Christopher Peak Photo
Board member Che Dawson and Superintendent Reggie Mayo at Monday night’s board meeting.
The Board of Education spent a little time discussing books and reading at its meeting Monday night and a lot more time arguing about who’s playing politics with district funds.
Amid allegations that a city official’s salary was paid in part with school money, Daisy Gonzalez, the board’s president, asked the superintendent, Reggie Mayo, to commence an investigation into who had approved the allocation.
To assert their control over other fiscal matters, board members also requested more information about part-time hires, outside consultants and contract renewals that may have slipped by without their approval.
Then, in a surprise twist, Mayo accused an unnamed board member of pressuring school staff to pick certain contractors in the open bidding process.
On Monday morning, the New Haven Register reported that Jason Bartlett, the city’s director of youth services, got a $20,000 raise for acting as the mayor’s liaison to the school board, despite a vote by the Board of Alders against the salary increase. (At the time, Stephen Librandi, the city’s human resources chief, told the Independent that the salary increase, from $85,000 to $105,000, did not require outside approval because it fell within approved job categories.) Instead, Bartlett’s raise was budgeted through an unusual arrangement: Mayor Toni Harp and then-Superintendent Garth Harries agreed that the Board of Education would cover the extra cost. (At the time, Harp indicated that the raise was intended to compensate for the extra time Bartlett spent attending subcommittee meetings and overseeing her signature Youth Stat intervention.) Alders said the arrangement may violate the charter, which states, “No person shall receive compensation … for more than one position in the city government.”
Carlos Torre said the expenditure did not make sense. “I don’t know how he could have done a job for a position that does not exist. There’s no position as liaison to the board. That never existed, has not existed and could not exist,” he said. “This is not some small thing about slipping through the cracks or contracts we were not informed about.”
In a letter sent Monday, Gonzalez instructed Mayo to “conduct an immediate investigation” to determine if Bartlett did in fact receive a paycheck from the school board or if other funds were diverted to the city’s coffers without prior board approval. Gonzalez also asked for Mayo to identify the “board action or executive decision” that justified the payments, if any transactions did occur.
“You should also consult the board if you see the need for additional resources to ensure that we establish the truth in these and related matters,” Gonzalez wrote. “Please keep me apprised of your progress in your investigation, and of any barriers you might face in getting the facts.”
Darnell Goldson.
At the board meeting, Darnell Goldson asked Gonzalez to expand the investigation’s scope to include a list of all hires and contractors for which the board had not been notified. And he also asked for a deadline to be added.
Mayo replied that he wasn’t sure what Goldson wanted to see. “Most of the contracts that I know of are on the action item agenda” — a list that the board approves in bulk at each meeting — “that has gone through Finance & Operations Committee, so I can’t understand that,” he said.
Goldson answered, “You just said ‘most,’ not ‘all.’”
Mayor Toni Harp and Carlos Torre.
Later in the meeting, Mayo accused a board member of asking staff to hand out contracts to selected applicants. “I’d like to make a policy that while I’m superintendent that they refrain from doing such. If they want something, they should come to me,” he said.
Goldson attempted to clarify what Mayo had just implied. “Are you suggesting on the record that someone tried to coerce a school employee to give out a contract?”
Mayo answered, “I thought I just made that clear.” Despite pressure from Goldson, the superintendent refused to call out a specific name. Gonzalez suggested they continue the discussion in executive session at the next meeting.
In an email, Goldson said he was “baffled” by the exchange with Mayo and believed the accusation was directed at him. Mayo declined to elaborate on his accusation.
On May 2, a series of emails among Goldson, Gonzalez and school board Chief Administrative Officer Will Clark, and then a discussion at the board, ensued about whether contracts have been renewed without bidding. Goldson said Monday he’s been repeatedly asking for documents about part-time hires and contractors. “What I suspect we will find are literally dozens of people working who were never approved by the BOE, or even notified about,” Goldson said. “It’s all very frustrating, but I won’t be deterred or sidetracked by this or any other distracting issue [Mayo] may raise,” Goldson said.