Candidates Spin 2‑Year Term Question

Should mayors get two years or four years before having to run for reelection?

That question echoed in Westville over the weekend as two campaigners for the position — the incumbent and his top challenger — fished for votes.

And in fact the question has popped up again and again citywide in the campaign between incumbent Justin Elicker and challenger Karen DuBois-Walton. Voters are asking whether Elicker deserves more time to carry out policies, especially after facing a once-in-a-century public health crisis, before facing possible removal from office; and whether New Haven should move from a two-year to a four-year mayoral term.

During a busy campaign weekend, Elicker and DuBois-Walton agreed on the possible need for longer terms while offering different spins on what it means for this election.

New Haven hasn’t voted out a first-term mayor since Samuel Campner lost a reelection bid in 1917. (Campner, New Haven’s first and only Jewish mayor, was actually a half-term mayor: As president of the then-named Board of Aldermen, he ascended to the mayoralty in 1917 when the previous mayor died, and he served out the term.)

DuBois-Walton told told guests at a Westville house party on Saturday that she’s open to supporting a four-year term — and in the meantime, she has the experience to make the most of a two-year term and produce results.

At a joint reelection campaign launch with Ward 26 Alder Darryl Brackeen Jr. Sunday in Edgewood Park, Elicker said he supports a four-year term. He argued that a two-year term makes it harder to govern.

On the campaign trail, Elicker has repeatedly asked voters for more time to implement his vision. He has pointed to successes during his term like a long-sought agreement to expand Union Station and a doubling of state municipal aid to cover revenue lost on taxes; but he also has argued that his administration will be able to make good on more promises over the next two years as the city exits the pandemic.

DuBois-Walton, meanwhile, said she challenged Elicker after just one term because of his mishandling of school reopenings and last year’s police headquarters protest. (Click here to read each side’s arguments at a recent ward committee forum.)

The two-year question emerged near the end of the Saturday house party hosted by Westville resident and committed DuBois-Walton supporter Matt Smith, a former East Rock alder and city development official.

Friends and neighbors mingled maskless amid jazz tones and platters of bacon-wrapped shrimp in Smith’s backyard. After the candidate’s retail pitch, attendees were given a chance to inquire on topics ranging from education to a controversial photo taken in Wooster Square on Thursday. (“I’m not going to take a photo without looking behind me again,” she said with a wry smile.)

Then architect Eric Epstein popped the question: Would you extend the mayoral term limit beyond two years?

Spending less time and energy on campaigning during a term would make mayors more efficient, he suggested.

The same question arose again in Westville on Sunday, at the cross-campaign event for Elicker and Alder Brackeen. Supporters, including Ward 1 Alder Eli Sabin, Board of Education member Ed Joyner, and Ward 27 Democratic co-chair Andrea Downer, gathered at Edgewood Park’s pavilion to hear both men’s stump speeches. They, too, chowed down — this time on collard greens, plantains, and banana pudding from Sandra’s Next Generation.

Environmental Advisory Council Chair Laura Cahn brought up Epstein’s same point.

“We should be spending more of our money and energy getting work done and not campaigning,” Cahn said, having raised the issue earlier at Thursday’s Ward 26 committee vote. Frequent campaign cycles also makes candidates more indebted to big-dollar donors, she added on Sunday.

Each mayoral candidate expressed openness to longer terms, but gave carefully-worded answers connecting the question to core campaign arguments.

Creating a four-year term would require a change to the city’s charter. A committee is formed every decade to consider charter changes, that then go before voters in a referendum as either a series of proposals or one combined package. The proposal to expand the mayoral term has arisen in the past, and has been repeatedly shot down. One time it was part of a larger package of proposed charter revisions that all failed because of opposition to other elements of it. During the last charter revision, in 2012, a newly elected majority of alders affiliated with Yale’s unions and looking to strengthen the power of the city’s legislature left the question off the ballot, arguing that two-year terms keep mayors more accountable.

Yes, DuBois-Walton said on Saturday, she would start a conversation on charter revision. But for now, said DuBois-Walton, who has served as head of the housing authority for 14 years and before that as mayoral chief of staff and city chief administrative officer, she can ​“hit the ground running” with her experience in city government and make the most of the two years. She argued that Elicker, who had no government experience beyond two terms as an alder, has instead used the limited term as an excuse for inaction.

“What the two-year term gives you is that urgency to get things done,” she said. ​“You’ve got to get in there and work with who’s there, build your team, set a big vision and start working really hard at it.”

Once elected, she said, she would start by immediately filling key vacancies in the government, such as chief administrative officer and a permanent police chief. She pointed out that many of the issues she has heard about from residents, including public safety and policing, are overseen by the currently-unoccupied CAO post.

On her first day, she would also kick off conversations with her extensive network of partners to set ​“big visions” on both education and economic development, she said.

When asked, Elicker agreed on the term length issue, saying that residents around the city frequently express support for longer terms. He stood by his short mayoral record, and during his speech to supporters cited a number of long-term successes. He then hit back at DuBois-Walton, saying that her overly negative campaign during his term is the very source of difficulty for his administration.

“The work we’re doing — we worked very hard to make sure it was not impacted by politics,” Elicker told the Independent. ​“But the time restriction, and you see it in the negative press conferences everyday, makes it more difficult to get things done everyday or bring people together.”

You can watch Elicker’s speech at Sunday’s event in this video.

Barry Gladue (pictured above), who attended the Saturday event at Matt Smith’s house, said he has not yet decided on his vote. While the term length question made him re-evaluate his view on Elicker’s performance as mayor, DuBois-Walton’s answers on Saturday were also effective, he said.

“I never gave enough serious thought to the fact that the mayoral term was only two years,” said Gladue. ​“But [today] gave me a very positive outlook on Karen.”

Fereshteh Bekhrad (pictured above with Cahn), present at Sunday’s Elicker event, said she wants to give Elicker another term, in part because much of his short term has been consumed by the pandemic.

“It’s a waste of the city’s energy. The city cannot afford a constant change in vision — what gets started doesn’t get continued, and never gets finished,” she argued.

I’ve Got The Experience

DuBois-Walton also highlighted extensive government experience earlier on Saturday as she blitzed across the city, speaking to voters in the Fair Haven’s 13th Ward, the Annex’s Ward 17, and Newhallville’s 21st as part of a June ​“30 Wards in 30 Days” door-knocking effort.

As she canvassed along Townsend Avenue, she encountered longtime friend and colleague Patti Walker (pictured above with DuBois-Walton), the CEO of the mental health nonprofit Continuum of Care

What began as a conversation about the mayoral race became a quick working session. Over the last year, Continuum of Care has had a crisis in staffing its various mental health services, Walker told her, even as it takes on new contracts with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This sparked an idea with DuBois-Walton, who began her career as a clinical psychologist. She pulled out her phone to connect Walker with contacts at the housing authority. Many public housing residents would be great candidates for entry-level positions at Continuum, she proposed.

Walker hugged the candidate. ​“That would be a lifesaver,” she said.

And, does she have Walker’s support, the candidate asked?

Of course, the nonprofit director said with an emphatic nod.

Making those kinds of connections and bringing partners together, DuBois-Walton said after the interaction, will make her the better mayor.

“[The city] is a huge bureaucracy, and [Elicker] just didn’t come in with a certain set of experiences that makes him equipped to handle that,” she said. ​“It’s a combination of not listening, not having those connections, and not being prepared.”