by LAURA GLESBY The new haven independent
A key committee of alders endorsed a city budget with standalone housing code enforcement and parks departments, though with fewer positions than the mayor had wanted.
They also advanced a 3.49 percent rise in the mill rate, rather than the 3.98 percent increase the mayor had proposed.
In total, in the Aldermanic Chamber on Thursday night, the Finance Committee amended the Fiscal Year 2024 – 25 (FY 25) budget to account for $679,104,165 in expenses.
If approved by the full Board of Alders, that budget would be more than the city’s current $662.7 million operating budget, but less than Mayor Justin Elicker’s original $680.4 million proposal.
By cutting some requested new positions as well as a handful of vacancies, the committee advanced a mill rate of 38.5 — slightly reduced from the mayor’s proposed mill rate of 38.68. (The mill rate translates to $1 in local taxes owed for every $1,000 in assessed real estate value.)
The new mill rate is higher than the current mill rate of 37.2, and will raise property taxes, though it is still lower than the mill rates of the previous four years, which peaked at 43.88 in Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022.
The full Board of Alders is now tasked with reviewing the upcoming budget, which is slated to take effect in July.
LCI, Parks Restructurings Preserved
On Thursday, the Finance Committee maintained the two major departmental shifts that Mayor Justin Elicker had submitted in his proposal, though not without some dissent.
Namely, they approved plans to splice “Parks and Public Works” into separate city departments, reversing a 2020 merger of the teams that steward city parks and streets, as well as a proposal to refocus the Livable City Initiative (LCI) department on anti-blight and housing code enforcement.
That latter decision to restructure LCI would raise the number of housing code inspectors from 13 to 18 (budgeted under “special funds”) and move LCI’s current affordable housing development efforts to a new subdivision of the Economic Development Administration.
They did, however, amend the proposal by cutting twelve of the new positions that the mayor had submitted — including positions that would have helped roll out a new red light and speeding camera system.
2 Traffic-Camera Roles Kept, 2 Rejected
Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand raised an amendment, which his colleagues ultimately approved, reducing the number of new city positions in the upcoming fiscal year.
“I think we need to show a little more restraint,” Marchand said — especially since the pandemic-era infusion of American Rescue Plan Act funding is slated to expire in 2026.
The amendment accepted a new deputy administrator position in the economic development department focused on generating affordable housing, slated to oversee the kinds of affordable housing development (such as owner-occupied housing production) that LCI currently undertakes.
It approved six additional positions for the newly-separated Parks Department: two forepersons, two field technicians, an executive director, and a superintendent of fields. But it rejected four other proposed Parks Department positions, which the mayor had submitted based on feedback from consultants affiliated with the Urban Resources Initiative: three “district managers” and a deputy director of administration and planning.
It nixed proposals for a traffic safety enforcement officer and a program coordinator, which were intended to help implement newly-legalized red light and speeding cameras across the city, if the alders approve such an automated enforcement program. (Two other related new positions, required by state statute in order to set up traffic cameras, were retained: a traffic safety engineer and a traffic enforcement systems technician.)
It also denied a new Manager of Systems and Operations position in the Traffic, Transportation, and Parking department.
The Finance Committee’s amended budget also recommended approval of six other public safety position proposals — a fire department account clerk, a 911 deputy director, a police lieutenant, two police sergeants, and a detective — while reducing salaries for five currently-budgeted yet vacant patrol officers to $1. (“Even if we had the best year ever in recruitment,” Marchand argued, “those five positions wouldn’t be filled.”)
It denied four proposed fire department positions: three captains and a lieutenant.
It kept other new general fund positions that Elicker had submitted, including a new labor relations staff attorney and more funding for part-time building inspectors (on top of the five new LCI inspectors added via special funds).
Smith & Festa: Wait For Report Before Changing LCI
Alders Honda Smith, Tyisha Walker-Myers, and Anna Festa.
Two alders resisted the restructuring of LCI and the addition of five new housing code inspectors.
East Rock Alder Anna Festa and West Hills/West Rock Alder Honda Smith both argued that the city should wait until newly-enlisted consultant Liam Brennan produces an expected report in October on how to make LCI more effective as a housing code enforcement agency.
“We don’t want to make the same mistake when we merged DPW [the Department of Public Works] with Parks,” Festa argued. That 2020 merger was criticized by local park commissioners and advocates, who said it caused a decline in both park quality and staff morale.
“It has nothing to do with not wanting inspectors,” Festa added, as she proposed an amendment to hold off on hiring new inspectors. The question is how to expand LCI’s impact, she said. “We’ll have better direction once this report [from Brennan] comes out.”
During his mayoral campaign last year, prior to being hired as a consultant, Brennan called on the city to add more LCI inspectors and refocus the department exclusively on tackling poor housing conditions — changes that Smith and Festa proposed cutting from the budget, at least for now, on Thursday.
For instance, Smith proposed an amendment that would eliminate the proposed affordable housing deputy.
“I don’t believe in throwing money away” when the city has staff members who can take on those development initiatives, Smith said.
She spoke about the impact of a mill rate uptick on her constituents — not only the homeowners who are directly charged based on the mill rate, but also tenants who may face higher rents when their landlords confront higher tax bills. “We’re gonna have more homeless people on the streets,” she warned.
Festa agreed. She also cited a quote from LCI Director Arlevia Samuels in a recent New Haven Register article, indicating that the departmental restructuring “wasn’t my idea” and “I had nothing to do with it.”
“To me, that speaks loudly,” Festa said.
The other committee members pushed back.
“We need these inspectors immediately,” said Majority Leader Richard Furlow, who spoke of tenants confronted with “mold” and “mice” whose apartments are “not getting inspected for years.”
“We need LCI concentrating on blight,” he said later on. “They have shown us they can’t do both of this together.”
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison spoke about the wave of new housing construction in her own ward, some of which had stalled for many years, in part due to financing gaps.
“I live in a neighborhood where we have had lots of things go well and lots of things go not so well,” she said, “because we didn’t have someone totally focused on this work.”
Alder President Tyisha Walker-Myers pointed out that the mill rate could be lower, and services could be better funded, if Yale University properties were subject to property taxes under state law. “We need them to give us more money,” she said.
In the end, all but Smith and Festa voted to advance Marchand’s proposal without further changes.
The Finance Committee’s recommended budget now heads to the full Board of Alders for further review and deliberations and a final vote.
