Incoming Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam will take office on Monday facing numerous citywide challenges including crime, lack of affordable housing and the city’s finances.
But Arulampalam said he’s looking forward to taking on the challenges.
“We have so many opportunities and so much potential, that I think we've started to uncover in this transition period,” Arulampalam said.
Arulampalam and outgoing Mayor Luke Bronin went over the mayoral transition at a press conference on Friday.
Arulampalam was elected in November after running a campaign focused on quality of life issues, many of which are addressed in a report now available on the city’s website.
But while he’s optimistic, Arulampalam also acknowledged the city’s numerous challenges and declined to say what he’s going to prioritize first.
Arulampalam said he’s taking a holistic approach.
“You've got to prioritize everything in the housing, public safety, youth engagement, our schools, our arts and culture, all of them bleed together in one city,” he said. “And you've got to be able to bring people together at the table to solve our biggest challenges as a city.”
Bronin and Arulampalam highlighted a 103-page document called the "Mayoral Transition Report, 2023-2024." The report includes several successes occurring under Bronin’s term in office. Some of those wins include attaining more money for the unassigned fund balance, and the formation of the HEARTeam, which addresses mental health emergency calls using trained mental health first responders instead of police.
The city’s progress is fragile.
The report shows that police retention remains a serious issue for the city. And the HEARTeam needs sustained funding to continue, relying on surplus state funds.
Bronin said Arulampalam can rely on experienced city staffers to help his administration continue on addressing those issues.
“There are many members of our team who've been serving the city of Hartford before I came in and will continue to serve the city,” Bronin said.
The report is now available in full on the city’s site.
Arunan Arulampalam's father-in-law is Gregory B. Butler, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of Connecticut Public.
