Thomas Breen photo
Mayor Toni Harp, Hill Alder Dolores Colon, and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers.
Alders bid six of their retiring colleagues a tear-filled thank you and adieu, including for the longest-serving member of the current Board of Alders, the Hill’s Dolores Colon, who is stepping down after nine terms in the all-but-volunteer “job.”
Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers and Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow led that celebratory and emotional reception in honor of their departing legislative partners Monday night in the second-floor atrium of City Hall.
Nearly all 30 local legislators were present, as were Mayor Toni Harp, City Clerk Michael Smart, and a host of supportive family, friends, and fellow city employees.
Walker-Myers and Furlow presented certificates of appreciation from the mayor’s office, the clerk’s office, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz’s office, and Gov. Ned Lamont’s office to the six alders who will be vacating their seats on the board come January.
Five of the six departing alders: David Reyes, Colon, Michelle Sepulveda, Hacibey Catalbasoglu, and Brenda Harris. Not pictured: Kenneth Reveiz.
Those alders are Ward 1’s Hacibey Catalbasoglu, Ward 5’s David Reyes, Ward 6’s Dolores Colon, Ward 8’s Brenda Harris, Ward 14’s Kenneth Reveiz, and Ward 30’s Michelle Sepulveda.
“You really can’t get away, even if you try,” Walker-Myers said with a smile. “We welcome that, because we need to keep people engaged in our city.”
Catalbasoglu is leaving to attend graduate school in New York City after serving one two-year term on the board in the Downtown/Yale seat. He’ll be replaced by Yale college sophomore and Democrat Eli Sabin.
Reyes, who works for Lamont in Hartford, is leaving after four years representing the Hill on the board, and will be replaced by Kampton Singh.
Walker-Myers presiding over Monday’s celebratory reception.
Harris is leaving after finishing out the second half of former Wooster Square Alder Aaron Greenberg’s last two-year term on the board, and will be replaced by Ellen Cupo.
Colon is leaving after 18 years representing the Hill and City Point on the board, and will be replaced by Carmen Rodriguez.
Reveiz is leaving after one two-year term representing Fair Haven on the board, and will be replaced by Paola Acosta.
Buffet dining before the alders moved to their Democratic caucus.
And Sepulveda is leaving after serving one-and-a-half two-year terms representing West Rock/West Hills on the board, and will be replaced by former city public works staffer Honda Smith.
The six departing alders all decided not to run for reelection.
“Yours is a hallowed task,” said Harp (pictured), who is also slated to vacate her position as the city’s executive come January after losing the general election to Justin Elicker in November.
“To serve as liaison to city government on behalf of an entire ward. To be the connection between residents, property owners, business interests, and the government meant to provide services for them.”
Former Board of Alders President and current state Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez (pictured), who is Reyes’s uncle and the former occupant of his nephew’s current Ward 5 seat, congratulated his colleagues on committing themselves diligently to a part-time job that pays around $2,000 per year and requires one to be constantly on the clock.
“At the end of the day, to see that you were part of a process to make life a little better for someone who needed help,” he said, “I think that is the ultimate payment.”
The departing alders took their turn thanking their colleagues for serving alongside them on the board at the end of the full board’s regular monthly meeting later Monday night in the Aldermanic Chambers.
“I thank God and my community for taking a chance on a kid born and raised in the Hill,” said Reyes (pictured at right, with East Rock Alder Anna Festa). In addition to his uncle being the former president of the board, he said his father worked as a janitor and a union steward at Yale in UNITE HERE Local 35.
Reyes said he never could have guessed growing up that he would be serving on the city’s local legislature alongside two of his father’s co-workers and fellow union leaders, Ward 28’s Brian Wingate and Ward 2’s Frank Douglass. “New Haven is my home and will always be my home.”
Colon (pictured above, with Ward 17’s Jody Ortiz) thanked her fellow alders for working alongside her and supporting her as she spent 18 years representing the Hill’s Ward 6 on the board.
“I’d like to thank my constituents for giving me nine terms to help bring the community forward,” she said.
She said she was most proud of her work advocating for former tenants of the now-demolished Church Street South apartment complex, and for playing her part in helping them find new housing and get out of the persistently unsafe and unhealthy residences. “They had been hurting for so long,” Colon said.
When asked what lessons new and aspiring alders should take from Colon’s nearly two decades on the job, Walker-Myers said: “Be respectful. Stand in your truth. And never leave the community out.”
Click here to watch part of Monday night’s reception.