Archive: 2013

  1. City hall staff under Harp takes shape

    1 Comment

    In her final days as New Haven’s mayor-elect, Toni Harp ARC ’78 is putting the finishing touches on the cabinet of city administrators who will take office at City Hall with her once she is sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1.

    On Monday Harp announced Tomas Reyes as her chief of staff, installing the battle-tested Latino political leader and community organizer as her top aide. A former president of the Board of Aldermen and currently the chief of staff at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Reyes said he is looking forward to helping Harp execute her vision for New Haven, which he described as a threefold focus on creating jobs, cutting crime and continuing down the long and storied path of New Haven education reform.

    Introducing Reyes, Harp said she has known her soon-to-be chief of staff for nearly 40 years. She praised his time as community activist, including a stint at Junta for Progressive Action and his founding of the youth program Latino Youth Development. Harp said Reyes is poised to assume “the most important position in the … administration.”

    Reyes, 62, said he has unique insight into the working of the executive and legislative branches, citing his four terms at the helm of the Board. During that time, Reyes collaborated closely with Harp — then the Board’s president pro tempore —  including on an ambitious initiative to address homelessness in New Haven.

    “That’s what Mayor Harp saw in me. We have a longtime working relationship,” he said.

    As the mayor’s highest-ranking deputy, Reyes will coordinate the various department heads and oversee City Hall staff. The composition of that staff took shape over the weekend after Harp distributed a personnel list to the Board of Aldermen on Friday. Harp tapped Sundiata Keitazulu — a businessman and plumber, erstwhile candidate for mayor and former convict — to serve as the city’s prison reentry coordinator. Keitazulu backed Harp’s candidacy after ending his own bid for the mayor’s office, which focused exclusively on a call for more jobs for New Haven residents. Keitazulu started a plumbing business in Newhallville after serving 10 years in prison for dealing drugs.

    He said Monday that his own background will allow him to connect with former prisoners seeking to reintegrate into society.

    “This is the first time a person who came out of prison has an office in City Hall,” Keitazulu said.

    He added he hopes to enlist businesses and non-profit entities, such as Yale University, to provide job training and employment opportunities for ex-convicts. According to transition documents prepared by outgoing 10-term Mayor John DeStefano Jr., roughly 294 inmates are released in the city every three months. Keitazulu’s job will be writing and organizing grants for reentry programs.

    Harp also named two of her campaign staffers to City Hall posts: Jason Bartlett, her campaign manager, as the director of youth services and Michael Harris ‘15, her campaign’s field director, as her legislative policy assistant. Bartlett, a campaign strategist and former state representative from Bethel, Connecticut, declined to comment prior to Wednesday’s inauguration.

    Harris will take the Spring semester off from Yale to serve in the full-time position of legislative policy assistant, acting as Harp’s liaison to the Board of Aldermen. He said he will be tasked with research and policy development, working with constituents as well as members of the Board of Aldermen to advance the mayor’s legislative agenda.

    Laurence Grotheer, who served as Harp’s press aide at the state senate and will take on the role of City Hall spokesman under the new administration, said in a Monday email that “it was a lucky break … to have joined Mayor Harp’s senate staff 13 years ago this week.”

    Daryl Jones, a New Haven resident who commutes to work in the New York state comptroller’s office, will fill the position of the city controller, overseeing the day-to-day operation of the city’s finances. Harp has asked Joe Clerkin to stay on as her budget director and Victor Bolden to stay on as the city’s corporation counsel. As she has promised since the campaign, Harp will retain New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman. The terms of a number of top department heads — including Erik Johnson, the director of the Livable City Initiative, and Fire Chief Michael Grant — do not expire until February.

    Harp named Matthew Nemerson SOM ’81 as her economic development administrator ahead of the pack earlier in December. CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council, Nemerson was one of seven candidates seeking the mayor’s office this year before dropping out over the summer and endorsing Harp. Nemerson’s deputy will be Stephen Fontana, a former state representative from North Haven.

    Harp has yet to name a chief administrative officer (CAO), a top city manager who oversees the police and fire departments, along with a number of other agencies. While Jennifer Pugh, current deputy to the CAO, fills in on an acting basis, Harp is searching nationwide for a replacement for Rob Smuts ’01. Harp told the News in November that the CAO role was a position that might merit candidates of national stature.

    Reyes said he does not see Harp’s hiring decisions as indicating a major transformation in the city’s administration.

    “We’re different people,” Reyes said of his soon-to-be predecessor Sean Matteson. “In terms of the tenor of City Hall, I don’t see a big shift. We will continue to acknowledge the successes of the [DeStefano] administration. But we’ll clearly put a new touch on whatever we do.”

    Reyes did say that Harp’s cabinet appointments demonstrate her commitment to racial and ethnic diversity in city government, commending the mayor-elect for “making the leadership team look like the city of New Haven.”

    Elaine Braffman, a retired neighborhood specialist for the Livable City Initiative who served on the Board of Aldermen during Reyes’ presidency, lauded Harp’s selection, calling Reyes a strong but respectful leader able to forge compromise.

    “He was a peacemaker,” Braffman said. “It’s a strong choice on Toni’s part.”

    Harp will be inaugurated as New Haven’s 50th mayor Jan. 1 at Career High School.

  2. Final surge in medical coverage sign-ups

    2 Comments

    In a last-second surge, more than 6,700 Connecticut residents signed up for medical coverage before the Dec. 23 deadline this past Monday in anticipation of the Affordable Care Act which becomes effective Jan. 1.

    These last minute buyers packed the two Connecticut storefronts in New Haven and New Britain, setting a daily record for Access Health CT, the state’s independently-run health care exchange. Starting in October, the exchange began offering Medicaid programs and selling private insurance plans with premiums subsidized by the government. Access Health developed an easily accessible website to allow users to compare plans offered from the three participating insurance companies – Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut, ConnectiCare, and HealthyCT.

    In addition to the website offerings, Access Health opened up two retail stores, offering state residents the opportunity to explore their options and sign up for coverage with personal assistance. Connecticut is one of 14 states operating a state health exchange rather than deferring to HealthCare.gov, and it is the only state to offer retail stores.

    The Monday push propelled total enrollment for medical coverage to 62,153, registering close to 20 percent of the previously 344,000 uninsured Connecticut residents. Of the 62,153 people who have signed up for coverage in the state thus far, 55 percent – 34,295 citizens – are enrolled in private health insurance plans, while the other 27,858 have signed up for government-funded Medicaid health plans.

    In a recent statement, Access Health CT CEO Kevin Counihan said his company was “delighted” to see the high number of Connecticut residents enrolled, but stressed there was much more work to be done.

    “Over the remaining three months of open enrollment, we will continue aggressive outreach to enroll even more consumers and small businesses in quality, affordable health care coverage,” Counihan said.

    Connecticut residents can continue to enroll in healthcare coverage through the state exchange through March 31, but the starting date for those policies will be pushed to a later date. Those looking to buy health insurance now, for example, have until January 15 to sign up for coverage that will not go into effect until Feb. 1.

  3. Report sheds light on Lanza’s mental health history

    2 Comments

    A final report on the Connecticut State Police’s investigation into last December’s shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School shed new light on perpetrator Adam Lanza’s mental health history, which included treatment at the Yale Child Study Center.

    The report shows that Lanza, per the efforts of his father, Peter, was examined by local psychiatrist Paul Fox before being referred to Prof. Robert King and Kathleen Koenig MSN ’88 from the Child Study Center. Documents show that Peter Lanza was worried about his son, who had been a seemingly happy child, becoming increasingly stressed and irritable by age 12.

    In 2006, when Lanza was about 14 years old, King put him through a thorough investigation and found Lanza to be socially detached and diagnosed him with obsessive compulsive disorder. Lanza demonstrated several behaviors typical of those with the disorder, including repeated rituals involving cleanliness.

    “[Lanza] displayed a profound autism spectrum disorder with rigidity, isolation and a lack of comprehension of ordinary social interaction and communications,” King said in the report, adding that he was concerned that these isolationist behaviors were worsening.

    King was the one to direct the Lanzas to Koenig, who said that she had four in-person meetings with Adam Lanza. These meetings began in October 2006 and ended in February 2007, during which time Koenig kept in touch with Lanza’s mother, Nancy, via email and telephone.

    According to the police documents, Koenig deemed Lanza to be “emotionally paralyzed” and prescribed the antidepressant Celexa. Koenig later told state police that Nancy Lanza opposed both further in-office visits and the medication. This resistance caused Koenig to reach out to Fox, who remained Lanza’s primary psychiatrist, in order to devise a best-course to treat Lanza’s case.

    King’s profile on the School of Medicine’s website lists Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents and adolescent suicide as his main research interests.

  4. New year sees new legislation

    Leave a Comment

    Twenty-six Connecticut statutes take effect across the state on Jan. 1.

    Most are piecemeal:  modifications or expansions of existing legislation, including a tightening of standards for immigrant detainment and tweaks to public health statute.

    Others will have a more tangible effect on Connecticut residents. Three in particular — an assault weapons ban and registry system, a 45-cent increase in the minimum wage and new fines for distracted drivers — make substantive strides on “high-profile issues,” according to State Rep. Roland Lemar, a Democratic representing portions of New Haven and East Haven.

    State Rep. Gail Lavielle GRD ’81 took a different view of the 2013 legislative session. A Republican representing the 143rd district in far Southwest Connecticut, Lavielle said the General Assembly failed to take action to jumpstart Connecticut’s economy, the only state economy to post negative growth in 2012, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. She said attempts to reign in “state employee fringe benefits” were shot down by the deep blue legislature, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one.

     

    ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN AND REGISTRY

    With the new year come new provisions of the state’s gun violence prevention legislation, passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting in December 2012.

    The law requires owners of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to register their firearms with the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection by Jan. 1, 2014. Come Wednesday, it will be illegal to possess unregistered assault weapons, an expansive category of military-style weapons defined by legislation passed in the wake of the murders at Newtown. The law set forth new bans on roughly 100 guns, including the assault-style AR-15 rifle Adam Lanza used to gun down children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

    The law permits continued possession, pending registration, but seeks to ensure no further procurement of such weapons. Registration enables the state to exercise oversight over the handling and trade of dangerous weapons, Lemar said.

    “We’ll now know if a gun is stolen or misplaced or sold, because we’ll have records of owners,” he said.

    Rather than confiscating assault weapons outright — an option rumored to once have been on the table according to Lemar — the registration system ensures responsible ownership, he said. Charges for undeclared firearm possession are strict, ranging from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class D felony.

    The gun rights group Connecticut Citizens Defense League decried  the firearm registration mandate as “unconstitutional” in a December statement, saying the state is attempting to turn gun owners into felons in the new year.

    Lavielle said backlash to the registration requirement has resulted partly from poor communication on the part of the state. Gun owners have not been properly informed as to which weapons need to be declared, she said.

    State statute also requires the Department of Emergency Services and Public Safety to maintain a registry, beginning Jan. 1, of people convicted of gun-related offenses.

     

    MINIMUM WAGE

    The first in a two-part hike in the minimum wage will kick in on Jan. 1. The minimum required compensation will rise by 45 cents from $8.25 per hour to $8.70 beginning in 2014, and is set to increase to $9 beginning in 2015.

    Connecticut is one of 13 states that will see a minimum wage hike in the new year. It will have the fourth highest statewide minimum, with Washington state leading the pack at $9.32 per hour.

    Lemar said he will be pushing legislation next year to increase the minimum wage to $10 per hour by 2016, a move that would make the state a model for an idea President Barack Obama threw his weight behind in November: a nationwide minimum of $10 per hour.

    “The idea that you can find a place to live in Connecticut and support your transportation and health care needs even on $9 per hour is laughable,” Lemar said.

    Lavielle voted against the wage bump, which passed in the state House 89 to 53. She said the state’s failing economy is a poor context for increasing the minimum wage. The risk, she said, is that businesses will resort to firings just to maintain operations following the mandated increase in wages.

     

    DISTRACTED DRIVING

    Drivers caught using cellphones or other electronic devices will face steeper fines in the new year. As of Jan. 1, a first offense of distracted driving will bring a penalty of $150, followed by $300 for a second offense and $500 for each subsequent offense. The fines represent an increase of roughly 20-25 percent from current penalties.

    Distracted drivers will also suffer a point against their driver’s licenses, which often factor into car insurance rates offered by insurance companies based on a driver’s record.

    Lemar and Lavielle concurred on the common-sense public safety rationale for the increase in driving fines.

     

    WHAT’S TO COME

    Lavielle said transportation is bound to emerge as a major issue in the 2014 legislative session, a shortened even-numbered-year session that sees only amendments to the biennial budget but no new appropriations.

    “It’s something we’ll have to address because of all the accidents on Metro-North,” she said. “The contract that the [state] Department of Transportation has with Metro-North doesn’t allow Connecticut to hold a lot of sanctions over the head of the rail service to force improvements.”

    She said the state should find the leverage to renegotiate terms in the contract, in addition to making independent safety improvements on the portions of the track that fall entirely under the state’s jurisdiction.

    “When the trains are slow, that’s one thing,” Lavielle said. “When they’re killing people, it’s another story.”

    There have been six Metro-North derailments in the past two years, including the Hudson line derailment that left four people dead and 60 others injured on Dec. 1.

  5. ‘Financial Markets’ goes online

    4 Comments

    Recent Nobel prize winner Robert Shiller will soon be teaching a virtual lecture hall of tens of thousands of students.

    Shiller’s “Financial Markets” course on the massive, open and online platform Coursera currently has slightly over 67,000 enrollees, the Wall Street Journal reports. A Coursera representative said that this enrollment makes his webcast lecture “the most popular among hundreds of offerings for 2014.”

    Two of the most popular courses on the site – such as Wesleyan professor Scott Plous’ “Social Psychology” and Duke professor Dan Ariely’s “A Beginner’s Guide to Irrational Behavior” – drew 260,000 and 203,000 students when last taught. The average Coursera enrollment, according to Gautam Kaul, a professor of finance at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, is approximately 50,000. However, students still have significant time to sign up for the free course, which does not begin until Feb. 17.

    Enrollment, though, does not appear to be a major concern to Shiller.

    “I have no goal for enrollment. My goal is just greater enlightenment about finance which really is the cornerstone of modern civilization,” he told the News Thursday evening.

    Shiller also said that he has not worked with Coursera to advertise the course beyond mentioning it in talks and lectures he has recently given.

    The course will aim to “offer understanding of the theory of finance and its relation to the history, strengths and imperfections of such institutions as banking, insurance, securities, futures, and other derivatives markets, and the future of these institutions over the next century,” according to the course description on the Coursera site.

    According to the Coursera website, Shiller’s course will require between six and 12 hours of work per week. Plous’ “Social Psychology,” on the other hand, requires between four and eight.

  6. Yale sophomore completes fastest-ever trek to South Pole

    Leave a Comment

    While most Yale students were at home relaxing, one week into winter break Parker Liautaud ’16 was breaking world records.

    On Tuesday, Liautaud completed the fastest-ever trek from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, reaching the southernmost point on the Earth’s surface in just over 18 days. The roughly 315-mile journey by foot and ski also made him the youngest person to travel to both poles of the Earth. Liautaud, a 19-year-old Davenport College sophomore who hails from London, has traveled to the North Pole three times. This was his first trip to the South Pole.

    Setting out from the Ross Ice Shelf on Dec. 6, Liautaud and his expedition partner travelled for up to 12 hours a day in temperatures as low as -72 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the website for the voyage, entitled the Willis Resilience Expedition. Underwritten by the London-based insurance broker Willis Group, the expedition seeks to shed light on climate-related issues.

    A three-man video crew trailed the duo, documenting the journey. Video and voice recordings uploaded from the trans-Antarctic mountain range detailed Liautaud’s struggle to stay warm and well-fed.

    “We are 29 miles from the South Pole,” Liautaud said in a Monday recording. “I’m very excited, and we had a great day today. We did 18.2 nautical miles…our best yet. We’re just really pushing it, and we had a really great day. A lot of hard work.”

    The coast-to-pole record was previously held by Christian Eide of Norway, who completed the journey in 24 days. Liautaud initially set his goal at 22 days, expecting to reach his destination before New Year’s Eve. He arrived four days early.

    According to the expedition’s website, Liautaud will remain at the South Pole for a few days before catching a flight out of Antarctica to Punta Arenas, Chile.

    “I now hope to work with our scientific partners in the next phase of the research from this expedition and continue to contribute to reigniting the dialogue on climate change,” Liautaud said in a Tuesday statement.

    Liautaud is a Geology and Geophysics major at Yale.

  7. Salovey’s D.C. visit postponed

    Leave a Comment

    University President Peter Salovey’s visit to the White House for a conference on the success of low-income students – postponed two weeks ago by the death of former South African President Nelson Mandela – has been rescheduled for January 16.

    Salovey will join roughly 140 leaders in education, philanthropy, business and government. President Obama has reportedly asked attendees to arrive with quantifiable goals for improvement in a variety of fields, notably remedial education success rates, enrollment of lower-income students and student support services.

    “The primary issue I wanted to discuss is bridge programs and how best to design them for the summer between high school and college,” Salovey told the News earlier this month.

    Bridge programs provide a significant advantage to first-generation college students, Salovey said, by helping them learn about college culture before the beginning of the academic year.

    Salovey also said that he also planned to talk about the need for better outreach to students who may not typically apply to Yale. He added that he also planned to discuss reaffirming Yale’s financial aid policies.

  8. That’s ‘Professor’ DeStefano to you

    Leave a Comment

    Outgoing New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. will teach a Political Science seminar at Yale this Spring, according to a Thursday email from the Director of Undergraduate Studies, David Cameron.

    The course is entitled “New Haven and the American City.” DeStefano is stepping down from the mayor’s office this winter after serving for 10 terms and 20 years. He was first elected in 1993.

    In addition to hitting the classroom, DeStefano will also become executive vice-president of START Community Bank when he vacates City Hall on Jan. 1. START, which DeStefano helped open in December 2010, is a for-profit subsidiary of First City Fund Corporation, a not-for-profit bank that lends money to businesses and families in New Haven.

  9. Levin’s salary near top among college presidents

    1 Comment

    Former University President Richard Levin was well-compensated, even by industry standards, according to a new report.

    The report, released by the Chronicle of Higher Education last week, detailed the 2011 salaries of 550 private university and college presidents across the country. Levin ranked tenth, taking home $1.65 million in 2011 in total compensation. $1.05 million of that was Levin’s base salary, while the rest was additional compensation. The figure is more than double the $410,523 median for private university and college presidents, which experts attribute to the size and complexity of an institution like Yale.

    “It would be really difficult for you to prove to me that the challenges associated with running a $200-million institution are the same as somebody running an institution at $2-billion,” Ron Seifert, who advises college and university trustees on presidential compensation, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. “They are inherently different in terms of the managerial skills required.”

    Yale’s endowment currently stands at $20.8 billion.

    Levin’s compensation put him second in the Ivy League, behind Columbia President Lee Bollinger, who made just over $2.3 million in 2011. The top earner among private universities, though, was University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer, who made over $3.3 million.

    Among college presidents, though, Levin’s compensation as a portion of university expenditures ranked on the low end, with Yale giving Levin only $616 for every million it spent in 2011. Only 60 college private university and college presidents, of the 550, had lower proportions. By comparison, Chicago’s Zimmer took home $1,113 for every million his employer spent.

    However, Harvard’s Drew Faust earned even less, making only $230 for every million her institution spent and not placing in the top 50 highest paid on the ranking.

    Current University President Peter Salovey’s salary has not yet become public. In 2010, while serving as University Provost, he made about $560,000.

  10. Hillhouse High lockdown after shooting threat

    1 Comment

    In response to a possible threat against one of its teachers, Hillhouse High School became the third New Haven school in the past 30 days to enter a campus lockdown.

    At 10:04 a.m., the New Haven Police Department received the the threat through a call made at a local phone booth. An article from the New Haven Independent said the caller told dispatchers he was on his way to the high school to shoot a specific teacher. According to the Independent, NHPD Assistant Chief Achilles Generoso said that the lockdown had been partially lifted at 11:50 a.m. in order to let parents — entering the high school two-by-two — retrieve their children.

    “Out of an abundance of caution, the school was placed on lockdown and the superintendent, principal and school officials are working with police to address the situation,” Abbe Smith, the Director of Communications for the New Haven Public Schools said in a press release.

    Smith also described the school’s standard security measures, which include metal detectors and “school resource” officers. Both were active this morning, as they are to be every day.

    “The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff [is] always our top priority,” Smith added in the release.

    Hillhouse High School is located at 580 Sherman Parkway.

  11. Nemerson named economic development administrator

    3 Comments

    Mayor-elect Toni Harp ARC ’78 tapped Matt Nemerson SOM ’81 for the role of economic development administrator on Thursday, announcing one of her first major appointments less than two weeks before she takes office on Jan. 1.

    Nemerson backed Harp after ending his own bid for the mayor’s office in June, later joining the Harp campaign’s economic development team. He is a  former president of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce and founding vice president of the business incubator space at Science Park.

    Nemerson told the News Thursday that he sees all of his previous career experience as leading to this job in City Hall. He said he has been thinking about development and job creation in New Haven ever since he was a teenager living in Woodbridge, CT. Urban studies drove his academic pursuits both as an undergraduate at Columbia University and as a student at the Yale School of Management.

    Nemerson will replace Kelly Murphy, who served for eight years under outgoing mayor John DeStefano Jr., and is stepping down after 20 years in office. Nemerson said much of his initial work will be seeing through ongoing projects, including the largest-ever downtown development project on the site of the former New Haven Coliseum.

    “There is so much going on already. The immediate challenge is to make sure we don’t drop any balls,” Nemerson said.

    Still, Nemerson said the new administration will make neighborhood development an early priority. He said working on the “arterioles” of the city — often neglected areas along Whalley, Grand and Dixwell Avenues — can make them regional economic destinations and improve local commerce. Broader development in New Haven neighborhoods was one of Harp’s principal campaign promises. Attracting small businesses by improving the aesthetics of the city’s corridors, while updating transportation and parking capabilities, will help the administration make good on that promise, Nemerson said.

    He also said cooperation with Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy will be a mainstay of the city’s economic development work. Harp’s close alliance with Malloy and members of the state’s general assembly will allow the city administration to collaborate with the state on issues such as the expansion of Tweed New Haven Regional Airport and funding for highway projects, he said.

    Harp has also announced that she hopes to tap Tomás Reyes, former president of the Board of Aldermen, as her chief of staff. Last week, she sent letters to a handful of current mayoral appointees, telling four of them she would like to keep them on and 10 of them that they will be out of a job come Jan 1. She asked Budget Director Joe Clerkin and Corporation Counsel Victor Bolden to stay, in addition to two mayoral aides.

    Harp has also said that she hopes to retain New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman. The terms of some top officials — including Erik Johnson, the head of the Livable City Initiative, and New Haven Fire Chief Michael Grant — do not expire until February.

    “[Nemerson] has literally been preparing for this job for the past 40 years, and his extensive legacy of success over that time bodes well for a vibrant future for our local economy,” Harp said in a Thursday press release. “There is no one else in Connecticut who can bring to this position the combination of business knowledge, familiarity with local history, and effective techniques for promoting economic growth.”

    Nemerson currently serves as the CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council, a statewide association of technology companies.