New Haven finance committee holds budget workshops; staff preview deputy controller, IT capital and tenant‑protection workloads

The Finance Committee of the City of New Haven met March 13 for a series of departmental workshops on the mayor’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget, hearing presentations and questions from staff across the mayor’s office, registrar of voters, assessor, Department of Finance, information technology, the Fair Rent Commission and Corporation Counsel. Committee members discussed organizational moves, capital projects and rising workloads but took no formal budget votes; the meeting adjourned by voice vote.

The workshops focused on three broad themes: organizational changes in the mayor’s office and finance department, planned IT and capital spending, and expanding demand for tenant‑protection services. Sean Madison, the mayor’s chief of staff, told the committee the mayor has moved the Office of Labor Relations from Corporation Counsel into the mayor’s office, calling the change “helpful” for centralizing labor decisions and prioritizing workforce issues. Dr. Christy Sampieri, presenting for the Department of Finance, outlined plans to “modernize the city and modernize our financial systems,” including a proposed deputy controller post and a proposed chief data officer to support real‑time reporting and AI analytics.

Why it matters: the proposed new finance roles and IT investments would change how the city manages financial data and payments; changes to office organization affect reporting lines for labor relations; and staff warned that tenant‑protection work and enforcement needs are…