The Vetting Squad Steps In

Mayoral-Elect Toni Harp tapped a diverse crew of veteran government hands Tuesday to help her figure out whom to hire and how to run the city come Jan. 1. Her three-pronged message: inclusion, continuity, change.

Harp, who last week won election as New Haven’s first female mayor, announced the names of a 14-member voluntary transition team to comb through the finances and plans of city government departments and vet candidates for top administration posts.

She also named a five-member paid staff to work alongside the committee day to day; some of the paid staffers may emerge as staffers in the new Harp administration. Retired state development officer Andrea Scott (pictured), who worked with aerospace companies and other manufacturers, will lead the transition staff, which has a $28,104 budget. Campaign Manager Jason Bartlett, former state Rep. Steve Fontana, and Mendi Blue, a New Haven native who earned a law degree as well as a Harvard MBA, will report to her, as will a volunteer member of the crew, campaign aide Chris Campbell (plus two office assistants, Ray Anderson and Maya Welfare.)

They will be assigned to various working groups the volunteer transition team will form to examine in depth the budgets, looming decisions, and vacancies in city government’s financial, administrative, economic development, and human resources arms. The crew will also look at potential structural changes, like perhaps coordinating housing and health and fire code inspections or merging public works and parks maintenance teams, Harp said. Three current City Hall officials — legislative liaison Rebecca Bombero, Chief Administrative officer Rob Smuts, and Chief of Staff Sean Matteson — have been assigned as point people to work with the transition team.

Harp sent a nuanced message in making the announcement Tuesday afternoon at a press conference at her Whalley Avenue campaign headquarters — a message of ​“inclusion,” continuity, and change.

Inclusion: The team includes African-Americans, Latinos, Jews, and Caucasians.

Continuity: Almost all of them have spent the better part of their lives there, and the better part of their careers in government or public policy. Many are retired; Harp said she chose most of them expecting they’re not looking for jobs in her administration. People who have followed New Haven government for the past 30 years will recognize many of them. The group includes recently retired schools chief Reggie Mayo; Bill Carbone, who recently retired from a state career in criminal justice; retired city controller Mark Pietrisimone; and Susan Whetstone, a former city chief administrative officer who went on to state work. Karen DuBois-Walton already runs the housing authority. Mark Sklarz, former head of the regional Jewish Federation, is a private attorney and businessman Jim Segaloff a longtime attorney and civic leader.

More continuity: Harp gave a nod to the outgoing administration, with which many of her appointees have worked. ​“Any new administration at every level of government stands on the shoulders of the previous administration and works to build on its accomplishments,” she said.

Change: After combing through the detailed transition report the DeStefano administration has prepared for her (read it here) and evaluating other documents, the team will ​“decide [where] improvements can be made,” Harp said. She said after the press conference that the team will look, for instance, at potential structural changes, like perhaps coordinating housing and health and fire code inspections or merging public works and parks maintenance teams.

She also said she wants to keep an open mind and let the team come up with its own answers. Similarly, she identified only three administration officials by name whom she so far would like to keep in their jobs: Police Chief Dean Esserman; Bombero, whose financial acumen Harp cited; and longtime City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg. Harp said Gilvarg appears determined to retire, but she plans to ask her at least to stick around for some period of transition.

The terms of many top officials and commission members expire during Harp’s initial months in office, including much of the staff of the corporation counsel’s office as well as the fire chief.

Retired educator Edward Joyner (pictured with Harp) will lead the 14-member volunteer transition team. Joyner started teaching at Hillhouse in the 1970s, served as principal of Jackie Robinson Middle School from 1977 to 1986, then spent almost 20 years designing the Yale Child Study Center’s School Development Program. He also taught at Yale and at Sacred Heart, retiring in 2013.

Citing Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Rabbi Joshua Heschel, Joyner spoke at Tuesday’s press conference about the team’s ​“guiding principles” — to make ​“morally and intellectually defensive decisions” that the city can afford. (Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch a sample.)

“I love you like a sister,” Joyner said before hugging Harp.

Commission member Esther Armmand spoke of how Harp mentored her when she joined Harp on the city’s Board of Aldermen. (Harp went on to become a state senator for 21 years.) Armmand also reached back to her childhood to describe the Harp team’s challenge in taking the reins of city government.

“I grew up in the Mississippi Delta. So I know what it means to look around you at a situation that is dismal” and discover ​“options” to ​“change that around,” Armmand said.

Other commission members are La Voz Hispana Publisher Norma Rodriguez-Reyes, former state Democratic legislative staffer Rick Melita, pediatrician Tamiko Jackson, Fair Haven activist and former city and Community Foundation staffer Angel Fernandez-Chavero, and Alix Simonetti of the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.