(Updated) Jeffrey Kerekes Tuesday asked voters to make him New Haven’s next mayor so he can serve less time in office, have less power, allow more citizens to tell him what to do, and give fewer friends and contributors jobs or contracts than the guy who has the job now.
Kerekes, a 38-year-old clinical social worker by trade and ubiquitous city government watchdog by avocation, announced his candidacy for mayor at a press conference at his Wooster Square home late Tuesday morning. He plans to run in the Sept. 13 Democratic Party primary and, if that quest fails, as an independent in the Nov. 8 general election.
Kerekes is looking to defeat incumbent Mayor John DeStefano, who’s seeking his 10th two-year term.
“People are tired of Mayor DeStefano,” Kerekes declared Tuesday.
Click on the play arrow to watch highlights from the press conference. Click here for a summary of his campaign themes.
Paul Bass Photo
Kerekes’ announcement brings to five the number of Democrats hoping to compete in the mayoral primary. One of the other contenders, Clifton Graves (at right in photo), attended the announcement at the renovated 1870 carriage house and former bottling plant where Kerekes and his wife live. “I welcome Jeffrey into the fray,” said Graves, who complimented Kerekes’ platform and said he plans to sit down with him for a chat on Thursday. “No one candidate or campaign has a monopoly on good ideas.”
Gary Doyens and Harry David (at left in photo with Graves), two fellow organizers of a citizen budget watchdog group Kerekes co-founded called the New Haven Citizens Action Network (NHCAN), attended the press conference in support.
Among Kerekes’ proposals: term limits allowing mayors to serve no more than eight years; and cutting the number of aldermen and paying them more, in order to attract legislators with more time and ability to keep a closer eye on the mayor’s office.
“There’s too much power in one person’s hands,” Kerekes said in an interview prior to the event. “We have to look at structural ways to prevent one person from taking control of the city for so long.”
Asked about Kerekes’ suggestions, DeStefano replied , “I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss that with the candidates in front of the public as the campaign gets going.” For now, he said, he’s focused on “the issues that confront us today: creating jobs, school reform … the issues of violence that are affecting our neighborhoods.”
Kerekes released a “volunteer contract form” that informs potential campaign workers that he won’t hire them or give them city business if he wins.
Here’s what he wants his volunteers to sign:
“I, ____________________________________________(Print Name), understand and agree that I have not been promised a job or contract or other business with the City of New Haven in exchange for my volunteer efforts on behalf of the campaign. Furthermore, I understand and agree that there will be no exchange of favors or special privileges to me or my group/organization(s) in exchange for my vote or support. I agree, in my efforts on behalf of the campaign, to abide by not only the letter, but the spirit of a clean election campaign and an end to cronyism.”
Those proposals come under the heading of “transparency,” part of a “Good Government” plank of Kerekes’ platform.
Kerekes vowed to change a culture in which “people get fired for talking to the press,” a student politics club gets shut down after its members speak out at a public hearing in favor of more spending on textbooks; a school board passes a budget three days after receiving it (over a weekend); citizens get chastised by officials for pushing for more bike lanes and narrower roads after being presented for plans on a major development project (Downtown Crossing); and a major policy decision gets made — the handing over of a public school to a private company — after “secret meetings” in which the press and public are barred.
The candidate said he’d bring more transparency and “accountability” in part by not punishing free speech or conducting public business so privately. In part he’d offer more information about the city’s financial condition to the public. A lot of that information comes through specialized documents like bond offering statements, which list, for instance, “millions of dollars in guarantees to private companies” through industrial revenue bonds, Kerekes noted. He’d like to see more public discussion about those bonds as well as updates on how companies are performing.
Kerekes also pledged to run “clean” and limit the influence of special interests and “cronies” — by participating in the city’s public financing system. That means he promises to accept contributions of no more than $340 from individuals and to limit overall spending in order to receive government money for his campaign. Mayor DeStefano originally proposed and helped create that system. “He did,” Kerekes responded. “He got chastised and fined for violating that program. This year’s he’s “thumbing his nose at it” and not participating. (In the spirit of a famous quote attributed to Harry S. Truman, Kerekes is pictured above with his Australian shepherd Luka, named after a character in a Suzanne Vega song.)
DeStefano first embraced the concept of public financing in 2000 after a corruption scandal and after facing criticism for his team’s campaign shakedowns of city contractors. The Fund offers a $17,000 grant plus matching money to candidates who raise a minimum of donations — at least $10 each from 200 local voters. A candidate who raises just $2,000 can obtain up to $21,000 if her opponent has raised at least $5,000. Participating candidates agree to limit how much they raise from each donor. DeStefano argued that the Fund had failed to lead more challengers to emerge in campaigns and had acted unreasonably with his campaign.
Kerekes offered three other top platform themes:
• “Education That Works.” Kerekes said he supports the city’s approach of trying a lot of different ideas as part of its ambitious school reform effort, including experimenting with some private management and charters. But he vowed to have freer, more detailed public discussion about those ideas before they become policy. He also said he’d put more “reformers” in charge of “reforming schools.”
“We need real reformers reforming our schools — not the same people who delivered failing results,” he argued. For example, the graduate rate at James Hillhouse High School is 44 percent.
He also criticized incumbent DeStefano, who has led the reform drive, for being “late to the party. He was kicking and screaming” for years when critics like the group ConnCAN presented evidence of school failure and called for changes. “Now he’s come around to make this his legacy.”
DeStefano’s response Tuesday: “I think New Haven’s school reform portfolio approach to managing school, accountability, climate surveys where parents rate their children’s schools, teacher evaluations, Promise, are the most aggressive suite of school efforts you’ll find anywhere else in America.”
• “A Safer New Haven.” New Haven probably doesn’t have the country’s fourth-highest violent crime rate, despite a sensationalistic headline generated by a study based on FBI statistics, Kerekes said. But it does have too much crime. He said he’d like to see the existing police force deployed better: more cops working night shifts, when more crime happens; and more of the experienced officers working night shifts. He also called for random twice-monthly mass traffic stops, in which officers ticket everyone violating traffic laws, as a way to make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians. He applauded the police department’s narcotics unit’s recent work with federal and state agencies.
• Charter Reform. If a maximum of eight years is “good enough for the president,” it’s good enough for New Haven’s mayor, Kerekes said. He’d like to see the city charter amended to limit the mayor to either four two-year terms or two four-year terms. He’d like to see the city’s 30-member Board of Aldermen shrunk so individuals can have more power, and so they can get paid more. The idea is to attract more qualified candidates and give them the time to wade through complex government proposals.
Kerekes dived into civic life in 2005 after receiving notice that the assessment on his home had doubled. He didn’t know how upset to get about that. He checked with a relative. Don’t worry, the relative said; “usually when they double the assessment, they cut the mill rate in half,” and taxes stay the same.
Soon he learned that, after a phase in, his taxes really were going to double.
He started attending public meetings and learning how government decisions get made. He helped found NHCAN, the taxpayer watchdog group that called for less, and smarter, government spending and more public oversight.
Ultimately, Kerekes concluded, “it’s the mayor who makes things happen in New Haven. If I really wanted to effect change, I had to find a replacement for the mayor.” He tried to convince some other candidates to run, but to no avail, he said. So he decided to take the plunge. “If I believe the city has to change,” he said, “I can’t sit on the sidelines.”
Three other Democrats have announced their intentions to run for mayor: Clifton Graves, Tony Dawson, and Robert Lee. Asked about them, Kerekes responded that he welcomes other candidates’ participation as a boon to democracy. “I’m running against John DeStefano,” he said.