Vanessa Burns knew government could work for people. If people in government worked hard enough. She proved that in her hometown of New Haven, then across the country. Burns died Monday at the age of 73 while in Puerto Rico visiting friends Ellen Kershaw and George Pate, with whom she once wo rked in New Haven’s Office of Legislative Services (OLS). Burns grew up in New Haven, graduated from Hillhouse High School, earned a BA in political science in government from American University and a masters in public administration and urban government from University of New Haven. Then she got to work putting her knowledge to use on the ground back home. She served as an alderwoman (as the position was then called) in Dwight’s Ward 2. She was outspoken, passionate, connected to her neighbors, blunt and insightful. Not to mention great fun to talk with. One across-the-street neighbor she inspired was Toni Harp, who would later run for (and win) the same ward seat, before becoming a state senator and then the city’s mayor. “Vanessa was the person who inspired me to run for public office,” Harp recalled Friday. “She planted it in me. She said that it’s important for people to be involved. When you serve, you can make a positive difference in people’s lives.” Burns subsequently worked as a legislative and fiscal analyst for the Board of Alders’ Office of Legislative Services. She enjoyed working on campaigns, too. After Burns helped elect John C. Daniels as New Haven’s first Black mayor, Daniels in turn tapped Burns as the first Black woman to run the traditionally male and white public works department. Her mission was to overhaul it — tackle outdated work rules, improve trash pick-up and storm clean-up, in a department populated by older guys with a tough reputation. They learned soon enough that they were not going to be able to steamroll a woman with her own tough-but-fair reputation.  “When he first appointed me, a lot of people said, ‘She’s not capable. They’re going to eat her alive.’ He had confidence in me,” Burns recalled of Daniels years later. “John gave an opportunity to people like myself to prove that we could do the job.” “Vanessa gave the perception — you looked at her, you thought she was hard. But Vanessa was really a soft person, a good-hearted person,” recalled her friend Sally Brown, New Haven’s former city-town clerk. “She was a phenomenal public works director. You can’t get anybody to say anything different about her. Even when she was in D.C., in Kentucky, she was the same way she was here: She really cared that people got service, that people’s trash was picked up.” Burns’ success led to offers: Evanston, Illinois, hired her to modernize its public works department. Then an old friend, Anthony Williams, hired her to run Washington, D.C.’s department. (Williams had succeeded Burns as Ward 2 alder before moving up the career ladder to become D.C.’s reform mayor.) She also obtained a public health degree, served on the staff of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Public Health Committee, and had a stint as executive director of the state African-American Affairs Commission. Burns landed last in Louisville, Kentucky, where she ran the public works department until her retirement. (Click here to read about a visit she made to New Haven in 2015 to offer tips on how to upgrade public works.) Burns spent her retirement years traveling widely, including an annual visit to Kershaw’s and Pate’s home in Puerto Rico. She battled health problems, which she insisted battling on her own terms. She declined certain doctor-recommended procedures with a determination to live her final years fully. To the end she was a person who pursued her passions. “She loved traveling. She didn’t get enough of that. She loved people. She loved seafood. She loved tennis. She loved basketball,” said her younger brother Dwayne Huggins. “Even in her passing, she set an example for me, not just for endurance, but for forgiveness and generosity. She’s touched more lives than I even knew.” Arrangements are being made to return Burns’ body to New Haven. Memorial arrangements will be forthcoming. The post Good-Government Stalwart Vanessa Burns Dies At 73 appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less