Chief Wants Cops On Facebook; Aldermen Balk

In order to make community policing successful, the department needs to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter, Chief Dean Esserman told aldermen Monday night. Lawmakers didn’t click the ​“Like” button.

They didn’t de-friend the chief, however. They just left a comment, asking him to share more, to make sure they’re following his tweets accurately — so to speak.

Those developments were trending on the feed at a marathon five-hour Monday night meeting in City Hall’s aldermanic chamber. The Finance Committee held the latest in its ongoing series of hearings on Mayor John DeStefano’s proposed $486.8 million budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The police department was among several to appear before the Finance Committee to explain its budget requests for the coming year. The Board of Ed’s budget request was also aired by the committee. Click here, here, and here, and here for coverage of previous meetings.

The committee asked Chief Esserman also about a couple of items pertaining to the current year’s budget — items on the agenda requiring action.

One of these was permission to accept federal funding to help pay for cops. The other was a measure that would allow the chief to hire more entry-level cops, and to hire a $50,000-a-year civilian ​“Community Communications Manager.” The new position would help facilitate information exchange between cops and civilians, including through the use of modern-day social media, Esserman said.

Aldermen were skeptical about the need for the new position, at least immediately. It’s already in the mayor’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year. They voted to pass over the item until they can get more information from the chief.

When he presented the proposal to aldermen, Chief Esserman said the police department’s public information department used to have two officers. One retired. ​“I want to replace that missing officer with a civilian,” he said. Cops should be on the beat.

The new civilian position would keep in touch with community block watches, run a Facebook page, a Twiiter feed. ​“I’m not looking for a publicist,” Esserman said. ​“I’m looking for someone to communicate with the community.”

Why immediately? Alderman Jorge Perez (pictured) asked.

“People are hungry for information,” Esserman said. The department needs ​“real community engagement” to make community policing a success.

Budget watchdog Gary Doyens, speaking during a public testimony period, seized on the chief’s mention of Facebook and Twitter. The idea that that’s going to help stop crime is wishful thinking, he said. ​“We’re not going to blog it away.”

He ​“passionately, urgently” appealed to aldermen to ask for a clear statement of ​“deliverables” from the chief: Just what will the new communications manager do that is so important?

At the end of the evening, aldermen took up that line of thinking. Alderman Perez said that the committee should ask the chief to ​“send us something to tell us clearly what this position is going to do for us. … Not just a job description.” And why does it need to happen now?

Alderman Doug Hausladen (pictured) disagreed. The chief made a good case for the new position, he said. Officer Dave Hartman, the department’s spokesman, doesn’t have the skills to take advantage of all the social media available today, Hausladen said.

Hartman shouldn’t be doing the public relations job either, Perez said. It should be two civilians in charge of communications, he said.

In the end, aldermen voted to pass over the item, pending further information from the chief. With two more Finance Committee this week, aldermen expect to vote on the matter very shortly.

The Independent reported live from the chamber Monday night. Read on for a live-blog of events.

Live Blog

5:58 p.m.: Aldermen and city officials are filtering into the aldermanic chamber. Chairwoman Andrea Jackson-Brooks has made some adjustments to the order of presentation.

6:02.: Jackson-Brooks is calling the meeting to order, reading the agenda. Present at the conference table are Aldermen Delphine Clyburn, Jessica Holmes, Migdalia Castro, Doug Hausladen, Justin Elicker, and Jeanette Morrison. Evette Hamilton arrives.

6:04: The City Plan Department’s Karyn Gilvarg (pictured) sits at the table to testify. She says: The department’s work covers the City Plan Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals, and the Historic District Commission, as well as the city plan itself. … Major zoning projects in the last year: Rezoning Chapel West to BD‑1 to allow greater density. … We also worked to change th zone of one block covering the old Lehman Brothers factory to residential/ mixed use. We’ve also worked on the new BD‑3 zone, which is a new zone covering Downtown Crossing. … Other major projects: Downtown Crossing, streetcars, boathouse at Long Wharf, the last phase of the Farmington Canal Greenway: Prospect Street to the waterfront. We’re also working on way-finding signage… And a revision of the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

6:12: Aldermen Jorge Perez and Michael Smart have arrived.

Gilvarg: Capital funds will go to work near the Air Rights Garage and work on the Farmington Canal Greenway, coastal area improvements permitting, … Any questions?

Hausladen: FY 11 your special fund was 10.5 million?

Gilvarg: That included over $5 million for greenway and Rt. 34 each.

6:14: The Fair Rent Commission is next. Otis C. Johnson (pictured) sits. He says: The budget for the next year is $360,000. … In the last year — New Haven has the lowest vacancy rates in the country. This challenges the city to develop more housing. It also creates a ​“compelling need” for rent stabilization. … The commission has also hosted a presentation by public health department head Dr. Mario Garcia on smoking. … I ask that you look favorably on this request.

Alderman Elicker: How do you track the number of inquiries and complaints?

Johnson: I do it personally. …

Elicker: Do many other cities have a fair rent commission?

Johnson: No. I deal with calls from other cities.

Elicker: So you’re helping people in other cities?

Johnson: ​“I tend not to help them.” I refer them.

6:20: Aldermen Ernie Sanitago and Sal DeCola have arrived.

6:21: Registrar of Voters is up. Sharon Ferrucci (pictured) sits along with staffer Dolores Knight. Ferrucci says: This coming year is going to be a very busy year. It’s the national election. Until we get our wards in place, our redistricting completed, maybe I could decrease the size of our polling places. I’m here to answer questions.

Elicker: Have you looked at the proposed ward map?

Ferrucci: No.

Elicker: Can we get an idea if there’s an increase in cost? Because state rep lines are crossed by wards.

Ferrucci: Costs will increase. I can’t say how much. I can look into it.

Elicker: Can we have an answer soon?

Ferrucci: We’re in the middle of a canvas … Operating a polling place costs between $2,500 and $2,800.

Hausladen: What are the legal requirements? At least one polling location per ward?

Ferrucci: Yes. … At one point we had 53 polling locations. We got it down just over 30. … We have to have a minimum of 30, one for each ward.

6:30: Perez: ​“Other/contractual” is up, why?

Ferrucci: We have a big election coming in August. Joe Lieberman’s seat is up.

Perez: It’s hard to get a true count of voter turnout, because the lists have gotten so inaccurate.

Ferrucci: It’s true. … The state law protects the voter. We’re sending out letters and postcards. … If you know someone’s on the list but doesn’t live there anymore, let me know.

Elicker: Just to clarify, if you have a ward cut down the middle with state rep. line, you need a special polling place just within both sides of the ward. The half of the ward can’t be lumped in with nearby ward or wards represented by the same legislator.

Ferrucci: Correct.

Perez: But that costs extra money only during a primary, because during a general election every polling place is open anyway.

Holmes: Ward 9, the polling place is usually at East Rock School. But now we go outside the ward to Cross.

Ferrucci: That’s permitted because of special circumstances: East Rock School is under construction. … I tried hard to find another place in Ward 9.

6:41: Morrison: Sometimes I do see people from my community working the polls. Sometimes I don’t. How do I steer my constituents to you to get those jobs? ​“People like to see familiar faces. It’s like Cheers.”

Ferrucci: ​“The process is easy: Call me, you’re hired.” It’s so hard to get workers. The moderator needs training. … Just have them call us. We have trainings all the time.

6:44: Santiago: You’re going to send postcards to help fix the list? I don’t think that’s going to work. People are just going to throw it in the trash. … I have people on my list who have died five years ago.

…

Ferrucci thanks Castro for helping find poll workers.

Clyburn: Do you call people who check that they’re wiling to work as poll workers when they register?

Ferrucci: We do get around to that eventually.

Evette: When do you start the hiring process?

Ferrucci: Probably the beginning of July, for the August primary. Let me know ahead of that.

6:51: The police department is next. Chief Dean Esserman sits along with Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts (pictured). There are also two police items that require public hearings. That will happen after the chief’s presentation on the budget.

Smuts begins presenting this report. He says: Crime significantly reduced in the 1990s and leveled out starting in 2000. … Violent crime also declined in the 90s, bottomed out in 2002, climbed, then lowered again. Shootings peaked in 2007, down a little the past few year. Last year was the worst year for homicides since 1991. … Violent crime is higher, per 100,000 people, in New Haven than in the nation as a whole. … Compared to ​“peer cities” Bridgeport, Providence, Hartford. You can see New Haven started going in the wrong direction in 2002 and has since come back, following the hiring of more officers. … Serious motor vehicle accidents have decline 30 percent of the last 12 years. There’s been a sharp increase in the number of tickets, from over 10,000 in 2007 to just over 25,000 in 2009. … Overtime and salaries went down a little bit in 2003 and 2004. In 2007 and 2008 they went up with new hires. In the last two years they’ve gone down again due to a reduction in the number of officers. … The next slide is the number of officers by year they were hired. Officers can retire after 20 years. We have 76 officers who have 20 years, and eight more who will reach the mark this year. But there will be fewer after that because there was so little hiring in the 1990s. 48 officers were hired in 1995. Civilian positions, not including ​“911 people,” have been reduced significantly. We have a proposal to add one more position there. Questions? Then we’ll talk about the budget amendment before you.

7:07: Hausladen: Could we have a gun-seizures-by-year chart also? And can you retire before 20 years under any circumstances?

Smuts: Short of a disability, no.

Elicker: Overtime has increased? But we’ve hired new officers, is that because there’s a lag time?

Smuts: Yes. We’ve hired 14 new officers who are in the academy.

Elicker: So the increase in OT is due to attrition?

Smuts: The biggest factor is the shortage of officers. We have fewer cops than last year and fewer still than two years ago. We have 386 or so right now.

Perez asks a question.

Esserman: I speeded it up. We have classes in three academies.

Perez: We have 27 spots, but we only hired 14?

Esserman: There were only 14 slots in the academies we’re working with.

Perez: Why wait to recruit?

Esserman: The recruiting process will begin in 2012. The exam will be in 2013. We need to go out into the neighborhoods.

Perez: In the past the recruitment process hasn’t been great.

Esserman: I take your point.

7:14: Castro: How many cops?

Esserman: I think we’ll be hiring close to 90 cops in two years. And we’ll be hiring them in waves. The academy takes six months. Then there’s a three-month field training. … We should hire as many as we can as quickly as we can and take advantages of openings in other academies. There’s one state academy and six others. … It’s a two-year process.

Morrison: In my community, a lot of people talked about the games the police department played when it comes to hiring. People were told they were about to go into the academy, all of a sudden their paperwork gets lost … The process is just so overwhelming. … People feel as though it you’re not my best friend or if my cousin doesn’t know you

Esserman: ​“I have no friends and don’t want any. .. And as my wife tells me, I don’t dance.” It’s about integrity. ​“The process is the same for everybody.” … ​“I refuse to look at the list. … I don’t play that game.” We need to do a better job recruiting. We need community coaches. Some people who do the worst on the physical are the best athletes. … A lot of young people come in and are in great shape but no one has prepared them for the test, and they fail. … ​“It’s not just about taking the test. It’s about getting through the process.” ​“We will aggressively reach out to people. … They will be treated fairly. … There will be no games.”

Morrison: If people do…

Esserman: Call me. ​“There’s no such thing as a call that’s not returned. There’s no such thing as a concern that’s not addressed.”

Morrison: There’s a Hillhouse program to help people get into public safety jobs.

Esserman: I’m funding it. It’s called the Public Safety Academy. We take it very seriously, because that’s how I started. I had an internship in high school.

Morrison: Sometimes getting on the force is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Esserman: I’ve met with several young people who had concerns.

Smuts: Integrity and being truthful on your application are a big thing. We’ve seen the problems with that with some officers who maybe should have been vetted.

Esserman: There are some black marks on a record cannot be erased. Some can. You can look at someone and say don’t lie, we’re going to give you a lie detector test. People still lie.

7:26: Holmes: What drives the number of tickets?

Esserman: What doesn’t drive it is quotas. … We don’t fudge the numbers. We don’t have quotas. … I’ve invited bike groups, for example, to come in and talk to cops about traffic rules. … The numbers of children lost to murder are dramatically down. ​“The number one priority of this police department needs to be violence.” By this time last year, we’d lost 13 people. It’s two now. That’s two to many, but it’s dramatically improved. ​“A child of New Haven in any community is a child of New Haven. I need that support from the entire community.” … Number one priority is saving lives and stopping families from being destroyed.

Santiago: I have a question about accidents. My car last year was hit by someone with out of state plates…

Esserman: You have an issue, call me. … We’re experimenting with machines that read license plates, a program in place before I started.

Clyburn: How well are we doing in solving murders?

Esserman: I’m glad you asked. We started a shooting task force. … We weren’t solving many shootings. We created the task force, which is causing us nothing. We have state and local cops ​“rolling on every shooting.” When it comes to homicide, there’s a couple things we need to do. One of our officers runs a survivors group. I went to the first meeting and a grandmother asked me if the detective could call me. She said she’d been trying seven years to get a call back. ​“I didn’t go to sleep that night.” I asked senior people to join me at the meeting the next month. None of them came. As you know, I made some changes. Last week, all of the leaders came. We met for three hours. The families feel now that they are being heard. We need to create a cold case squad. I’ve ordered that to happen. I’ve also reached out to retired detectives. ​“I gave them the line from the ancient Roman senator … who said that when Rome calls, no man’s life is his own. … I told them New Haven is calling.” They need to become a generation of teachers. We need a cold case unit. We need to bring the violence down too.

Hausladen: Training academies … in other towns?

Esserman: Those other town’s academies have improved. We reviewed their curriculum. And, no matter where they go, they go through our field training program. I created it in 1991. It’s a 12-week course with a written report every day. It’s a very, very rigorous program. It’s called the San Jose program. … At the end, ​“there will be no exceptions for new officer: You will walk a beat. … That is profound training for a New Haven police officer. … In every neighborhood that will happen. … And I don’t mean for a couple of months.” I tell the recruits: Be clear you want to be a New Haven officer. …

Hausladen: The probationary period?

Esserman: Now equal to the fire department — two years. … They’re on probation from academy through to the end of the second year.

7:42: Morrison: Bringing back retired officers, what’s the cost?

Esserman: It’s like a teaching hospital. New Haven has to be a teaching department. … They’ll be on part time. … They’ll do a lot of work for very little money. .. I want to use federal grant money. I haven’t put it as a line item. The people who will accept this will take a pay cut. But they want to do it. I’ve spoken to many retired detectives.

Morrison: How many officers would it take to run the department the way you envision it? Including officers to walk the beats.

Esserman: I have the frame of reference of being here 20 years ago. We should just at least get back to our old numbers. 494. That’s been our number traditionally. … Let me be clear: headquarters will not get more crowded. I’m sure you’ve heard the complaints that people are being pushed back into the field. I hope you keep hearing that complaint. We need to double walking beats. We need school resource officers. We need to rebuild that. Third, we need supervisors in the field with the officers. The primary teacher is the sergeant. Finally, we need to double the size of internal affairs. It has to do two things: internal investigations that are credible straight forward and swift, and we need to do inspections. It can’t be a day job. We don’t work banker’s hours. We’re going to have a night team as well on internal affairs. You don’t have to come to us to make a complaint. We’ll come to you.

7:48: Smuts: Historically, we have had 494 budgeted positions. … We have some changes proposed for the current and coming fiscal years. Right now we have budgeted 467 officers. We have 86 vacancies right now. Of those, the majority are not police officers; they are upper ranks: captains, lieutenants, detectives. There was a court decision years ago regarding ​“under-filling.” In other cities, you could hire police officers into the empty positions. Because of our charter, the court ruled we can’t do that. Only the Board of Aldermen can transfer money between line items. The budget amendment asks for the ability to hire up to 467 officers. It would allow us, for this purpose, to move funds between line items, while capping the number of total hires at 467. It’s a complicated court ruling. The bottom line is we’re asking for ability to hire up to 467, even though the budget would show 494 positions. That cap would be in place until aldermen remove it. … We’re asking to basically get back to the level we were two years ago. … This won’t affect this year’s budget, but it will lead to an increase of about $2.5 million between this year and next. $800,000 of that is due to the expiration of a COPS grant. Another $725,000 is due to regular contractual upgrades. The remaining about is what would pay for this actual increase in the size of the force. … There’s also the matter of a new civilian position.

Perez asks a question that I couldn’t hear.

Esserman: We have a lot fewer civilians in the police department. When I was here 20 years ago, we had two civilians who did public information. When I got here recently, there two police men were doing the job. One has retired. I want to replace that missing officer with a civilian. We want our officers on the beat. … We don’t have Facebook. We don’t tweet. My haven’t caught up. The one civilian position would send information out to block watches, Facebooking, tweeting. I’m not looking for a publicist. I’m looking for someone to communicate with the community. I need someone sophisticated not just to do the press but ​“this new age press.” We now have a department newspaper, a ​“flash sheet,” that we publish everyday.

8:01: Elicker asks about the staffing numbers.

Smuts: We could hire up to 467 now, but we’d need to promote a bunch of sergeants. But we don’t need those sergeants.

Esserman: It would devastate patrol. … If I promoted first, so that we could hire, we’d lose all our walking beats.

Perez: Going back to the civilian position… Why do we need it now? Why can’t it wait until July 1?

Esserman: I take your point. I’m asking you to do it. … People are hungry for information. … The crime fighting of this department needs real community engagement. The best strategy depends on information.

Perez: And this will prevent an officer from doing this work?

Esserman: You have my word.

Perez: Why the salary? $50,000? it seems to be a lot of money. It’s less than a starting officer.

Esserman: But it’s no overtime. And it’s less than an ending officer. I’m not looking for a rookie. … This person will manage the communications. Answering to them will be the crime analyst and interns. I need a seasoned professional. We’re going to do things we’ve never done before.

Smuts explains overtime nuances.

Perez: Will this person qualify for overtime, whether or not the chief will give it?

Smuts: I don’t believe so. I will check.

Esserman: ​“I need the community to be getting a lot of information and I need to move on that.”

8:10: Hausladen asks about training and the number of districts

Esserman: I’m taking the department away on a retreat. I’ve done one on ones with all sergeants … We need to look at the districts. Every district manager will make a presentation on the retreat. We may change the number of districts. It will go up, not down. On training, we have no career path in the New Haven police department. I’m not trying to develop people up one silo. The assistant chiefs — I’m going to move them around. … There’s no supervisor training program. … We need to send people to school. We need more people to have the chance to be district manager.

Alderman Al Paolillo (who arrived some time ago, as did Alderman Brian Wingate) asks about communications.

Smuts: We had two officers on communications. One retired. … ​“With the benefit of hindsight, we would not have done the police layoffs last year.” … The chief spoke to the position before.

Esserman: I don’t want to be repetitive.

8:17: Smuts: You also have the COPS grant in front of you, to pay for three years of hiring. We’d like to accept it if we get it. It’s a much smaller, narrowly tailored grant than previously. It deals with veterans of military service.

Perez checks to make sure the grant wouldn’t ​“get us in a pickle,” if veterans were to be hired first even though they scored lower than non-veterans.

Smuts assures him that won’t happen. The grant would just help pay for cops who happen to be veterans.

8:21: Morrison: What if there is a period where no one in the top 10 candidates is a veteran?

Smuts: We just wouldn’t get the money.

No further questions on the police department. Public testimony?

Budget watchdog Gary Doyens (pictured) sits to testify. He says: We have a special request in front of the legislature to phase-in taxes. It would subsidize the very wealthy and the tax rich. We’re already subsidizing the poor and the elderly. The communications position is just more spending. … Someone gave me an estimate today for $700 a month to Tweet and Facebook and Pinterest. … There are always new gadgets. Do we need it? With benefits, the cost of the position will be higher than $50,000. 95 percent of my communications is email and text messages. The idea that we need more people tweeting and Facebooking will reduce crime is wishful thinking. ​“We’re not going to blog it away.” … If the rich people want their subsidy, the poor need theirs, and the elderly have theirs, we’re running our of people to subsidize. … Start from no. If the presentation was good, ask for the deliverables — what the benefit is going to be for the investment. … ​“What government employees do best is procreate.” They develop more and more jobs and the weight of all those payrolls weighs on taxpayers. If East Rockers need a subsidy, we’re in a world of hurt. I ​“passionately, urgently” ask you for the deliverables. So that I can tell my kids, you can’t have that because my tax bill went up $300. Tweeting and Facebooking are not going to help the crime rate. My car will still be broken into. We’ll still have the drug house down the block.

8:30: The Board of Ed is next. Superintendent Reggie Mayo sits, along with COO Will Clark, and Robert Lynn, director of the school construction program.

Mayo: Will Clark has prepared a presentation.

Clark (pictured) hands out a PowerPoint printout. He points out other staffers in the audience who are on hand to ask questions. He says: The Board of Ed is funded through three major sources. The state — $155 million. The city of New Haven. And other grants, about $100 million in special and magnet funds from the state and federal government. Over the last three years we’ve been flat-funded, even as costs rise. The new teacher contract came with a cost increase of about $3 million a year. … This year we’re seeking an increase of $1.2 million. We had originally asked for $5 million. The state budget is looking to have $3.8 million in additional educational cost-sharing coming to us. … Site-based budgeting … Custodian contracts negotiations and other savings .. Three major adjustment areas: Attrition … Increase in the textbook line. … Maintenance budget increase. … Those are the three main areas that make up the $5 million. … We’re seeking a modest 1 percent increase. Given three years of flat funding, we think that’s appropriate. … We’ve been less than 50 percent of the city’s debt service. … School reform has taken root. We are doing better than others in closing the achievement gap. … Questions?

Mayo: The $3.8 million we think we will get from the state — we don’t know for sure.

8:49: Elicker: What happens if you don’t get it?

Mayo: Personnel cuts. There’s a gap anyway, even with the $5 million. I don’t see any group escaping. … There are some competitive state grants we’re hoping to get.

Elicker asks about teacher salary costs.

Clark: This is a truer number of what that teacher cost is, thanks in part to site-based budgeting. … We’ve done what we can in terms of cost savings over the last several flat-funded years. We’ve cut it to the bone.

Elicker and Clark discuss school construction. Three projects are left. Elicker asks about cost/benefit analysis of those.

9:00: Clark: There has been that analysis. …

Elicker: For Hyde: How much are we playing to lease? How much in debt service to build a new school?

Mayo (pictured): The current space is inadequate. Other spaces are also. Helene Grant.

Elicker: I understand that. ​“I just want to see the math.” I want an apples to apples comparison.

Mayo: We’d have to put a ton of money into Hyde if we want to keep them in that space.

9:05: Castro asks a question.

Mayo: Special education is an expensive venture. We have 2,500 kids. We pay a huge amount of money for special ed. The cuts we’ve made are administrative. We’ve cut about three supervisors.

Clark: I didn’t refer to a cut in special education. … Special ed costs continue to rise … We have to do more with less.

9:12: Morrison (pictured): How much more for books?

Clark: $400,000.

Morrison: I always see photocopies come home. Who is getting the books?

Mayo: Schools are getting the books. I’d be happy to take you to schools.

Morrison: You said education takes 44 percent of the debt service. At every one of our public hearings, people testify about the debt service. Has there been an assessment of the kids who go on to college to look at that outcome? I’d like to know the graduation rate of people who enter college. We’ve got these pretty buildings. Kids graduate. They go to the first year of college and then they come come back and they can’t go back.

Mayo: We are looking at the metrics for college success, which we’ve done for the last two years. … This is what Promise is all about. Kids drop out because of academic and financial reasons. Promise addresses both.

Morrison: How can we associate school construction with preparedness?

Mayo: We want to reduce drop out rate, close the achievement gap, and prepare for college. … We’re seeing good results: Wexler Grant, Domus, Katherine Brennan. We understand what the problems are. Do we need more resources? Yes.

Morrison: When you talk about $3 million, $5 million, people want to see what they are going to get in return.

Jackson-Brooks: At some point we need a longer discussion about what is happening in the schools.

9:22: Perez asks about ​“the gap.”

Clark: Last year I came and said we need to find $12 million in savings. … We’re looking at a deficit. … We did get the custodian contract…

Perez: I would like to see something in writing. … I would like to get an idea what the plan is. … You had a $12 million gap.

Clark: I’ll refer to page 367 of the budget. Last year and this year we identified positions, we’re going to do attrition first. … We had positions to be attritioned, the first line of attack. … Page 370. … We’re going to hire fewer people for part-time. …

Perez: But did you hire 10 fewer? 8 fewer? In what school? I’m asking what was the actual? … Use the past year.

Clark: It could be a 20-hour person that you cut to 15 hours. Many times over. …

Jackson-Brooks: Let’s take a past year. You said you were going to save $500,000, for example. We want to see how you did it. … All we want to know if you achieved it and how?

Mayo: I think it would be tough, but fine.

Perez: Why are we not building a Martin Luther King Hyde school?

Clark: That was the original plan. … There’s a savings associated with not building it there. …

9:33: Holmes asks about federal funding for school lunches.

Clark: New Haven is a universal free lunch city for most schools. …

Holmes: My understanding is that people who might qualify do not apply, that dollars are being left on the table.

Clark: That’s not true. … The form is ridiculously difficult. We can’t force them to fill it out.

Homes: Why not? There are lots of forms we require people to fill out before they start school.

Clark: It is included in the packet. … We track them. We challenge schools to get 100 percent of them back. … We have a pretty robust system. … I think we do pretty well.

Mayo: We’ve even sent truant officers out door to door.

Holmes: I have questions about capital projects.

Clark: I can provide you more information.

Holmes: What would be implications of postponing any projects?

Clark: The state is already adjusting the reimbursement rates. That becomes an issue. …

9:42: Elicker: When I was growing up, there was a spike in kids and the school system brought in trailers. There are no other options you’re looking at?

Mayo: No one should be in Hyde. Go to Helene Grant. You’ll say, ​“I wouldn’t want my kid here.”

Elicker: You’re saying there’s not any additional space in other schools.

Mayo: I’m saying we need to build new ones, yes. … Hyde is going to be a sports medicine school, they need specialized space. Like the field house at Hillhouse.

9:46: Schools is done. Community services is next. Sitting down now: Dr. Mario Garcia, health department director; Chisara Asomugha, community services head; Pat Wallace, elderly services; Fred Heiser, SAGA support services; Ron Manning, deputy director; Caprice Taylor-Mendez, youth services.

Asomugha: We do all this, and we support other homeless, youth, and senior organizations. It’s our mission to enhance the quality of life. … We help individuals who are destitute every day, in and out. Getting people to the help they need.

Garcia: Last year I asked for a 10 percent cut, leading to staffing cuts. I was able to bring back two of those workers. The health department has 88 staff members, some of which are paid from special fund. … HIV programs. … Lead abatement. …

Wallace: This is essentially a hold-the-line budget. …

10:08: [I had to step out for a few minutes. Taylor-Mendez is now speaking.]

10:17: Taylor-Mendez: We’re in desperate need of an additional staffer from the general fund. That’s a major change in the budget — a deputy director.

Perez: The new position: Can we have goals and objectives for this person? More than a job description. How will the position increase services? I want some accountability.

…

10:30: [There’s been some discussion of elderly services, transportation, and bilingual needs.] Morrison asks about summer youth programs during the first three weeks of the summer, when there’s nothing to do.

Taylor-Mendez: We’re developing a pilot program dealing with that. …

…

10:38: Perez moves item 3, to receive money from the feds. It passes unanimously.

Perez moves item two, regarding hiring more cops, and hiring a new communications person.

Clyburn: They weren’t really clear on the need for the position.

Holmes: It didn’t seem urgent.

Paolillo: I move we separate the two items.

Perez: I support that and think we should have the police chief send us something tell us clearly what this position is going to do for us. Why the rush to do it now? … Not just a job description. What are we doing to get back?

Paolillo: Separate and leave to withdraw.

Elicker: Why not just amend it to remove the last paragraph, about creating the position?

10:46: [Aldermen are sorting themselves out. What motion are we on? Who made it?]

Perez: Let’s withdraw all the motions and start over.

Paolillo: The motion is that we remove the last paragraph of the order.

Perez: Eliminate the last ​“be it therefore ordained.”

Hausladen: The community communications manager will turn a sworn police officer into a civilian, a $10,000 savings. And the person there can’t do it. I’m not sure because someone said ​“Tweet” it has to sink the proposal. I think the chief made a good case.

Holmes: There’s currently a vacancy. The issue is should we do it now or move it into the regular budget cycle. The position is vacant. We’d just delay the filing and give the chief more time.

Hausladen: People are doing the work. Dave Hartman is doing it, along with someone else. I get a lot of emails from David about his Blackberry being off. He didn’t know how to use a Blackberry until he took the job. There’s a female who backs up Dave Hartman. I’ve seen her at all the public meetings he’s at. It seems like the job is already happening.

Perez: It used to be two civilians. We should go back to that. Hartman should go back to patrol. I don’t see why you need a police officer doing public relations.

Morrison: Sometimes you needs someone who has done the job, to be able to know what the importance of certain things are. I can understand why they would use someone who has been through the process. [Been a cop.]

Jackson-Brooks: The chief said he wants a civilian.

10:54: Legislative staff clarifies: The position is in the budget for July 1. Right now the motion is to remove the creation of the position right now. It does not affect next year’s budget.

Castro: I understand the need for this position. But I agree with Alderman Perez — we can wait until July.

Elicker: I don’t understand what the issue is. It sounds like most people are generally supportive of this idea. The chief has been wildly popular in my neighborhood. We have beat cops. People are thanking them, and me! And I have nothing to do with it. If we’re going to pass this anyway, I think we should support this proposal.

Hausladen and others are trying to work out some confusion about just what position Hartman occupies and if that’s the position a civilian would be hired for.

Elicker: We have a Finance Committee meeting tomorrow night, and Thursday. Can we wait and get some questions answered?

Holmes: Let’s at least vote on the first part.

More discussion about just what the options are, procedurally.

Perez: Let’s vote on it tomorrow. … But I’m not so sure you can just carry it over. … If we can’t do it tomorrow, we’ll do it at the next meeting.

Jackson-Brooks: We’re passing over it.

Perez: Can the chief clarify if Hartman is going to stay in his position?

11:04: Move to adjourn. Passes. Done.