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Mayoral hopeful Lauren Garrett won the Hamden Democratic Party’s endorsement in a landslide vote of support at the town convention Tuesday night.

“The big difference between Lauren and the other candidates is not that Lauren wants the job, a lot of people want the job… It’s that she wants to DO the job. She wants to do the work, and she’s done the work. If you wanna know about any issue, ask Lauren,” Kristin Dolan added.

“If we just found out that the ice rink management fees are not being accounted for in the budget. This is $250,000. What else are we missing? What else is being hidden?” said Lauren Garrett, who is mounting a second challenge incumbent Leng in the 2021 mayoral election.

Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) is a funding mechanism that was intended to level the playing field in funding school districts. Instead, it has benefited majority-white schools.

This platform will be used as a way to increase transparency within the Democratic Party, according to Hamden DTC Issues Committee Co-Chair Lauren Garrett.

“The way to create transparency and accountability is to put your beliefs into words and to put elected officials accountable based on those beliefs,” Garrett said.

While disagreeing on what to spend is as American as apple pie, we need to be honest about true costs and Hamden’s financial outlook. Additionally, the message a mayor delivers to a state board should not contradict the message delivered to constituents.

At the October meeting, Lauren Garrett, who has acted as an intervenor in the application to raise concerns about the applicant, asked whether Boyarsky had a legal site on which to operate, since he had moved out of the Fitch Street lot. Porto did not answer the question.

Throughout the session, residents took turns going up to a microphone before the panel to talk about Hamden’s strengths and flaws. Former Legislative Council member Lauren Garrett said she chose to raise her family in Hamden because of its diversity, but said that diversity is not well reflected in its workforce. Roughly ten more residents after Garrett spoke about the lack of diversity in Hamden’s workforce, particularly with the Hamden Fire Department, referencing its historically scarce female or person of color hires.

The Hamden Legislative Council rejected most of a series of transfers that would have diverted almost $2.5 million budgeted for the town’s pension fund to pay other bills. Council members Lauren Garrett, Harry Gagliardi, and Cory O’Brien opposed the transfers.

“If you keep coming to the cookie jar, at some point you’re going to get your hand slapped,” said Garrett.

Standing in front of her kids, their friends, and Hamden Memorial Town Hall’s thick Ionic columns, Hamden Councilwoman Lauren Garrett announced Wednesday afternoon that she hopes to “chart a new course” as the town’s next mayor. Garrett told the assembled supporters that she wants “to shut the door on ‘business as usual’ and open the door to innovations.

Hamden Councilwoman Lauren Garrett is launching a Democratic primary challenge to Mayor Curt Leng. Garrett plans to announce her candidacy Wednesday on the steps of Hamden Memorial Town Hall at 5 p.m.

“I want to make sure that we have a long-term plan for Hamden,” she told the Independent. She said that she will run on a platform of financial responsibility.

“ The town faces a fiscal crisis that has put services at risk if the Legislative Council doesn’t take immediate action.”

Garrett said that she went through the budget and calculated $6 million in revenues that she does not believe the town will actually receive. That is around a mill and two-thirds. District 2 Rep. Harry Gagliardi came up with a similar figure.

...said At-Large Rep. Lauren Garrett, who serves as chair of the council’s Education Committee. “It results in more harsh and more frequent cases of discipline for students of color and students with disabilities.”

Rep. Garrett, another council member who voted against the changes, said that “tonight I’m going to be standing in solidarity with the unions.”

The meeting, which was organized by Legislative Council Rep. Lauren Garrett, convened a line-up of educators and activists to discuss the need for teachers of color and a more culturally inclusive curriculum

“The big challenge is...tackling challenges like the need for more affordable housing and updated infrastructure amid tight fiscal times, said Garrett.

According to at-large Council Rep. Lauren Garrett, the reason the budget has had shortfalls for years is that the town keeps making budgets that have inflated revenue projections. She said the the town could have prevented the budget shortfall by not relying on inflated projections. (Garrett wasn’t yet on the Council for that budget year.)