Can Tweed Deal Be Amended? Yes and No

The two leading candidates for mayor split Tuesday night on the next steps in considering a deal to expand Tweed New Haven Airport.

The future of the airport arose at a virtual meeting of the East Shore Community Management Team. Incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker appeared at the meeting, as did Karen DuBois-Walton, who is challenging him for the Democratic mayoral nomination this year. Mayce Torres, who has also filed papers to seek the office, also appeared.

It was one of three meetings Tuesday night involving the candidates. They appeared in the Hill before Ward 4’s Democratic committee, which voted for Elicker over DuBois-Walton by a large majority, according to Alder Evelyn Rodriguez. (She said a precise tally was not tabulated.) Ward 8’s Democratic Committee also voted to support Elicker over DuBois-Walton 16 – 4. (Torres received no votes.)

A vote took place on the East Shore on Saturday, when the Ward 18 Democratic committee voted for Elicker over DuBois-Walton 20 – 4. Elicker has won all of these ward committee votes taken so far except in West Hills/West Rock’s Ward 30 and Beaver Hills’ Ward 29. The votes are advisory, signals of candidate strength; ward committee co-chairs cast votes that count for the party’s endorsement at a July 27 Democratic convention.

Management teams do not cast these votes. They did ask questions of the candidate at Tuesday night’s East Shore CMT meeting. The elephant in that Zoom room: A deal with a Tweed-New Haven’s authority that will including having a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs expand and run the East Shore airport for 43 years. The deal is now headed for approval from the Board of Alders.

Addressing Elicker, CMT chair Howie Blau raised a question first heard during a similar meeting last Thursday: Can alders still amend parts of the deal?

Elicker’s answer: Technically, yes. In practicality, no.

Several residents remarked on Tuesday that while they had supported Elicker in 2019, the final Tweed deal could make or break their votes this year. Residents have raised numerous concerns with its various provisions, including at this community meeting last week; and some are organizing to derail or amend the proposed deal.

The mayor began his response by reiterating his existing commitment to hear residents’ concerns.

“We’ve negotiated a deal that I strongly believe, because our team worked very hard on it, addresses many of the issues that have come up in the community, whether it’s on vehicle traffic, whether it’s on noise, whether it’s on eliminating the city subsidy, environmental issues, and I have been in many meeting listening and incorporating that input into this deal,” he said.

And while continued feedback could influence the alders to change certain provisions, any change would ​“blow up” the deal and force renegotiation with the deal’s original partners (Tweed’s airport authority and management firm Avports).

“I’m happy to have conversations with people about potential changes but it’s very difficult at this point for us to make significant changes to the deal.”

In a statement to the Independent after the meeting, DuBois-Walton said that the Board of Alders should be able to amend the deal through its legislative process. The agreement with Avports was made without public input, she noted.

“To have no opportunity for public input or say on the details of the deal, then to insist that the legislative body can have no input or say either is concerning — particularly when some of the language in this deal put private property directly at risk. We need the community to be able to say more than simply yes or no.”