http://www.ctnow.com/hc-perez1026.artoct26,1,6680933.story

Perez Intends To Take Control

Priorities Are Clear, But City Hall Plans Vague

By MARK PAZNIOKAS
Courant Staff Writer

October 26 2003

His is a carefree campaign, so Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez could linger recently at a ribbon-cutting in his old North End neighborhood. He endured an hour of speeches celebrating a $29 million overhaul of the low-income SANA Apartments, then mingled with the audience.

It was a mixed group, with suited VIPs scattered among neighborhood residents. In the crowd, Perez spotted Lydia Medina, a South Arsenal Neighborhood Association tenant. At 47, she is a year older than the mayor. Never really left their old block.

They laughed, recalling the day 20 or so years ago when police broke up a rent-strike protest across the street at one of the many tenements in Clay-Arsenal, the neighborhood separated from downtown by I-84. The strike organizer was Perez.

"We went to jail together," Perez said.

The one-time organizer of rent strikes, who briefly ran with a street gang as a skinny teen-ager, is now the darling of corporate Hartford. Money from the other side of I-84 has flowed into his campaign, allowing him to buy $100,000 worth of television time to air commercials.

A first-time office holder, Perez is cruising to re-election the way bicyclist Lance Armstrong approaches the finish line at the Tour de France. He is relaxed, far ahead of the field. He can think past Nov. 4 to his coming term as Hartford's first strong mayor - and perhaps even beyond that.

"It's a great story," state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the other day, watching Perez reminisce at the SANA ribbon-cutting. "Here's an American story."

Perez, 46, one of nine children raised by a divorced mother, is the first Puerto Rican mayor of a state capital. He is finishing a two-year term as Hartford's last mayor under a council-manager government that gives him little statutory authority.

In his first term, Perez overcame a challenge from a faction of fellow Democrats on the council, then he survived a two-year fiscal crisis that required two rounds of deep job cuts and an election-year tax increase.

Amid the political and fiscal tumult, he won voter approval of a new charter, assembled a multiparty council majority and consolidated power in the Democratic Party by overhauling its town committee, installing a new chairman and denying renomination for another term to two key opponents on the council, John B. Kennelly and Louis Watkins.

Re-election promises real power under the revised charter: a four-year term as Hartford's first strong mayor, a chief executive with the power to hire and fire department heads. In addition, he seems guaranteed the election of a friendly council on Nov. 4.

"It's remarkable. You think about what he's done in two years. He put together a majority. Then he had the $45 million deficit. He laid off people, kept the majority and still avoided a primary" for mayor, said Thomas D. Ritter, the former state House speaker. "You name somebody else that has done that."

Of course, the curse of success is high expectations.

Perez will be CEO of a city government wounded by layoffs and retirements and mired in a semi-permanent state of fiscal crisis. Expenses are projected to rise from $425.3 million this year to $516 million in 2008, despite the staffing cuts. With revenues relatively flat, the budget office is projecting a $17.9 million deficit next year that will grow to $77.7 million in 2008.

Charter revision was about accountability. Spread among nine council members and the manager under the old charter, power under the new charter will be concentrated in the mayor's office. It makes him responsible for all aspects of government, even giving him the power to eventually appoint a majority of the school board.

"The burden is on him to prove he can deliver what he wants to deliver," said Jeff Stewart, a prominent Democratic activist in the North End. "That was what the whole charter revision was about: one-stop shopping. He'll have four years to do it."

His broad priorities are clear: public safety, education and stabilizing neighborhoods by boosting home ownership in Hartford, where 75 percent of residents are renters. His plans for rejuvenating a dispirited city hall are not so clear.

He is publicly committed to only one appointment: City Manager Lee C. Erdmann, the man the council hired 14 months ago at Perez's insistence, will be his chief operating officer - the top administrative post in the new charter.

Perez said he plans to surround himself with a circle of advisers, drawn from existing city department heads and those he hopes to bring into government. He insisted he has not decided which departments will get new leaders, then he laughed and added, "That's my story, and I'm sticking to it."

His dissatisfaction with the police department is well-known, but he has not promised to bring in a new chief.

"I am going to be a lot more aggressive about public safety," Perez said. "I've been holding back, because it wasn't appropriate to get more engaged under the charter."

How involved will he be?

"Whatever level I need to be," Perez said. "I hope not in an intrusive way. I hope in a way that will enable the chief and command staff and rank and file."

Perez was a Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) volunteer, community organizer and director of community affairs at Trinity College before becoming mayor. His last job at Trinity was overseeing construction of the Learning Corridor, a new campus of four public schools and housing in what was a blighted neighborhood.

Perez won a reputation for an attention to detail - and a bias for action, not long debates. Some find his reputation discomfiting.

"He's got to understand, at its best democracy is messy," said former Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry, who has been a critic of what she sees as Perez's lack of attention to consensus-building.

Belying a reputation for cockiness, he habitually asks people to pray for him. He calls it a sincere request, and one that he made of Saxon Perry during a breakfast meeting.

"I said, `Well, I will pray - and agitate,'" said Saxon Perry, who fears Perez will have too much power. "We human beings can't deal with raw power. You have to have checks and balances to help keep people in line."

Even Ritter, the former speaker and a strong supporter, sounds a cautionary note about the strong political base Perez expects to enjoy in his second term: "I think it's almost good to have opposition."

He recalled working with the Republican minority in the House.

"I found if you listened to them, you save yourself a lot of problems down the line," Ritter said. "I'm not saying he won't, but he has to be careful to make sure he accepts constructive criticism."

Perez said he tries to be inclusive, but he pointedly added, "At the end of the day, people expect me to lead, so I am going to lead."

The mayor makes no apologies for his style, or little effort to convince people he will change.

"I hope people have learned that when I set my mind to something, and I feel strongly about that, and I've done my due diligence about what's in the best interest of the city, that's what I am going to do," Perez said.

Some of the mayor's allies acknowledge nervousness in the community and in the city hall bureaucracy about whether Perez will be a dictator, or open to dissent; whether he is going to tinker and modify, or make wholesale change.

"It's like, `He is going to change all the locks in city hall!' Please, get a grip," Elizabeth Horton Sheff, a member of his council coalition, said with a laugh. "Most folks voted for strong mayor. Now they are worried about it because it's going to happen."

Based on his first campaign, when he appeared timid and uncertain in public, no one feared a super-strong mayor. The timid Perez is a distant memory. "He is much more self-confident," said Kennelly, one of the council members who admits misjudging the mayor.

Perez has assiduously networked since his election, leaving no doubt he wishes to be seen as a political player on a broader stage. He raised $100,000 for the presidential campaign of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman and attended a national Democratic summit over how the party can reach Latinos.

Locally, he has marched with politicians in neighboring West Hartford in a recent parade, mindful perhaps that one would be Kevin Sullivan, the president pro tem of the state Senate. He also is active in the Capitol Region Council of Governments.

His networking and recently launched television advertising campaign makes local politicians wonder where Perez's ultimate ambitions lay. Perez said all his actions are intended to make him a more powerful mayor and advocate for Hartford.

"I think the more capable, smarter mayors do what Perez is doing, which is build broader relationships. They understand cities don't survive alone, they need coalitions," said George Jepsen, the Democratic state chairman.

Jepsen said the television commercials work to the same end: "It is a smart way to build a broader presence and define yourself with voters and political leaders and opinion makers outside Hartford's borders."

And yes, Jepsen and others said, none of it hurts should Perez seek higher office.

The election of the first Latino to statewide office in Connecticut is considered inevitable. For the first time, the 2000 Census shows Latinos slightly surpassing blacks as Connecticut's largest minority group. Each group comprises about 9 percent of the state's 3.4 million people.

Could Perez be that candidate?

Perez can be an awkward campaigner. He is not glib or schooled in the art of speaking in sound bites, a crucial skill on a wider political stage.

Even with a comfortable lead, he avoided a one-on-one debate with his Republican opponent, Michael T. McGarry.

He shrugs off questions about what he might do after being mayor, though he admits his horizons have broadened in the past two years.

"I never have had to apply for a job. I never have had to plan for what I'm doing at the next step," Perez said. "My focus is on how to be the best mayor Hartford has seen."

A discussion of this story with Courant Staff Writer Mark Pazniokas is scheduled to be shown on New England Cable News each half-hour Monday between 9 a.m. and noon.

Reprinted with permission of The Hartford Courant.