Markeshia Ricks Photo
Jefferson at Thursday’s public hearing.
The former director of the city’s Commission on Equal Opportunity (CEO) blasted the new director’s efforts to get that office back monitoring contractors and his failure to hold monthly meetings with the board members who oversee his work.
Nichole Jefferson worked for the city for 20 years and ran the CEO, which monitors minority and women hiring on government-funded construction projects, before the Harp administration fired her based on accusations that she squeezed money and jobs from contractors, she oversaw a separate not-for-profit she ran, refused to provide documents relevant to commission’s finances and decision-making, and then destroyed a city-owned property.
Jefferson, who vigorously denied the accusations, is still fighting that firing two years later, and has prevailed in state labor proceedings contesting the city’s actions and in a federal look at some of the allegations. She appeared Thursday night at a Board of Alders Finance Committee public hearing at Hillhouse High School on the mayor’s proposed new budget to argue that the city has mishandled her agency since she left.
In her testimony, Jefferson deemed “bogus and ridiculous” a budget presentation provided by acting CEO director Angel Fernandez-Chavero at an alder hearing a night earlier.
“He sat before you and said that he worked at a job for six months and had not done one site inspection,” she said. “He worked in a job for six months and sat before you and gave you some presentation and some product … and pretended to you that this is going to be some kind of accountability.”
Fernandez-Chavero had testified about how he has instituted a web-based, project tracking system for contractor compliance. The system allows for the electronic submission of certified payroll and workforce participation data; the city said the state has instructed it to implement the system. Fernandez-Chavero told alders Wednesday night that the system allows anyone to see the status of CEO managed projects from a computer or even their smartphone.
Fernandez-Chavero at Wednesday’s departmental hearing.
Fernandez-Chavero said that the new web-based system, in addition to providing payroll information, compiles fine and violations information particularly for those contractors with shoddy record-keeping skills. He is currently a staff of one and is the second director to helm the CEO since Jefferson was fired.
“For the honest contractor it makes life easier for them because it talks to their payroll system,” he said Wednesday. “For the occasionally dishonest contractor it will be a lot tougher to fool the system. It’s a win for all of us.”
But he also acknowledged that until he gets some key staff in place, inspection of sites will be sparse. But he also said that he knows how to conduct inspections and promised to “throw the book” at violators.
At Thursday’s hearing, Jefferson likened the reliance on a computer based system to monitor construction sites to contractors policing themselves after they’ve already done something wrong.
“They’re not going to tell on themselves,” she said. “To say that 50 percent of New Haven residents are working and compliance is up but to never have been to a job site and that contractors are being held accountable is not true. For him to tell you that you’re going to rely on a company in California to tell you who is working on a job down here is the most asinine and ridiculous thing that I’ve ever heard.”
Fernandez-Chavero acknowledged Wednesday night that being an office of one makes the job that he’s been doing for the last six months difficult. That’s why his proposed department budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 includes $213,000 and to hire a clerk typist and a utilization monitor.
Jefferson said she was able to hire the staff that she needed to inspect construction sites with grant money that she obtained.
“Every year I came here and asked only for my salary,” she told alders. “I never asked you for a dime. All these 10 programs I ran, were grants I wrote. How many grants did that man write while he’s sitting there for the last six months?”
She also criticized Fernandez-Chavero for not having been able to pull together a meeting of the commissioners who oversee the CEO’s work since they met to hire him six months ago.
Alders asked Fernandez-Chavero Wednesday night about the state of his board. It was pointed out that a commission that isn’t meeting can’t act on fines levied against contractors for violating the city’s equal employment and affirmative action, and living wage policies.
Fernandez-Chavero admitted that the commission has not met since he was unanimously made the acting CEO director near the end of September. But he also said it was not for a lack of trying. Scheduling conflicts “and other issues” including the two vacancies on the commission have been a problem.
Economic Development Administrator Matt Nemerson said that at least one commissioner has a health challenge that makes the current meeting schedule on Wednesday a challenge. Nemerson also said federal law required that city implement the computer tracking system, and that the city discovered, in the wake of the showdown with Jefferson, that it had not been done on her watch.
Jefferson also accused Fernandez-Chavero of naiveté in his showing up to inspect a construction site improperly dressed. Fernandez-Chavero, the self-described geek and desk jockey sheepishly admitted to alders Wednesday, that he had shown up in a suit on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and was promptly refused for safety reasons.
“I’m from IBDW Local 90 electricians,” Jefferson said. “My staff are trades people, right? This is a trade thing, so don’t sit there in front of you and say ‘I went to a job site in a suit.’ A brick is gonna fall on your damn head!
“I am trying not to be angry,” she added. “But I’m angry because I dedicated my life to this.”