert Roberts and President David Lawlor.
“You’ve always listened to us, honored us and been fair,” Robert Roberts, vice president of UPSEU’s New Haven chapter and co-chair of the Democratic committee for Ward 15, said to Elicker Wednesday.
“A lot of people don’t acknowledge just how important you are to the success of the city,” Elicker responded to roughly 20 union members standing beside him along the Quinnipiac River in Fair Haven. He embraced the new contract as a key step in “being fair and acknowledging the work that’s being done by people on the front lines — making sure we have wages that respect people on the frontlines and reflect the amount of effort and commitment people put into their job.”
That contract was passed by the Board of Alders on Sept. 5. It spans retroactively from July 1, 2021, until June 30 of 2027 and includes annual wage increases that amount to a total increase of 22.25 percent across the board over six years. Read a summary of the contractual changes here.
Elicker said after the brief event that “employees of public works overwhelmingly live in the city and see the city everyday as part of their work… This endorsement is an indication that the people who are on the frontlines and understand the challenges we face also see that we’re making progress.”
Rethinking Parks/Public Works Merger
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“Thanks to Mr. Elicker, we got a great contract,” union member and refuse collector Joel Rodriguez told the Independent. “I’m gonna be able to pay my bills and support my family,” he said of the negotiated pay raises and new insurance plan.
A resident of North Haven, Rodriguez said his hope for New Haven’s next mayor is that they crack down on illegal dumping and find strategies to better resident recycling habits. “It would make the job easier for everyone and help the environment,” he said, suggesting that the city start by training landlords in enforcing better trash disposal habits among their tenants.
When it comes to public works, Elicker said his goals should he be elected to a third term include launching an underway municipal composting plan, boosting recycling education and strategy around the city, successfully moving public works’ vehicle maintenance facility into a building the city already purchased from the state at 424 Chapel St., and reconsidering a recent reorganization of the parks and public works department.
A decision to merge those two departments by splitting up the former “Parks, Recreation and Trees” department such that public works adopted “parks” and “trees” while the youth department took on “recreation,” came under scrutiny prior to campaign season as local greenspace advocates expressed concern that less attention and resources would be funneled into the city’s parks as a result. Read more about that here.
On Wednesday, Elicker said that “there’s something to be said for having a person waking up everyday and being a champion of the parks.”
He said he plans to propose a new structure to the Board of Alders in the next budget season, and to hold a number of open conversations in advance to consult both the public and members of those departments not just about how to restructure job responsibilities but to work towards developing parks that are maximally accessible to and utilized by the community.
“There hasn’t really been an opportunity to realize the intended goals of merging the two departments,” he added, noting that the underlying goals of streamlining the crews’ work still stands.
Lawlor endorses Elicker.
The sidewalk along Dover Beach Park: The right stretch is theoretically public works' responsibility, while the left is up to the parks' department to clean up.
Union President David Lawlor said that he supports the merger as is, and complimented Elicker for listening to employees about bureaucratic oddities and attempting to fix the system.
For example, he pointed to the sidewalk stretching along Front Street where the press conference took place. Public works is responsible for cleaning the side of the walk abutting the street, while parks workers are charged with cleaning up litter from the side facing the water. Why, he wondered, divide labor like that rather than getting the two departments to join together?
“The streets and garbage should all be picked up,” he said. “We’re getting zero overtime and we’ve never had the streets look worse. The [Labor Day] road race to me should’ve looked much cleaner,” he critiqued.
Fully merging the two departments, he said, should help allocate a larger pot of resources and staff to the appropriate areas around the city in need of attention.
Lawlor lived in New Haven for 30 years before recently moving to Meriden to raise his children. He’s worked in the department for 14 years. He said none of the other candidates have reached out to him directly, unlike Elicker, who regularly checks in with union leadership and asks for feedback. “He’s a guy that understands where I’m coming from; I just want fairness,” he said. Asked for his stance on other candidates running in November, Lawlor said, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
Union Vice-President Robert Roberts, who will vote in New Haven, said that beyond having negotiated a contract with the current administration complete with retroactive raises, he said Elicker “is really turning the city around and that’s why I’m supporting him.”
While the administration is responsible for providing public works with the tools they need to keep the streets clean and safe, Roberts said he is also voting for Elicker to ensure “more cops out on the streets doing their jobs,” and more accountability for absentee landlords to maintain their properties.