Harp Fires 2 Top Aides

Mayor Toni Harp, returning to a City Hall wracked by internal disputes, fired her labor relations chief and policy chief.

Harp and Chief of Staff Tomas Reyes met with each of the two — Labor Relations Director Marcus Paca and Office of Development and Policy Director Mendi Blue — in the mayor’s office Monday to deliver the news.

“This was really difficult for me,” a somber Harp said in an interview in her office along with Reyes. She said she has known Marcus Paca ​“practically since before he was born” through a close relationship with his grandmother. She called Blue a ​“brilliant woman” whom she respects. She recently attended the pair’s wedding.

Harp acted upon returning to City Hall from a trip to Washington for a meeting of a national African-American mayors organization. During her absence, two controversies involving her staff erupted into public view.

Harp and Reyes said Blue violated a rule that mayoral appointees are supposed to publicly advocate for the administration’s proposed city budget before the Board of Alders. Blue recently sent an 11-page letter to the alders pleading for them to fund two positions that Harp had not included in her proposed new city budget. Blue asked the alders to take the money from another administration official, social services chief Martha Okafor, whom Blue blasted as doing a poor job, falsely taking credit for Blue’s own successes, and overstepping her department’s role. (Okafor disagreed with Blue’s assessment; this previous article details the dispute.)

Blue last week told the Independent that she was aware of the policy, but that special circumstances warranted her speaking out in this case. She added in a conversation on Monday that with the memo she ​“responded to a required request from the Board of Alders with truth.” She said she doesn’t believe she did anything wrong.

Harp said she saw no choice but to take action because of the policy about speaking with one voice on the budget once ​“vigorous” internal debates are completed and a final version goes before the alders for approval.

“We made that [policy] clear after last year,” Harp said. ​“We told everybody it was not going to be accepted.

“It’s important for people to know that when I say something, I mean it and I will follow through.”

Harp added that she originally approved the two new positions Blue had requested for her department. But then all departments had to have requests cut because the administration was determined to avoid increasing taxes, Harp said. Taxes would have had to be raised 2 to 3 mills to accommodate all new positions requested by department heads, she said.

Nichole Jefferson Fallout

Reyes and Harp said Paca was fired for a host of reasons including handling of labor matters with the fire department.

“There were things that were done,” Reyes said, ​“that disfavored the city …”

“… and cost the city money,” Harp added.

Also at issue was the release of hundreds of confidential internal emails from the corporation counsel’s office related to the firing of Commission on Equal Opportunities (CEO) chief Nichole Jefferson. Jefferson’s union president was given internal memos about efforts to fire Jefferson, a matter currently the subject of a state arbitration proceeding. The release of the emails — which were subsequently reported in this New Haven Register article by reporter Mary O’Leary — is believed to hampered the adminstration’s position in that proceeding.

Reyes said that all the released memos were clearly marked at the top as confidential attorney-client communications that must not be shared. They are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Paca told the Independent Monday that he did nothing wrong.

“There is an established process under MERA [the Municipal Employee Relations Act] that was followed since Day 1,” he said.

“There are systemic issues with Toni Harp’s administration. It is disappointing that they would take this out on myself and Mendi,” Paca added.

He and Blue said they will say more later but are withholding more comment for now. ​“We dedicated our lives to the city, to this mayor,” Paca said. ​“We’re still kind of processing it.”

Harp and Reyes met first with Marcus Paca Monday morning.

Then, when they met with Blue, she asked that Paca be present. Paca was allowed to be present but not to participate in the discussion, according to Reyes and Harp.

“Marcus has a different take on what actually happened,” Reyes said. ​“His office let those emails out. As director of that office, he is responsible.”

“To my knowledge Marcus is the only labor director hired in the state without a law degree. This proved to be problematic. His lack of knowledge and comprehension of the process and the law will cost the city long after this mistake was corrected,” New Haven firefighters union President Frank Ricci said in reaction to Monday’s news.

Looming Decision

An unresolved question Monday was a similar dispute involving Jackie James, director of city government’s small business office, and her boss, Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson.

James, too, appealed to the alders recently to include in the new city budget a new position she had sought but which did not make it into the final Harp budget. When Nemerson met with her and demanded she take action to support the mayor’s budget, James left the room and filed a workplace harassment complaint against him. (Their dispute was detailed in this previous article.)

Harp and Reyes said Monday that they will wait until James’ labor complaint is resolved before taking action on the speaking-out policy issue. Unlike Blue and Paca, James is represented by a municipal union, AFSCME Local 3144.

Monday’s firings, and the mood in City Hall, were reminiscent of a climactic moment in the previous administration of Mayor John DeStefano. In 1998, DeStefano, faced with a controversy involving his Livable City Initiative, fired three top aides. He had had long personal and political relationships with them. He too at the time said it was one of the most difficult decisions he had made in office.