EAST HAVEN

On Sept. 3, the office of Mayor Joseph Carfora announced that media veteran and East Haven native Rich Coppola will be the new head of the Department of Administration & Management at East Haven Town Hall.

In a press release announcing Coppola’s hiring, Mayor Carfora described him as a “well-respected distinguished professional” who “combined with his wide-ranging experience, make him the ideal person to help drive East Haven’s economic development forward.”

Carfora added that Coppola will “have the same vision as all of us” at East Haven Town Hall “because he was born and raised in this town.”

“He’s going to be a great asset to the administration,” Carfora said.

Coppola comes to the department following the departure of its former head Michelle Benivegna, who stepped down in June. He arrives at Town Hall with over 40 years of experience in broadcast media, most prominently sports, including stints at FOX61 in Hartford and, most recently, WTNH in New Haven. Throughout that time, Coppola has received numerous nominations and accolades from the both the Emmys and sportswriter’s associations.

In the press release, Coppola stated that his return to East Haven “feels like the culmination of a journey that started” in his hometown, specifically at Veterans Memorial Ice Rink, the renovation of which has been one of several points of pride for the town in recent years.

In an interview with The Courier, Coppola recalled that, “When the rink was renovated—and such a beautiful job was done—I went to the launch, I was looking up at one of the press boxes...[At the start of his career] I would do some of the hockey games on the community access channel from that location. So, in terms of the beginning of things…it feels right.”

Coppola enthused about the “team-concept” mentality of the Carfora administration—a mindset he relates to from his time of both playing and covering sports.

“When you grew up in sports, the idea of a team-concept and knowing why that’s so important towards a final goal—having people working together, being able to have differences in opinion, but then coming together because their goal is the same—that was very appealing to me,” he said.

As a people-oriented person, Coppola said his new role is a way “to get to meet even more people,” listen to their concerns and suggestions about what can be done in East Haven, “and then use them to the best of my ability [and] to the town’s ability.”

Coppola is very familiar with the transferable skill of supporting a diversity of interpersonal opportunities as a result of his four decades in the media, and he said that will be a “huge part” of his new role in East Haven. Coppola said it comes down to “knowing how to deal with people, knowing how to approach different people…and knowing that you don’t know all the answers,” the latter of which can be resolved through the team-oriented approach at Town Hall.

Coppola feels that “there’s a sense now with a lot of people that you can see them being upright more” and having more pride in their hometown since Carfora began his mayorship in 2019. Coppola credits that to recent economic developments which have generated “tremendous” growth and given the town a new appearance, putting East Havevn on a trajectory which he is committed to see reach greater distances for the benefit of its residents.

“I am part of this town. I’m one of you as someone who cares about this town and wants to see it thrive,” he said.