July 17, 2001
Midnight thoughts on my first meeting.

Well, the meeting adjourned at 11:40.  Obviously, my initiation with the board was at a rather atypical meeting to put it mildly. 

On the other hand, at a fundamental level there was something entirely typical about it in that what the Harp scandal is really about is the essential contempt which the Ivy League technocrats in the executive branch seem to have for the board. Not surprising.  Most of us have, unlike them, not benefitted(?) from pricey educations and maybe we misplace a modifier here and there.  But we can, it seems, get the job done on now and then by  pure pitbull obsessive perseverance.

Watching Naclerio reduce the judge to rubble was one of the more enjoyable, if cruel, political spectacles I've experienced recently. And I had a ringside seat:  I was close enough to watch Thayer's hand shake as he held up documents while wandering into Naclerio's propellers. 

At first, the doubletalk was pretty convincing-reminiscent of the way French intellectuals can maintain a linguistic fluency and even elegance unimpeded by content or logical sequence. But after a few questions from Matt, the facade collapsed pretty quickly as he was revealed to have probably knowingly acted in contempt (this is not the correct term) of the board: he approved the purchase of land, something which he is directly enjoined from doing according to the charter, without approval of the board. So this was probably a knowning violation of his oath of office, though he will certainly not get hung on this. 

Also, Naclerio nailed him for his filing a voucher (for $480,000 or so) without having the required signatures. Jackson-Brooks seemed to have reason for arguing that didn't even have the authority to provide even one of the signatures. Of course, the comptroller's office took the blame-or rather an unnamed staffer in the office for letting the payment go through.  But there is no question that a call came from higher up to authorize the payment, although there's no way to prove it. In any case, there is something very banana republic in the brazeness of this. 

Now on the matter of the scandal-the real scandal as I see it, unless I'm not getting something-is not so much in the overblown assessments.  The lowball assessments (i.e. 20,000 and 40,000) are clearly absurd, as the assessor said, and even the 200,000 figure appears to be an assessment based on the value of the parcel as a green space not as a functioning multi-unit appartment complex. For the latter, the $450,000 figure which Thayer derived might be in the ball park as the city assessor said. Of course, Thayer should have called the city assessor to make this determination and the techniques used by the "independent" assessors Thayer hired are apparently highly questionable, as are their credentials. 

The real scandal comes in who should bear the cost for the reduced value of the property resulting from it's becoming dilapidated.  Obviously, since Harp was responsible for and getting payed for "securing the property" it is entirely his responsibility and for this reason he should bear the cost.  But what is happening is that the price payed to him assumes that his management of the property while it was in his possession was responsible whereas it was anything but.  So the selling price contains a de facto payment to Harp for a service he failed to provide. Whether compensating the city would have to be pursued separately in the courts is another question, but since the judge seemed to exercise total discretion on how much Harp should be payed, his failure to take this fact into account seems a little suspicious.

That's my opinion for now.

John Halle

Green Party Alderman
Ward 9, New Haven

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Who is John Halle ?

John Halle is an assistant professor in the Department of Music at Yale University, a pianist, a composer, and an author of articles on music and politics. He has lived with his wife, Marka, a professional violinist, at their home on Eld St. since 1997.

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