Shared from the 11/11/2019 NewHavenRegister eEdition

Resident’s out-of-state cars clogging City Point street

Neighbors say city losing tax revenue

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Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media

New Haven residents Angela Hatley of Greenwich Avenue, left, and Christopher Schaefer of Second Avenue have issues with a tenant on First Street who has several vehicles with out-of-state plates that take up many of the parking spaces in between Howard and Greenwich avenues. The vehicles around Hatley and Schaefer are three of the cars that concerns them: A Mercedes-Benz with Vermont license plates, above; a Chevrolet van with Texas temporary license plates, left, rear; and a BMW with Vermont plates, right.

NEW HAVEN — Multiple cars with out-of-state registrations parked on one block of First Street, believed to be owned by one person, are not only taking up parking spaces, they’re symbols of a larger problem, say City Point activists who have tried to get city officials to take action.

Christopher Schaefer of Second Street and Angela Hatley of Greenwich Avenue say the cars parked on First Street between Greenwich and Howard avenues represents property tax revenue the city is losing from unregistered vehicles or those registered out of state that are parked all over New Haven.

It’s a perennial problem in towns across the state. According to state law, a vehicle must be registered in Connecticut if the owner is a state resident for more than 60 days.

“A resident on First Street has been observing this for years and has told me that they all belong to the same guy,” said Schaefer. “I’ve seen him getting in and out of these same vehicles.”

On Wednesday, two cars parked on the block, a BMW and a Mercedes­Benz, had green Vermont license plates. A Chevrolet van bore a temporary Texas registration. During a tour of the block, Russell Gilchrist drove up in a Cadillac and a woman he said was his wife arrived in a tan SUV, both with temporary Texas registrations. Gilchrist said the Mercedes belonged to his son but didn’t dispute owning the other vehicles. He later said he only owns three vehicles.

Schaefer said a motorcycle with an out-of-state registration also had been seen taking up a parking spot and that Gilchrist had posted four photos of several of the cars on his Facebook page in May 2018.

“Neither the Police Department nor the Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking nor the Traffic Authority … has been able to solve this problem,” Schaefer said. “They just keep giving me the runaround. Just imagine the tax revenue we’re losing by doing this.”

Asked Friday why he has not registered his vehicles in Connecticut, Gilchrist, who is listed in public records as being a resident of First Street since at least 2008, said, “I’m choosing not to. I don’t owe Connecticut no debt and I’m not going to put myself in debt and I’m going to plead the Fifth on the rest of it.”

Earlier in the week, however, he said his cars have been towed multiple times and that he had been ticketed by police. “I’m not here 60 days at a time,” Gilchrist said. “I’m a traveling laborer.”

He also said one of the Vermont-registered cars belongs to his child’s mother. “She’s a traveling nurse. … I don’t owe Connecticut a dime on these cars,” he said.

The only enforcement authority the city has is to tow vehicles that have not been moved for 72 hours, when it considers them abandoned. Schaefer said Gilchrist knows this and moves his cars from one spot to another.

On Thursday, Schaefer put printouts from the state Department of Motor Vehicles’ website on the vehicles’ windshields. The printouts list the requirements for registering outof-state vehicles. “If he confronts me, I’ll tell him, ‘I’m trying to help you,’ ” Schaefer said.

Gilchrist said he would be checking the video cameras he has on his house and, if he identifies who put the printouts on the vehicles, “I’m going to call my lawyer and get a restraining order.”

Acting city Assessor Alexzander Pullen could not be reached last week. But he wrote to Schaefer in response to an email, “Whether this individual files or not, the unregistered vehicles will be added to our Grand List and a tax bill will be sent to the address where we believe the owner resides this coming June. Currently we do not have the name for the owner, as was mentioned in my previous email to you, but we are still working on investigating the matter.”

Seeking to recoup revenue from Connecticut residents who register their vehicles in other states, Stamford has hired a Shelton company, Municipal Tax Services, that roams the streets reading license plates and photographing vehicles so their owners can be tracked down. Stamford Assessor Greg Stackpole estimated that 4,000 tax evaders may live in the city, and that the revenue the company brings in will more than pay for its $1 million contract.

Waterbury has used the company for five years, bringing in $3.3 million after expenses, city Assessor David Dietsch has said.

New Haven hired the company in 2009 but discontinued the contract “several years ago after a decision was made its services were not cost-effective,” according to city spokesman Laurence Grotheer. “City officials continue working across several departments: i.e. Transportation, Traffic, and Parking, the Assessor’s Office, and the Office of Tax Collector, to zero-in on vehicles registered elsewhere that seem to have a long-term presence in New Haven,” he wrote in an email.

“Once identified, the City has several options available to encourage the vehicle owner’s compliance, including imposition of an immobilizing ‘boot,’ towing, and impoundment.” He added that the issue “is not unique to New Haven.”

Antonio Guerrera, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles, said the General Assembly created a 12-member task force to look into the problem of motor vehicle owners failing to comply with state laws. It was supposed to report to the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee by Jan. 1, but Guerrera, former cochairman of that committee, said Friday he didn’t expect the recommendations to be made until after the first of the year.

He said it’s a difficult problem to track. “We have no way of capturing that data. You don’t know who’s driving because they don’t come in to register,” he said.

Guerrera said residents should report suspected tax-evaders to their municipal assessors, “not to be a busybody, but what’s fair is fair. If I’ve got to pay, why shouldn’t everyone else have to pay?”

Hatley said those who don’t pay taxes on their cars are shifting the burden to others and that it’s unfair “when you have people who are not paying taxes and we had an 11 percent tax increase recently.” That tax rate hike occurred in 2018-19.

Arguing over parking

Besides the issue of taxes, Schaefer and Hatley said, Gilchrist is lowering the quality of life in the neighborhood by taking up precious parking spaces. “My whole problem is it’s a very dense neighborhood to begin with. … Most of the residents don’t have off-street parking so we rely on the spaces in front of our house,” Hatley said. “We have people fighting over parking spots. … There have been verbal arguments. Police have been called on occasion for parking.”

While they don’t live on First Street, the neighbors said it is a major route out of City Point because it runs from Kimberly Avenue to Howard Avenue. “I go through there every day because all the streets are one way,” Schaefer said. Another problem is that snowplows can’t through to clear the street, “because this one individual can have this one block clogged up with eight vehicles and because the city doesn’t enforce the parking ban on the odd side of the street,” he said. “The plow doesn’t even go down the street.”

Hatley said the number of cars adds “insult to injury. You’re going to lock up the street, take up spaces, and you’re not paying a dime in taxes.”

Alder David Reyes, D-5, who did not seek reelection, said he didn’t know the vehicles had out-of-state plates. “It’s more of a police matter,” he said. “The cops have been involved. I know the sergeant has done a tag and tow.”

Neither Sgt. Justin Marshall, the Hill South district manager, nor Sgt. Shayna Kendall, city police spokeswoman, returned calls seeking comment.

Cars towed regularly

Gilchrist said he doesn’t understand why he’s being targeted when there are vehicles with out-of-state registrations all across the city. “They’ve been taking my cars, targeting my cars,” he said. “They’ve been taking my cars every month since I been here.”

Schaefer, though, said the city should get most of the blame. He posted photos of the cars a year ago on SeeClickFix, which the city uses to receive residents’ complaints and requests for service, “and yet they don’t boot it,” he said.

“I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that [he believes] as long as his car’s registered somewhere it’s legal,” Schaefer said of Gilchrist. “But it’s the city’s responsibility. They know that these vehicles have been here for more than 60 days because I posted them online. … Just imagine the whole city, the thousands of dollars we’re losing because of the revenue we’re losing because of this. I really place the blame on the city.”

“They should boot them. How hard is that?”

edward.stannard @hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382

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