Letters to the Editor: Kevin de León wants to serve his constituents. So why isn’t he resigning?
By Scott Smith
In my previous Letters to the Editor, I wrote about the way in which Kevin de León, the city council member representing the 27th District in the 7th Council District, had used his City Government Twitter account to urge residents of New Haven to “vote no” in the municipal election. I asked why de León believed (incorrectly) that in the absence of a “yes” vote, his constituents could not govern themselves.
In response to my earlier letter, de León insisted that he had no reason to resign his position. This letter, I hope, will show that his claim to believe that he cannot be blamed for a “yes” vote that would not deliver what he wanted to deliver cannot be correct.
To begin with, there is the fact that it would be the ultimate and self-defeating thing for the 27th District residents to vote “no” on the matter of a new city manager who was to be chosen in January.
For two reasons, I think that de León is wrong about this. First, if the “no” vote was not to have a new city manager but to replace the current city manager, that person would not have to spend his or her entire eight-month term with the city manager as de León wanted, nor would de León be able to blame a “no” for his own inability to govern.
Second, the “no” vote would allow de León’s opponents to try to make city government itself a source of controversy after de León’s term concludes in January.
This argument has been made by de León and his opponents and I share some of their concerns about the city manager vacancy issue. In my view, however, it has failed to convince anybody, least of all Kevin de León.
To begin, I know that de León is not the first