Thomas MacMillan Photo
Candidate Chris Campbell makes his pitch.
Maybe Wooster Square needs not just slower traffic on Chapel Street, but a non-union-backed Democrat or— gasp—a Republican on the Board of Aldermen.
For now it appears the neighborhood has four flavors to choose from for alderman, as democracy continues to flower in New Haven Spring.
All four flavors were on display in the library of Conte/West Hills Magnet School on Chapel Street Tuesday night, where four candidates for the Ward 8 aldermanic seat pitched their campaigns to two dozen neighbors.
It was the latest example of a burst of electoral competition this year in the wake of Mayor John DeStefano’s decision to retire after 20 years in office. Five Democrats are running in a party primary to succeed him; a potentially competitive general election campaign looms as well. Meanwhile, three candidates have formed campaigns and are running hard for the normally uncontested half-time position of city/town clerk.
The Ward 8 seat is opening up as five-term incumbent Alderman Michael Smart seeks the city clerk’s office. He will step down as alderman at the end of the year.
Ward 8 straddles the Mill River and includes Wooster Square, parts of Fair Haven and the Annex, as well as Jocelyn Square and the Farnam Courts housing project. Tuesday’s forum revealed that the ward’s candidates and voters are concerned not only with local issues like motorcycles speeding down Chapel Street, but also with citywide matters like the role of unions in New Haven politics, and controlling city spending.
The neighborhood will also decide whether the city is ready to once again have a Republican on the Board of Aldermen. Wooster Square’s Andy Ross, a Republican, has filed to run. The current board has only Democratic members.
The other three Ward 8 candidates — all Democrats — are Aaron Greenberg, a Yale political science PhD candidate and head of the graduate students labor organization; opera director Peter Webster; and Chris Campbell, who was managing State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield’s campaign for mayor until Holder-Winfield dropped out of the race Tuesday. He also manages Downtown Alderman Doug Hausladen’s re-election campaign; he worked with Hausladen last year on clean-elections legislation.
In his remarks, Campbell positioned himself as part of an effort to break up the domination of the Board of Aldermen by candidates affiliated with Yale’s UNITE HERE Locals 34 and 35 unions. Labor-backed candidates hold a majority of the board after sweeping to power en masse during the elections of 2011.
Union Power
Campbell (pictured at the top of the story in T‑shirt and shorts) began by apologizing for his informal attire; he said he’d just come from planting trees on State Street.
“I’m running because I see where the city is going,” he said. The city needs “more choices for leadership.”
The board needs “structural change,” he said. “It’s OK for a group to have a voice” on the board, he said, referring to Yale’s unions, “but not the only voice.”
Campbell said having a union-affiliated majority on the board gives people from the suburbs too much control over city politics, since so many Yale union members live outside of New Haven.
Aldermen shouldn’t be in the position of on one day asking for a wage raise as Yale union members and the next day saying “you can have this street for almost nothing,” he said. The Board of Aldermen recently voted to sell portions of Wall and High streets to Yale for $3 million.
He called the situation a conflict of interest. “If they were judges, they would have had to recuse themselves,” he said.
Greenberg (pictured) disagreed. He’s the head of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO), which seeks recognition as a union affiliated with UNITE HERE. He said union affiliations on the current Board of Aldermen do not amount to a conflict of interest, nor would it be a conflict of interest if he were elected to the board.
He said the labor-backed aldermen vote as individuals not as a bloc. “I reject the premise that there is a slate that votes all together,” he said. (Some of the union-backed aldermen voted for the Yale street sale, some against.)
Greenberg said that although GESO is affiliated with Locals 34 and 35 — “We are in their federation” — he’s not running with the support of those unions. “At this point I’m running as myself.”
Campbell said Greenberg couldn’t be independent from Locals 34 and 35, since GESO shares offices with them on College Street.
“We don’t need an additional alderman on the supermajority,” Campbell said.
Platforms
Each candidate Tuesday evening had a chance to introduce himself and answer questions. Some highlights:
Andy Ross: “Full disclosure: I am the Republican candidate for alderman for Ward 8,” began Ross (pictured), who’s 55. No one mentioned the revelation again.
Ross presented a comprehensive resume of his career and community accomplishments. He said he’s been a small business lender for 30 years. He started a consumer finance company in the late ‘80s, built it to 200 employees, then sold it. He’s the author of Think Outside The Bank and a student at Harvard school of management. He’s a certified public housing administrator and the current chair of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team. He’s on the board of Newhallville’s Promise Land project and the Christian Community Commission.
“You can see I’m a community guy,” Ross said.
Ross said his goals for Ward 8 are to continue an increase in public safety, bring down the city’s debt somehow, and tackle trash. “I cannot stand litter,” Ross said. He said he’s installed his own garbage cans near the corner of Chapel and Olive, and regularly picks up trash there.
Asked about taxes and reducing debt, Ross said, “We’re going to have to get harsh.” Cuts will be necessary, he said. “They key word is compromise.”
Peter Webster: “I am absolutely new to the world of public service,” said Webster (pictured), who is 65 and grew up in Mexico City. “I am a theater person.”
Webster said his platform is “civility, security, and opportunity.” He called for traffic calming on Chapel Street, more dialogue between the different sections of the ward, and more programs for city youth, particularly internships in the arts.
He said he’s a captain of the Wooster Square block watch and would like to see more block watches in the ward.
He said he would not petition to get on the ballot if he fails to win the ward Democratic committee’s nomination.
Chris Campbell: Campbell, who’s 31, agreed the Chapel Street needs traffic-calming measures. He called for “bump-outs” and more trees. “Chapel Street should not be a drag strip.”
Campbell said the city should have a “debt management policy” to hold lawmakers accountable for spending. He called the city budget “a moral document” that should be created through a process of “participatory budgeting.”
He said scrutiny and “sunlight” on the budget would reveal “easy cuts.” The budget has “low hanging fruit,” like a hypothetical “someone from Guilford” who’s doing a job because he happens to have a connection in City Hall, Campbell said.
Campbell said as aldermen he’d push to plant about 40 more trees in the ward. He said he’s lived in the ward for a year, but has been in and out of New Haven for 12 years.
He said he’d get more people using SeeClickFix, the problem-solving website, and be accessible to constituents by phone, email, in person, and through his website. “I am a direct-democracy Democrat.”
He said he would petition to get on the ballot if he doesn’t get the ward Democratic committee’s nomination.
Aaron Greenberg: Greenberg, who’s 25, said he grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, got a taste of city life as a student at the University of Chicago and plans to stay in New Haven beyond graduation from his PhD program. He’s lived in the ward since moving to town last year.
He also called for traffic-calming and praised community policing. He said he’d tackle budget woes but also make sure that cuts don’t “fall on the backs of working families.” Most importantly, more people need to be employed, he said. He hailed New Haven Works, the new job-training organization aldermen helped to create.
Greenberg said the city budget has “lots of inefficiencies,” including many different health contracts that could be combined.
Asked about balancing the interests of grad students and Ward 8 neighbors, Greenberg said said the interests of the two groups are the same. Grad students are “not an interest group apart from other folks here.”
He said he hasn’t decided if he would petition to get on the ballot if he doesn’t get the ward Democratic committee’s nomination.