Updated 4:36 p.m. Thursday, May 14, comments from Common Councilman David McCarthy (R-District E)
NORWALK, Conn. – Longtime Norwalk Department of Public Works Director Hal Alvord is leaving his position at the end of the month, according to a source in City Hall. The source said the 70-year-old Alvord’s retirement was not his own idea.
Mayor Harry Rilling has so far declined comment except to say he will be issuing a statement, and NoN’s attempts to contact Alvord have been unsuccessful thus far.
Common Councilman David McCarthy (R-District E), chairman of the Council’s Public Works Committee and an Alvord ally, spoke with NoN about the situation Thursday afternoon.
“I was informed that Hal would be leaving at the end of the month. I believe he has accrued vacation and what have you so that he will actually be done as of end of this week,” McCarthy said.
Other Council members declined to comment Wednesday, citing courtesy to Rilling. McCarthy confirmed Alvord’s departure to The Hour on Wednesday. “I am willing to speak on anything that I know about,” McCarthy said, explaining that he was asked for a reaction to what the reporter said he already knew.
The best words he could come up with to describe his reaction was “disappointed and sad,” he said.
“I think that, looking back on things, I mean, everyone has disagreements, but in the larger context what I have seen of Hal is that he was key in saving the city $18 million through the introduction of the single-stream recycling program and the garbage outsourcing,” McCarthy said.
Alvord’s future with Norwalk has been in doubt for months, according to another City Hall source who requested anonymity, but things were on hold for reasons that could not be revealed.
Alvord has twice been the subject of “no-confidence” votes – six years apart – by the public employee union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2405, which criticized his management style.
In June, Local 2405 President Milt Giddiens laid out the union’s complaints about Alvord.
“The concerns we expressed back then are the same ones we have now,” Giddiens said. “Mr. Alvord’s and Ms. (Lisa) Burns’ abusive and heavy-handed tactics are disrespectful to front-line workers and have created a poisonous work environment. We have had a long-standing practice of working to provide the best and fastest service to Norwalk citizens, which is apparently the least of Mr. Alvord’s concerns. Hopefully Mayor Rilling will listen to what we have to say.”
Local 2405 Vice President Hector DeJesus added, “If Mr. Alvord and Ms. Burns can’t respect the employees they supervise, then how can they respect Norwalk taxpayers? Things have to change.”
Burns is the DPW operations manager.
“I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment since there has been no official comment from the mayor,” AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) Council 4 spokesman Larry Dorman said Wednesday night. “ … But certainly we have had issues and concerns with Mr. Alvord. To date, he has neither inspired nor facilitated a positive work environment that’s operated in the best interests of not only of the employees but of the Norwalk taxpayers. That’s an ongoing concern we have had.”
In May 2014, Alvord was pressed over what Councilman David Watts called a $273,000 no-bid contract with City Carting to buy three new trash compactors.
Alvord also has been a target of former Zoning Commissioner and Bike/Walk Task Force Co-Chairman Mike Mushak for his opposition to Bike/Walk Task Force plans for bike lanes and walking trail work. Mushak also took Alvord and McCarthy to task over issues surrounding the lowering of the road under the Rowayton railroad bridge and related work.
Last July, Alvord emphatically stated that there was no room on Belden Avenue for bike lanes, that installing them would be dangerous and that DPW Engineers did not relish the idea of testifying in court against the city if a tragedy occurred.
The Norwalk Traffic Authority consulted with the Connecticut Department of Transportation and Office of State Traffic Administration. Bike lanes were installed.
“The way I look at that was his opinion based on traffic standards,” McCarthy said. “Unfortunately I think there’s some amount of opinion in there, for lack of better word, that it doesn’t say ‘exactly this amount of space to have bicycle lanes.’”
McCarthy, a veteran bike rider, said he thinks there could eventually be a serious accident there, with serious injuries or even a fatality.
“I don’t think he was incorrect,” McCarthy said. “The fact that the state let it go through means that somebody said, ‘OK there’s a certain guideline’ and let it happen, but I don’t know that a person at the state said, ‘Oh, it’s 100 percent safe.’”
Recently, Common Council members have appeared to be frustrated in their desire to begin repairing Norwalk sidewalks. Alvord has been talking about DPW being shorthanded, as two principal engineers were retiring. Dick Linnartz had his last day on May 1, and Brian Sweeney agreed to stay on through the fall.
Alvord fought single-stream recycling when the idea was put forward by activist Diane Lauricella, according to Councilman Bruce Kimmel, a Public Works Committee member, but came on board once it was combined with outsourcing trash collection to City Carting. That contract turned out to be winner for outsourcing proponents, saving Norwalk millions over the life of the deal, a fact confirmed by Finance Director Tom Hamilton.
“I have proof that Mr. Alvord actually delayed us going to single-stream recycling by at least two years,” Lauricella said. “I am still calculating the volume of materials that taxpayers paid for at the full trash rate, it’s tons and tons and he actively pursued delaying single stream recycling until such time that his contractor was ready to embrace it, and there’s proof of it.”
McCarthy said that if that happened was before his involvement with the Public Works Committee.
Alvord was very good about trees in Norwalk and worked very well with certain citizens on that issue, Lauricella said. But he misrepresented things, such as the odors from the sewage treatment plant.
“That kind of public official is not welcome in Norwalk anymore,” Lauricella said. “… I can’t imagine the reason he felt he needed to misinform public officials about something so obvious.”
“(Alvord) has also brought in somewhere, I think conservatively, somewhere between $60-80 million to the city in grant money, which was almost entirely done of his own volition,” McCarthy said.
He cited the traffic signal upgrade program, which has been funded with federal money.
“If any public works director got just that program done it would be amazing,” McCarthy said. “But in connection with the rest of the things that he got funding for in the city he’s had a major impact well beyond what would be expected of somebody in that position.”
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