Allan Appel Photo
Vega, Rhodeen, Baker, Barnes
Three political newcomers tossed their hats in the ring as Fair Haven Heights Alderman Alex Rhodeen decided not to seek a fourth term. His preferred successor, music composer David Baker, received the unanimous backing by voice vote of Ward 13 Democratic Ward Committee members at an al fresco meeting Wednesday night in front of Jepson School.
The race has just begun. New Haven Parking Authority facilities manager Josh Vega and Yale Child Study Center financial analyst Brenda Jones Barnes showed up with multi-colored flyers and addressed the 25 committee members, who also received them warmly. The three will now compete for the party nod in a Sept. 13 primary, one of at least three aldermanic primaries involving three or more candidates. (Others are in Dixwell’s Ward 22, a four-way contest, and Ward 27 on the west side.)
The three Fair Haven Heights candidates agreed on many issues Wednesday night, such as the need for more traffic calming and infrastructure upgrades in the Heights along with a faster finish to the still disruptive Q Avenue redo; more vigorous and timely police presence; and more local pride and communication.
Rhodeen called Vega the mayor’s choice and Barnes, who’s been door knocking since June, the favorite of the unions. In his view the race is wide open.
In announcing his retirement, Rhodeen said, “I didn’t get everything done I liked, but I’m proud of how the Ferry Street Bridge was finished; that this neighborhood has received as many federal, state, and local dollars as possible; and neighbors worked together to solve problems.”
He said the Heights is on the upswing. He bequeathed that awareness to his preferred successor, whom Rhodeen said he had found in work-at-home composer David Baker.
“I didn’t want to leave until there was a strong candidate to represent the neighborhood,” Rhodeen said.
At a little after 7 p.m., with about half the 55-member committee assembled on the plaza in front of the school, Co-chairs Linda Davis and Al Onorato called the proceedings to order and asked for nominations. Rhodeen nominated Baker.
Then Peter Treffers nominated Barnes. When Onorato asked for a second, there was silence. Although locals were there to second Barnes, including her son Scott, none who offered were members of the committee; the bylaws state that while any registered Democrat in the ward can be nominated, the nominators need to be on the committee.
Barnes said that her seconder, a committee member, was late due to the closure of the Grand Avenue Bridge and other construction obstacles, an issue that all the candidates would raise in their subsequent remarks.
Onorato ruled that the meeting couldn’t wait and that as there was no second, Barnes’ nomination could not proceed.
Nearby Josh Vega stood, along with his friend and mentor Fair Haven Alderwoman Migdalia Castro; no one from the ward committee nominated him.
“Are there any more nominations?” Onorato called.
As there were none, he pronounced the proceedings closed and asked Baker to speak for five minutes.
Before he began, Barnes’s official seconder arrived. Onorato said the elections had been closed already. Barnes’ son Scott asked if they could be reopened by a motion. Onorato said no. “I don’t make the rules,” he said.
“So that’s the way things are done around here,” Scott Barnes was heard to mumble.
But the atmosphere remained friendly, if a little competitive and charged, as Baker made his pitch.
A composer of music for productions of Elm City Shakespeare Company among others, Baker works at home and is a stay-at-home dad whose second daughter was born just this week. Baker said that means he rarely leaves the neighborhood, which he offered as a feather in his candidate’s hat. He has lived on Quinnipiac Avenue for just over nine years. His top issue: the need for more police presence to deal with speeding especially along stretches of Lenox and Lexington, which have been the sad recipients of speeders on under-construction Quinnipiac Avenue.
His nuts-and-bolts platform includes calls for a bulb in every streetlight and traffic bumps where needed. That, along with more local pride by homeowners to be evidenced by more yard maintenance and removal of brush and snow.
Baker said the Board of Aldermen spends too much of its time “testing for public policy” and not on more concrete issues. “It seems silly to be concerned about the color of sails when there’s a hole in the bottom of the boat. Like [debating] plastic grocery bags [when] people are being shot and basic infrastructure focus seems to be lacking.”
Barnes with ex-Alderman John Fabrizio.
A resident of Clifton Avenue, Jones is the mother of three city public school graduates and a grandmother. She said that the long-term inspiration for her to run for office for the first time is her dad Ernest Jones, Sr., who served on many city boards under three different mayors. A recipient of an award from the Board of Ed for helping set up a math program at Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School, Jones said she is “taking on the mantle” of her father by running for alderwoman.
Her main stated Ward 13 concerns: safety, leadership, and communication. When she knocked on doors in the winter to form a community watch, “people who have lived here for years said no one’s knocked on my door in years.” That was the catalyst of her candidacy, she said.
Barnes’s campaign leaflet makes more than oblique reference to Rhodeen’s attendance record at aldermanic committee and full board meetings. “As alderman, I will be there for you … a constant presence at City Hall, management team meetings, and all over our ward,” the leaflet states. “[I will] make my BOA attendance public, because I am accountable to you.”
Josh Vega lives on Lenox, where his wife Sylvia is expecting their first baby. He’s a youth group leader in the Star of Jacob Church on Howard Street and first began discussing a possible political run with Migdalia Castro when the two had opportunity to talk at the parking authority, where Castro had worked.
Vega said an ever earlier aspiration for public service was first to become a policeman, but a bad knee derailed that plan. “Being an alderman gives me the opportunity [for service],” he said.
Asked whether he was “the mayor’s candidate,” as Rhodeen had described him, Vega said: “I’m not the ‘mayor’s candidate.’ I’m the people’s candidate.”
His main issues in the ward are safety, especially of the traffic kind. He said he’s spoken to mothers who fear crossing at Lenox and Aner streets. Citywide it was the burden on homeowners. He called for the mill rate to remain unchanged. Then he added, “Our homeowners shouldn’t have to be the solution for the budget. No more property tax increase to close the gap,” he said.
City Democratic Registrar of Voters Sharon Ferrucci, who lives in Ward 13, was on hand to tell Baker’s two challengers that to get on the ballot they need just 70 signatures, or 5 percent of the total number of registered Democrats in the Heights.
Both challengers said they will begin knocking on doors to do precisely that. Baker planned to return to the hospital to spend time with his new baby, then organize his core group of supporters.