Allan Appel Photo
A committee of aldermen voted to urge a larger group of aldermen to urge a larger group of state representatives to change a law about where government workers live.
All that urging took place at a meeting Thursday night of the Legislation Committee of the Board of Aldermen.
The committee voted to approve a proposal by West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson. The proposal now goes to the full board. It calls on the state to lift a ban on cities requiring its workers to live in town. Both Goldson and Mayor John DeStefano’s administration have called for that ban to be lifted.
The committee voted 4 – 1 in favor of Goldson’s proposal. Yale Alderman Mike Jones dissented.
“I don’t want to endorse it even in a blanket way without knowing more details,” Jones said. He called the timing “unproductive” given the stressed labor relations between the city and its bargaining units. (Hundreds of city cops marched on City Hall the same day as the vote, for instance, to protest layoffs; 80 percent of city cops live out of town.)
Before the city could even begin negotiating with unions on a residency requirement — itself a difficult task — it needs permission from the state.
Click here and here for stories on the pros and cons of the residency laws as argued by West Rock’s Goldson and his critics.
The proposal’s endorsers also included Dwight Alderwoman Gina Calder, Hill Adlerwoman Jacqueline James-Evans, and Bishop Woods Alderman Gerald Antunes
Goldson fared not as well when a second resolution of his came up at Thursday night’s meeting: to put the same question to the voters in a non-binding referendum at the next citywide election.
Committee member Matt Smith of East Rock and aldermanic President Carl Goldfield both called attention to the political perils of the referendum process: They both brought up California as a model not to be followed.
“California is basically in gridlock” due to referendums that limit lawmakers’ ability to make complex day-to-day decisions, Goldfield argued.
“My constituents would like to see a residence requirement introduced. I don’t need a referendum on the ballot” to achieve that, he said.
Smith worried about what he termed “outside forces” influencing a referendum.
“The same people who are jumping up and down today [at the police protest] will be there. They will be out again fighting at your polls arguing vociferously against this referendum. I don’t think you want that,” Goldfield said.
Goldson called the referendum a technique of democracy that should not be feared or shunned in this instance.
“I’m not opposed to a residence requirement. I oppose a referendum,” Goldfield repeated. “What’s to prevent the next referendum: ‘Let’s cut taxes by 50 percent’?”
He said aldermen’s time is better spent petitioning state legislators.
Goldson noted that since he put the idea in play, the city administration has added it to its Hartford-bound legislative agenda
Council 4 American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees political field rep Matthew Brokman termed the referendum approach “a waste of money.” Goldson said it would cost almost nothing. He recommended better jobs and more income for the city would flow from the city’s pushing for a living wage, more progressive taxes, and closing tax loopholes for corporations.
Brokman and others also contested the claims of Goldson supporter Honda Smith (pictured with him at the top of the story) that non-city workers are less dedicated or do not contribute money in terms of their purchases and entertainment dollar to the city.
City workers Elaine Braffman and Harold Brooks (pictured above) suggested the laws already on the city’s books requiring upper-level executives and managers to live in the city are not being fully enforced. Committee chairman Jorge Perez of the Hill said if allegations are specifically made he’ll look into them.
When the vote was called on the non-binding public referendum, the count was 5 to 1 against. Hill Alderwoman Dolores Colon cast the only “yes.”
Goldson was undeterred.“It’s still going to the full board. It’s not the first vote I’ve lost. I’ve got work to do. I’m not going to quit on it,” he said.