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James, second from left, and Nemerson, at right, at the June 6 labor hearing.
The employees of New Haven government’s small business development office learned they have a new temporary boss, while their old boss negotiates an exit deal.
Those were the latest developments in the ongoing City Hall saga of Jackie James, the Harp administration’s small-business chief. She runs the city’s Small Business Academy and organized the annual food truck festival on Long Wharf. Her office is responsible for carrying out one of Mayor Toni Harp’s key goals of creating jobs by promoting new small businesses, in part by helping local people become entrepreneurs.
James has been embroiled in conflict with her supervisor, Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson, since she spoke out at a Board of Alders budget meeting against the Harp administration’s proposed city budget for failing to fund a new administrative position she had requested. The alders subsequently moved money around the budget to fund the position (which was eventually unfunded again).
James filed a harassment complaint against Nemerson after he met with her and ordered her to tell alders to undo the decision. Nemerson subsequently charged her in a letter with numerous acts of insubordination; that became the subject of a tense three-and-a-half hour June 6 meeting in the city’s labor relations office to begin a possible termination process.
Since then, James and the city have been negotiating a possible settlement. They are reportedly near a deal, with James possibly receiving up to a year in pay and medical coverage in return for an agreement not to sue the city.
Meanwhile, on Monday Nemerson placed James on administrative leave, according to city Corporation Counsel John Rose. She has not since been in her office at 200 Orange St.
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Clay Williams.
Nemerson informed her staff by email that city Small Business Development Officer Clayton Williams, Jr. will temporarily oversee the office.
Williams, who has been with the city since October 2006, was still working in his sixth-floor City Hall office on Thursday. He said he has no current plans to relocate to the 200 Orange Office. “The Small Business Academy is in transition. I’ve been asked to work with [Deputy Economic Development Administrator] Steve Fontana to oversee the transition,” Williams said. He said he won’t know more about that work until next week, when Nemerson returns to New Haven. Nemerson is in Cleveland this week with Mayor Harp and Economic Development Corporation chief Virginia Kozlowski meeting with the CEO of Key Bank, which is taking over First Niagara Bank.
“I am out on vacation. I haven’t signed an agreement yet,” Jackie James said Thursday. “And they know they weren’t supposed to be talking with my staff.”
Reached by phone, Nemerson said he can’t discuss details of a personnel matter. “Communications were sent out of respect for the existing staff— one of whom will run out of funding on June 30,” he said. “My email specifically conditions all changes as ‘for now’ and ‘for the time being.’”
He referred personnel questions to Corporation Counsel Rose.
“We’re working on finalizing all the documents regarding” James, Rose said, declining further comment on the matter. He did not that administrative leave is not a form of “labor punishment.”