In Cove, Candidate Flies The Union Label

As she roamed the darkening streets of Morris Cove talking to voters, Sarah Saiano made no apologies for her reason for running for alderwoman: She’s in a union. She’s backed by her union. And she and her union want to serve as a counterweight to Mayor John DeStefano’s influence with the Board of Aldermen.

“I want the the board to have its own vision for the city,” Saiano, 61, told a voter as she went door to door Thursday evening. ​“Sometimes it should work in conjunction with the mayor, but sometimes it should carve out its own path. It should not always be in lock step with the mayor.”

Saiano, a research assistant in Yale University’s psychiatry department, is on the board of UNITE HERE pink-collar Local 34, which, along with blue-collar Local 35 is supporting 15 aldermanic candidates challenging a slate of Democratic establishment-backed aldermen in party primaries on Sept. 13.

The City Hall-backed slate has put union-backed candidates on the defensive, and not all candidates have emphasized their labor ties. Saiano, on the other hand, said she saw no reason to hide her union label as one of two labels (the other being pro-City Hall) being worn in aldermanic primary contests.

Other political lines are being blurred in the Morris Cove Ward 18 contest, though: Saiano’s party establishment-backed Democratic opponent, Sal DeCola, is running openly against the Democratic union slate but expressing support for the ward’s Republican incumbent.

“This ward has the highest union density in the city, maybe even the highest in the state,” she said. ​“There are a lot of union people in this neighborhood. All kinds of unions, of course, teachers, firemen, police.”

Even if the union message doesn’t play well, she said, ​“I’d find it very difficult to do it any other way.”

Saiano declared her candidacy at the end of June.

Morris Cove is the Republican Party’s last redoubt in New Haven. It has elected a Republican alderman for 20 years; incumbent Arlene DePino is currently the only Republican on the 30-member Board of Aldermen. Yet even here the battle this Democrat primary season is shaping up to be between labor and the party establishment. Like all primaries, it also is a neighborhood-flavored personality contest, between two longtime New Haveners whose lives ended up on divergent paths.

DePino Fan

Saiano’s opponent in the Sept. 13 primary is Salvatore DeCola, 54, a retired letter carrier. The primary isn’t the end of the story; the winner will face four-term GOP incumbent DePino. If she loses in the primary, Saiano, who qualified for the ballot as an Independent, could run in the general election. She said she hasn’t decided whether she actually would.

DeCola, though backed by the Democratic Town Committee, spoke of his fellow Democrat Saiano as more of an opponent than the Republican incumbent. When asked, he didn’t provide a single reason DePino — whom he would face in November if he wins the primary — should not be re-elected. 

“None” was his succinct reply to the question. ​“If I could do an equal job to Arlene, I would do a great job,” De Cola said, adding that he and the incumbent have worked together on the carnival at nearby St. Bernadette’s Church.

While he chatted, DeCola stood on the green strip of the Pardee Parkway in the bright, early afternoon sunshine Saturday. He had invited some friends and neighbors to help him clear debris left from the week-earlier storm. Among the handful of friends who dropped by: Alderwoman DePino.

So why is DeCola running for DePino’s seat and presumably willing to challenge her in the general election should he beat Saiano on Sept. 13?

“I wanted to,” said DeCola, during the cleanup that involved not many people, not much debris, and no signs of a campaign. ​“I felt I wanted to run. It’s a free country. I decided to run.”

DeCola became a candidate when Nicholas Colavolpe, a retired Southern Connecticut State University custodian and 10-year member of the Democratic ward committee, decided at the last minute not to run. ​“Nick threw his support 100 percent behind me,” DeCola said.

Over Colavolpe’s strenuous objections and the votes of most of the ward committee members, the ward committee chairs did not endorse either DeCola or Saiano at their July meeting. The committee members’ sentiment led one of the ward chairs to change his mind, however, and DeCola became the endorsed candidate at the Democratic Town Committee meeting later that month.

DeCola isn’t as keen on his Democratic challenger as he is on the Republican incumbent. He said he knows of Saiano but doesn’t ​“know her personally.”

Although DeCola wasn’t willing to criticize the union directly — he’s a union guy too, a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers — he echoed the line offered by many supporters of City Hall-backed candidates: ​“I’m not against unions but what I’ve been told is: What is their agenda? Is it for New Haven or is it for the union to get more money for itself?”

DeCola was more pointed in contrasting his campaign with Saiano’s, particularly the union volunteers helping her out. ​“I’m walking the beat by myself,” he said. ​“I don’t need anyone speaking for me.”

Although he said he has canvassed the neighborhood twice already, DeCola hasn’t been walking much lately. He spent the week before the storm in Maine. He spent the week working on his house’s deck, which had been destroyed, and tending to his ailing mother. He said a reporter couldn’t accompany him while he campaigned last week because he wouldn’t be campaigning.

DeCola didn’t attend the East Shore Management Team’s mayoral and aldermanic forum on April 9. Instead, he went to an appreciation dinner for those who worked at the St. Bernadette’s Church fair.

Saiano has been canvassing three nights a week from 5:30 to 8:30, and on Saturdays from 9 to 1:30. She has been accompanied by Yale co-workers and union members, some of whom live in the neighborhood, some of whom do not.

On Thursday night, she had what she described as a fairly typical team of six to eight volunteers. They included Len Nalencz of Local 217 and three other union workers who do not live in Ward 18. Ella Vollano, a neighbor and Yale employee, walked with her 12-year-old daughter, Gianna (pictured above).

Saiano made her rounds with another Yale employee and neighbor, Josh Kenney.

In going door-to-door on a few blocks of Ocean View Street and Meadow View Road, Saiano didn’t see any reason to hide her union affiliation. To the few voters who were home, such as Erwin Culver, pictured, she mentioned it without apologies.

​“I’m very proud to be part and parcel of a force at Yale that makes working at Yale better on a concrete level as well as paying my bills,” she said later.

Contacted by phone, Culver said he liked the union appeal but needed to know more about Saiano’s positions before making up his mind. He said DeCola had stopped at his door too.

She said she worries about blurring of political lines in Morris Cove. While canvassing the neighborhood, Saiano pointed out a ​“Republican stalwart” household sporting DeStefano and DeCola lawn signs, suggesting that both the mayor and Republicans might prefer to see DeCola win the primary.

Although Saiano doesn’t shirk from the union label, there’s one rumor making the rounds that does bother her — that she’s an interloper in Morris Cove. She bought her first house here 38 years ago, she said, sold that one in 1993 and bought another.

Her current home, at 55 Hall St., has some lore attached to it. Karen Carpenter, of the brother-and-sister duo who scored such 1970s hits as ​“We’ve Only Just Begun,” and “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” lived in the house until the family moved to California in 1963. Carpenter died of anorexia in 1983 at the age of 32.

Fans show up at Saiano’s house occasionally, she said. At the request of the previous owners, Saiano keeps a plaque that Carpenter supposedly made when she lived there hanging on a wall in her house.

Home lore isn’t unusual in Morris Cove, even for houses that haven’t been inhabited by celebrities. DeCola said his waterfront house at 120 Townsend Ave., which he bought 12 years ago, is known as ​“the Martindales’ house” for its previous owners. ​“A house isn’t known by your name until you move,” DeCola explained.

Both Saiano and DeCola may have deep roots in Morris Cove, but neither one has gotten into the weeds in terms of establishing positions on policy issues that affect the ward.

Classrooms & Departure Gates

No issue looms larger in the neighborhood than the future of Tweed airport, yet neither candidate has staked out a clear position.

Before visiting voters door-to-door on Thursday evening, Saiano and her team of volunteers stopped by Mayor DeStefano’s office to present a petition on the airport signed by 158 people. Among them were Lisa Ventura and Laura McHugh, who live at the corner of Burr and Stuyvesant— ​“basically Gate D of the airport” — and are upset about the stink and the noise.

The mayor wasn’t in; mayoral Chief of Staff Sean Matteson, who happens to live in the ward, accepted on his behalf.

The petition was light on substance. Neither Saiano, nor anyone with her, seemed to know to whom the petition was addressed or why, beyond the salutation: ​“To Representative Larson.” Tim Larson is the airport authority’s executive director, a state representative from East Hartford and brother of U.S. Rep. John Larson.

And the petition did little more than request that nearby residents be included in any discussion of possible expansion plans. Asked whether she favors expansion, Saiano wouldn’t say more than ​“there’s a better way to address the airport’s presence in the neighborhood.”

DeCola wasn’t any more specific about Tweed’s possible growth. ​“I’m not saying we need expansion,” DeCola said.

He did note that US Airways, the only major airline to fly out of Tweed, ​“doesn’t really bother anyone because they don’t fly late.” The only problem is with ​“the private planes that are flying at any time,” he said, although he said he has no proposals for how to address that.

“I don’t know what the rules are, the guidelines, what the FAA says,” DeCola said. ​“I’ll have to do research on my own. I don’t want to make any promises until I know what the rules are.”

Similarly, both candidates noted that many people in the neighborhood are upset that their kids can be shut out of the local elementary school.

In talking to Nicole Gadson-Pitter, who had moved to Morris Cove from Newhallville a year ago, Saiano described how all three of her children attended Nathan Hale School, but when her daughter moved back to the neighborhood, her three grandchildren weren’t able to get in.

Gadson-Pitter said she had looked into Nathan Hale for her two younger children, but they had attended Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School in Hamden since pre‑K and she decided not to move them.

“So you have a good outcome,” Saiano said to Gadson-Pitter, adding that she was ​“not necessarily opposed to having schools open to other kids.” The point is ​“all schools should be good schools people want to send their kids to.”

She later suggested that the city has spent too much money on renovating schools rather than staffing schools with teachers and teachers’ aides. But she didn’t explain how more staffing should be accomplished and whether a return to neighborhood schools should be part of the mix.

DeCola also deferred taking a position, saying he needs to talk to the superintendent of schools to learn from him ​“what is their rules about the radius you have to live” to attend a certain school. He added: ​“It’s a learning curve. You need to know all this information but nobody can. Nobody knows it all.”

Second Acts

Where Saiano and DeCola most clearly depart is in their life stories, even though they started at a similar place.

Both were born in New Haven into Italian-American families. Saiano moved to West Haven when she was little but continued to visit her grandmother on Franklin Street until her grandmother was driven out by the construction of I‑95.

DeCola said his grandfather arrived in 1907 from Naples and moved right to Main Street in Fair Haven. DeCola grew up in Fair Haven surrounded by his family, including his grandparents. His grandfather gardened and made his own wine. DeCola’s father died from a brain tumor when he was 11. DeCola attended Benjamin Jepson elementary school, Fair Haven Middle School, and Wilbur Cross High School.

At 16 he got his first job, pumping gas, and then did some factory work. At 21, DeCola started working as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service on Brewery Street. He retired 30 years later. He now works occasionally as a licensed electrician, makes his own wine, as his grandfather did, and helps raise his 12-year-old daughter.

Although he said he’s a lifelong Democrat, DeCola wasn’t involved in politics until this race. His civic involvement was primarily with his church, St. Bernadette’s.

Saiano also wasn’t very involved in politics during what she described as her ​“first adult life.” She didn’t graduate from high school; she later earned a GED. She had her first child at 16 and spent the next several years raising that child and the two that followed.

In 1989 Saiano got a job as a research assistant in Yale’s psychiatry department. The department’s work, which she described as involving ​“some of the most brilliant researchers,” transformed her.

“I lived my life backwards,” she said. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Springfield College in Massachusetts in 2002 at age 53 and then her masters in women’s studies from Southern Connecticut State University six years later. 

Women studies has provided a link between her two lives. Although she said she appreciates the ​“cutting-edge” theoretical work done by tenured professors, she considers it important not to lose sight of ​“women’s daily lives.” She tried to do that in an introduction to women’s studies course she taught at Quinnipiac University in the spring, she said. She plans to teach again this year.

Around the same time that she earned her degrees, Saiano became involved in her union and in the union’s efforts in the broader community. Two fights in particular brought her ​“so many times” into the aldermanic chambers.

The first took place in 2003 and involved the unions’ demands for an accounting of all tax-exempt property in the city. An ordinance with such a requirement passed, she said, but ​“it has never been implemented.”

The second was the 2010 fight to expand the city’s living wage. That hit home. She said at the time that her children’s difficulty in finding good paying jobs put a strain on her finances.
 
In her campaign literature, Saiano said she had to give up a house she had bought for her children because ​“our financial situation reached a breaking point.”

She now envisions herself fighting these fights from the inside, not the outside.

“I’ve worked really hard to get these things passed,” Saiano said. ​“It’s just a natural process to want to be one of those that takes the vote.”