Business View Magazine - June 2016 141
through a system of pipes to the nearest body of wa-
ter, you infiltrate into the ground. That helps recharge
ground water. It also eliminates the need to put in al-
ways larger and larger pipes because you’re dealing
with storm water exactly where it happens. It also pro-
vides streetscape improvements.”
Mike Carter is New Haven’s Chief Administrative Of-
ficer. He talks about the city’s concentration on pub-
lic safety. “In our public safety cluster, we have police,
fire, communications, emergency management, and
public works,” he begins. “Over the past two years, we
have been able to put 125+ firefighters through the
training academy. We’ve had the first promotion for
lieutenants and captains in the fire service in the past
14 years. One of the mayor’s goals on employment is
to hire more New Haven residents, so one of the focus-
es of the next fire entry class is to focus on New Haven
residents coming into the fire department. Also, we
have purchased new fire apparatus for the fire depart-
ment, and we’re looking at purchasing four paramedic
units as well as full staffing of the Fire Marshal’s office
which has not been fully staffed in over five years.
“Crime has fallen drastically since 2011 - homicides,
shootings, and shots fired. The average decline over
the past five years has been around 70 percent. We
are expanding our shot finding technology, so in a mat-
ter of seconds we can locate a shot, the type of gun
and bullet, and the alert will go to police officers near-
est to the shooting, so we can better manage those
types of situations.
“Under the leadership of Mayor Harp, a working group
was formed to review snow operations. Collectively
a strategic, effective snow operation plan was devel-
oped and implemented. The “New” plan addressed
issues focusing on secondary roads, (narrows, dead-
ends, cul-de-sacs), often serviced at the tail end of
a snow event. Mayor Harp procured nine new snow
