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James, Nemerson.
Jackie James, head of New Haven’s Small Business Academy, is accusing her boss of harassment and demanding that she have a union representative present in any further meetings with him.
James said Tuesday she plans to file a labor grievance against her boss, city Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson, for allegedly harassing her and creating a hostile workplace environment.
The two had clashed at a meeting this past Friday in Nemerson’s fourth-floor City Hall office over staffing levels in her office and dealings with the Board of Alders over the coming year’s budget. City attorney John Ward was also present at the meeting.
After the meeting James fired off a letter to Mayor Toni Harp stating that Nemerson has “consistently exhibited behavior towards me which is clearly hostile and aggressive” since she began working for him.
James started the city’s new small business academy. She also organized the city’s new annual Long Wharf food-truck festival, which will include a dragon boat race as well this year; and is putting together an African-American festival in Dixwell in two weeks.
“His attitude towards me has been belligerent, condescending, and demeaning,” she wrote about Nemerson in the letter to Harp.
“Other black, female staff have like personal experiences with Mr. Nemerson, as well as seeing for themselves how he has interacted with me and my staff. In weekly meetings he consistently bullies me and my ideas for the small business initiatives, and continuously brings up the fact that he is cutting funding for the programs, all of my actions are questionable and questions my every decision in regards to running programs at the Small Business Academy. …
“I can think of no other reason for Mr. Nemerson’s behavior aside form the fact that he is attempting to intimidate me and cause me [undue] stress and mental anguish. He refuses too acknowledge that my programs are doing as well as they are, he diminishes any program related progress that I make, and it appears clear to me that he is making every effort to sabotage the entire endeavor.”
James asked the mayor in the letter to “immediately intervene” to avoid “serious liability to the City of New Haven and its taxpayers in the way of needless further civil litigations and Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities claims.”
Mayor Toni Harp said Tuesday afternoon she was in the process of drafting a response letter to James.
“There were no specifics in [her] letter,” Harp said.
Nemerson denied James’ accusations.
“I don’t harass anybody. I’m not condescending,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I have high expectations. And I’ve managed people for 35 years. I treat everyone the same — with high expectations, a great deal of respect, and an assumption that they come prepared and they have the best interests of the organization at heart.
“I am loyal to the mayor. And I’m a tough boss who demands excellence from anybody who works anywhere in our administration. I am an equal-opportunity hardass. If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen. The things we ask of Jackie, we ask of everybody here.”
James’ union president, Cherlyn Poindexter of AFSCME Local 3144, said she planned to file a union grievance against Nemerson either late Tuesday or Wednesday alleging harassment and a hostile work environment. “The union is following whatever process we have in order to make sure that Jackie’s complaint is being taken seriously,” Poindexter said. “[Nemerson] talks down to you. He does it to me too. He’s very condescending to you. I want to see the mayor take action. No action has been taken against any of her staff that complaints have been made against.” Poindexter’s union has a similar grievance pending against Nemerson on behalf of fired Commission on Equality Opportunities chief Nichole Jefferson.
Speaking Out
Tensions between James and Nemerson have heightened in recent weeks as the Harp Administration completed a $525 million proposed operating budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Nemerson’s department originally requested that the budget include an administrative assistant position for James. Federal block grants currently pay for that position through the city’s special funds budget. But that money runs out June 30.
By the time the Harp Administration submitted its proposed budget to the Board of Alders for review and approval, many positions requested by departments — including that one — had been removed, as the administration sought to avoid raising taxes.
When the development officials presented their budget to the Board of Alders Finance Committee last month, James testified near midnight. She raised the fact that she would be losing the administrative assistant under the proposal.
“Losing an administrative assistant from my department may mean that we will have to shut our doors,” James told the committee. “It’s not feasible for us to operate without an administrative assistant. My administrative assistant does the intake. She assists with the facilitators and setting up classes and other things that are important to the function of our department. So again, to lose that position for my department would be an issue.”
Hill Alder David Reyes asked James at the hearing who made the decision to cut the position.
“I’m not sure,” James said.
Reyes said he’d like to know who made the decision and what the rationale behind the cut was.
$40,000 Transfer
In a subsequent Board of Alders committee meeting, a proposal was approved to transfer $40,000 in special funds from a different development account — for a planned new food incubator at the renovated Goffe Street Armory — to James’ small business department.
At this past Friday’s meeting, Nemerson ordered James to tell the alders she doesn’t want the $40,000 transferred, and was told officials are not supposed to testify against the mayor’s proposed budget, according to James.
James said she had nothing to do with the $40,000 transfer. She noted the money can’t be used under federal block-grant rules to pay the salary of an administrative assistant, so, she said, she would use it to support prison-reentry and small business services.
She argued that Nemerson’s request to speak to the alders made no sense: “Who do I talk to? Aldermen one on one? And say, ‘Give the money to a food incubator?’” She also argued that it makes sense to transfer the money to existing programs rather than the yet-to-be-launched food incubator. “The small business academy is in effect. We service 400 people. And we’ve done $600,000 in lending. We have 350 people on a waiting list.”
Nemerson told James that the mayor would issue a line item veto of the $40,000 if it were transferred to James’ department.
“It took me off guard to say the mayor would line-item veto” it, James said.
She said she is requesting union representation at any further meetings with Nemerson because “he makes every attempt to demean and intimidate me. And he does it in front of colleagues.”
Budget Protocol
James also defended her remarks before the Finance Committee about disagreeing with the lack of funding for an administrative assistant.
“It’s not insubordination,” she said, “when I’m advocating for my department — and not just for my department, but the people I represent.”
Mayor Harp Tuesday said the place to debate the budget within the administration is before it goes to the alders.
“We’re supposed to be a team. That’s what I thought,” she said. “People have issues with it, they’re supposed to come in and discuss it with me.”
Nemerson said he agrees with Harp that officials in the administration should publicly support the finished budget after internal debates end. “If you’re uncomfortable with loyalty, I don’t understand why you’d want to operate in the context of a city government,” he said.
Markeshia Ricks contributed reporting