3 Seek West Rock/West Hills Seat

Two of the three candidates running to be the next alder for Ward 30 are lifelong New Haveners with connections and histories that they hope will bridge both sides of the big rock on the west side of town.

They also hope to turn out enough voters to decide whether strong experience or new energy matters most in the next representative for the West Rock/West Hills section of the city.

Those two candidates are Michelle Sepulveda, who was appointed by Mayor Toni Harp to serve out the rest of the term of Carlton Staggers, who resigned; and Tosha James-Goldson, who is throwing her hat in the political arena for the first time.

Though it has among the lowest voter turnout in town, Ward 30 nevertheless has three candidates running for the alder seat. The third candidate is Charlie Delgado. Multiple attempts to reach Delgado for this article were unsuccessful. Delgado and James-Goldson have qualified to have their names placed on both the Sept. 12 Democratic primary ballot and the Nov. 7 general election ballot. Sepulveda is running only in the primary.

If the surnames Sepulveda and Goldson are familiar, they should be. Sepulveda served as the West Rock/West Hills alder for two terms. James-Goldson is married to a former West Rock/West Hills alder, Darnell Goldson, who now serves as an elected member of the city’s Board of Education.

Both women promised to help the ward get its fair share of government resources. They offered some different perspectives on the ward.

Sepulveda said she sees the ward through the lens of someone who has lived on both sides of West Rock. She lived in the old Brookside public-housing development as a teen and now lives on the West Hills side on Rock Creek Road, the same street where more than 20 of her first cousins lived when she was growing up.

James-Goldson said she sees the ward through the eyes of someone who once lived in public housing in the city as a young single mother, raising her first child and trying to get an education and jobs to improve their life; to now being a married two-time homeowner in the neighborhood. She first owned a home on Rock Street and now owns one on West Hills Road.

Alder As Connector

“I want to improve my community,” James-Goldson said. ​“I feel as though Carlton [Staggers] was filling the seat but he didn’t do much as far as fulfilling his obligations to the community.”

James-Goldson, who is a licensed practical nurse by night — she works the third shift — and wife and mother of two by day said that if she is elected she will be focused on addressing crime and after-school opportunities in the ward.

“Most of the people of the ward work,” she said. ​“And children don’t really have a place to go to after school where they can continue their education or just have a positive environment to play and de-stress and get positive love and feedback.”

James-Goldson said she understands the daily struggles that some of her constituents in public housing might be experiencing. As an alder she would work to make sure that they know that the city has resources that can help them do what she did to improve her life with education, a career, and homeownership. If the resources for after-school programs don’t exist, she said, she wants to be part of driving the discussion of creating them.

Sepulveda is running as the Ward incumbent; she also served two terms as its alder from 2006 – 9. She said she sees the challenge for the ward less in terms of a lack of resources, more in terms of it less as a lack of information about what is available in the neighborhood. She said she wants to be a bridge to those resources, not only when it comes to after-school programs, but for jobs, particularly for 18 to 24-year-old men.

“It feels good going door-to-door talking to so many constituents,” she said. ​“So many were happy that I’m back. And it’s a good time for me to be back. With my experience and my concern, I see that the community can use me.”

Sepulveda supported Staggers to represent the ward because of his ties and commitment to the neighborhood; she also considers him a friend. She said she is not looking to place blame on the current state of the ward, which no longer has a functioning ward committee.

Jumpstarting Involvement

“I was shocked to see my list of registered Democratic voters,” Sepulveda said. ​“The numbers are low.”

She said when she was first serving as alder the Brookside and Rockview public housing developments both were being redeveloped. Now that they’re back online, she said, it’s time for some coalition building and getting folks back registered to vote and involved beyond elections.

“Safety is the number one issue,” she said. ​“And when I say safety I mean as far as young kids are concerned with the shootings that have happened, but also the safety around traffic. There are so many kids in the neighborhood and I’ve already had calls for a couple of speed bumps in the area.”

Sepulveda, who also is a mom of three, is currently a truancy prevention specialist and cheerleading coach at Hillhouse High School so the youth of the city are dear to her heart.

“I wear many hats,” she said. ​“I love it.”

She said if she is elected to be alder once more, rebuilding that sense of community will be high on her priority list, along with working on both ward and citywide issues.

“I think we are doing a great job as a city,” she said. ​“The mayor is doing a great job particularly when it comes to working with the youth. I’m a part of Youth Stat and I think we are doing all the right things as far as kids are concerned and we need to build on that.”

James-Goldson also has her eyes set on bringing the two sides of the ward together through voting, but also with good old-fashioned block parties and other neighborhood events that help people connect with their neighbors. She said often people don’t believe their vote matters; she pointed to the election of former President Barack Obama as what can happen when people do exercise their voting rights.

“It does matter,” she said. ​“Your vote does count, and you need to come vote for your alderman and vote for someone who is going to stand up for you, who understands and knows what you’re going through.”