$500 Sign-Off At Center Of City Drama

Did New Haven’s longstanding deputy city clerk end up suspended and under investigation because she consciously went around her boss to sign a $500 invoice he wouldn’t?

Or did she merely follow a routine request to sign a form she was authorized to sign?

Those two explanations have emerged for an incident that led to city government’s latest labor drama.

The drama involves City Clerk Michael Smart and Deputy Clerk Sally Brown, who has worked in and had largely run the office since 1986. The drama grew out of a $500 payment issued to another employee of the office who left after being disciplined by Smart.

Smart placed Brown on administrative leave in April for allegedly disobeying his directive that Smart, and only Smart, sign off on ​“all procurements on behalf of this department,” as was stated in a Jan. 7, 2014 memo agreement between the two. Smart said that when he took over the office, he instituted the new rules to make sure he knew how all money was being spent.

Relations between Smart and Brown over management of the office were expected to be rocky; those expectations proved true.

Brown has been on paid leave since April. She has hired a lawyer. Smart, too, has hired a lawyer (Norm Pattis). After an internal investigation, he forwarded his findings about Brown to the State Elections Enforcement Commission, which has agreed to look into the matter, as was first reported and detailed in this article by the New Haven Register’s Esteban Hernandez.

In suspending and investigating Brown, Smart noted that Brown ​“admitted” to having signed an invoice to pay out a $500 settlement to Vincent Daniels.

A city payroll employee who handled the paperwork for that payment, Doreen Rhodes, told the Independent Wednesday that she had asked Brown to sign the form — because she needed it signed and Brown had authorization to sign it.

Smart told the Independent that he had made it clear that only he could sign such a form, and that he learned of the payment only after an audit revealed it — and revealed that the payment’s true purpose had been hidden.

Meanwhile, Mayor Toni Harp weighed in Wednesday with a general statement of support for Brown.

The two explanations for the invoice signing support two versions of a larger narrative: About whether thisis a political set-up over nothing or a case of deception and insubordination.

Daniels Dispute

The episode began with two run-ins between Smart and Vincent Daniels over alleged subordination. The first instance led to a written warning. In the second case, Smart informed Daniels on a Friday afternoon that Daniels was receiving a three-day suspension. In response, Daniels gave notice to quit.

Daniels told the Independent Wednesday that he had made an honest mistake when Smart asked him to find a document and Daniels produced the wrong one. The document didn’t have to do with land records, said Daniels, whose job involved dealing with land records. Smart claimed Daniels refused to do his job and was disrespectful about it; Daniels claimed Smart bore down on him for an honest mistake.

“It seems he had a vendetta, like I was siding with Sally [Brown] against him,” Daniels said. ​“I was doing my job as far as he knew. Anything I didn’t perform up to par, it seems we butted heads.”

“Policy is policy. I never had an issue with anyone personally,” Smart responded. ​“It’s about accountability. At the end of the day the the city clerk is ultimately responsible.”

Click here to read Smart’s suspension letter.

Daniels grieved the discipline to his union, AFSCME Local 884. Click here to read the grievance.

The city’s then-labor relations director, Marcus Paca, struck a deal with the union to pay Daniels $500 to settle his dispute.

Smart, meanwhile, wasn’t pleased about that $500 settlement. He received a memo in September 2015 from the labor relations office inquiring about when he would ​“be processing the $500 settlement to Local 884.” Smart responded in a memo to Paca and city Corporation Counsel John Rose Jr. that he wanted more information first: ​“As previously discussed, I have reservations about this issue. This matter should be referred to corporation counsel to issue an opinion.” Smart said he never received an opinion.

The Processing

Doreen Rhodes is the president of Local 884. She also is the accounts payable auditor who handles paperwork for such matters. She said she received a request from labor relations to process a $500 check to the union so it could pay Daniels.

So she drew up the paperwork. She said she approached Brown — because she has done that for decades. Brown is on a city list of approved signatories, Rhodes said.

“I asked her to sign it. She’s the authorized signator. That’s the person I always go to,” Rhodes said. ​“You see her [Brown] more than you see” Smart, whose position is part-time.

“I have been here 20 years,” Rhodes said. ​“Sally’s been here longer than me.”

Joanne Courtmanche, the executive assistant of labor relations, also asked Brown to sign. In a Sept. 11, 2015, email to Brown, which was cc’d to Labor Relations Director Marcus Paca, Courtmanche wrote: ​“Hi Sally: Marcus asked me to forward this to you for processing. If you have any questions, please contact either me or Marcus. Thank you. Joanne.”

“Joanne: Why is Marcus asking me to process this if Michael has already been asked?” Brown wrote back. In the end, it was Rhodes, not Courtmanche, who actually handed Brown the document to sign.

(“Doreen and I came to an agreement over a grievance dispute. We signed a settlement agreement,” Paca said Wednesday. ​“At that point it was out of my hands.”)

“Tuition Reimbursement”

Daniels got the money. Months later, in April, Smart said, his office did an audit. A $500 payment popped up that he didn’t recognize. It was marked ​“tuition reimbursement.”

He said that was the check to Daniels. Smart said he was concerned for two reasons: He was supposed to sign the invoice. And the ​“tuition reimbursement” notation looked like his employee was trying to cover up what the payment was for, he said. ​“It was concealed.” Smart said he would not have signed off on the payment to Daniels without an opinion from the corporation counsel.

Brown told the Independent Wednesday that she never marked the payment as ​“tuition reimbursement.” In fact, she never marked anything besides her name, she said. She said Rhodes handed her to invoice to sign. ​“All I did was sign [the invoice] and give it back” to Rhodes, Brown said. ​“I never had a copy of it.”

Rhodes also said Brown never handled any categorizing for the paperwork. She said she has no idea why it turned up as marked for ​“tuition reimbursement” in an audit. She said the whole process was above board, that she was responding to a request from labor relations to process a check whose purpose had been approved. (A copy of the print-out of the invoice form appears at the top of this story.)

Smart said Brown had recorded the payment internally in the clerk’s computer system: ​“That was done on the Munis computer here. Her name was on it. She has to log in and process the payment,” Smart said.

“I never did,” Brown responded. ​“Never. Never. Never.”

Who’s right? It may be state investigators to tease out. Or a judge in a potential lawsuit.

Harp: Not ​“Worried”

Meanwhile, Mayor Toni Harp responded ​“I don’t think so” when asked if she believes Brown engaged in wrongdoing in the clerk’s office.

“I didn’t even know this administrative leave was taking place until after it was done. It wasn’t something that was every discussed with me,” Harp said during an appearance on WNHH radio’s ​“Mayor Monday” program (which took place on Wednesday this week because Monday was a religious holiday).

“Here’s what I know about Sally Brown. She’s been the deputy clerk for 20 some odd years. No one ever said she did anything illegal or she has done anything around voting that takes away anyone’s right to vote. I don’t sit as the city/town clerk [the official title of the job]. So I can’t make an assessment about why this is so important to the current city town clerk.” Mayor and city clerk are separate independently elected office.

Click on the above sound file to hear the full episode of ​“Mayor Monday,” which also dealt with efforts to hire more black and Latino public school teachers, tech innovation, and the upcoming elections.

Today’s episode was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.