Paul Bass Photo
Steve Fontana in his last week as a New Haven development official, recording a press conference outside College Street Music Hall Wednesday.
A third New Haven city government official is heading west to help a new mayor build up her city.
The official, Steve Fontana, is resigning his post as a deputy economic development administrator to run the city of West Haven’s economic development department. He starts the new job on Monday.
“I look forward to bringing what I’ve learned in New Haven” to the 55,000-population city next door, Fontana said Wednesday as he attended a press conference that reflects the work he has done here over the past 10 and a half years.
The press conference took place outside the College Street Music Hall, which he worked on helping to open inside the shuttered former Palace Theater. The event marked the opening of seasonal outdoor dining, another project he worked on. Former Mayor Toni Harp originally brought Fontana, a former state legislator, to the city job.
In West Haven, Fontana will step into a top position that has been vacant for three years. First order of business: “Getting the cover off the car and getting the engine started again,” he said. He’ll face challenges like reviving the Haven project, for which West Haven cleared land for a proposed $200 million upscale outlet mall that never got built.
West Haven Mayor Dorinda Borer has now hired three officials away from New Haven since her election last November to a first term. Rick Fontana (no relation to Steve) resigned as New Haven’s emergency management chief to take on the same job in West Haven. New Haven Budget Director Michael Gormany left to become West Haven’s budget director.