Campbell (left): Millions at stake. Poindexter: Rules at stake.
The police are set to lose their grant writer for the next three months, after civil service commissioners denied the department’s request for a temporary appointment.
Assistant Chief Anthony Campbell appeared in front of the Civil Service Commission at 200 Orange St. on Tuesday night to make a seemingly straightforward request: He wanted permission to keep the current grant writer, a contract worker named Sandra Koorejian, in her post for three months while the department administers a civil-service exam to applicants for a newly funded permanent grant-writing position.
But after a contentious debate — in which the president of the city management union accused the police of violating the terms of a memorandum of understanding focused on the grant-writing job — the commissioners voted unanimously to leave the position unfilled, a decision that police officials said could cost the department millions in state and federal funding.
Campbell told commissioners that Koorejian performs a crucial function in the department: applying for funds and filing regular reports with grant providers to ensure money keeps flowing into the department. He said she should be permitted to continue her work for the next three months, as she and other applicants apply for the permanent grant-writing job.
“Her contributions are invaluable,” Campbell told the commission. “I think you could replace an assistant chief easier than you could replace the grant writer.”
After the meeting, Campbell told the Independent that the commission’s decision could see the department lose state and federal grants that fund a number of crucial police resources, including overtime payments, canine units, and training courses.
According to Campbell, the department recently used the federal Justice Assistance Grant to fund supplementary patrols in Fair Haven, where the rate of theft was skyrocketing. In less than two months, he said, the additional patrols succeeded in curbing the robberies.
Campbell has resigned himself to losing the department’s grant writer for the first few days of the fiscal year that starts Friday. But he plans to return to the commission on July 7 to make his case for a second time.
“This translates into people getting robbed at gunpoint, people getting injured and pistol-whipped,” Campbell said. “I want the board to understand that their no vote directly affects the citizens.”
“They’re Not Telling You the Full Story”
Campbell told the Independent that he was surprised and disappointed at the commissioners’ decision. And he placed the blame for their verdict squarely on the shoulders of Cherlyn Poindexter, president of Local 3144, the city’s management union.
As Campbell addressed the commission, Poindexter raised her hand to interject, accusing the department of violating two prior agreements centered on the grant-writing job.
Her complaint focused on the evolving status of the position and on a years-long debate over the type of city employee appropriate for the role.
A union member named Carolyn Bove held the permanent position of police department grant writer until her retirement in 2012. According to Poindexter, the position has been a union job, covered by the collective bargaining agreement, for as long as it has existed.
But after Bove retired, the police department left the job out of its budget requests to make space for other priorities. It hired Koorejian, who is not a union member, to perform grant-writing duties as a contract worker.
At the meeting, Poindexter told the commissioners that she did not find out the police department had replaced a union member with a contract worker until the spring of 2014, two years after Koorejian joined the department.
“They’re not telling you the full story,” she said. “We didn’t know they had subcontracted out the work.”
In June 2014, Poindexter signed a memorandum of understanding giving the police department permission to continue subcontracting the post. It contained two key stipulations: the department agreed to pay the union monthly dues and to request funding for a permanent grant-writing position in the next budget cycle.
Poindexter, who arrived at the meeting carrying a folder stuffed with documents, contends that the police department violated the terms of that memorandum: It allowed Koorejian to stay in the post beyond the date specified in the agreement, and failed to request a grant-writing position during this spring’s negotiations on the city budget for the fiscal year beginning Friday.
Campbell, who was promoted to assistant chief a month after the first memorandum was signed, said he was unaware of the document until it was too late.
“There was nobody who gave me the information that an MOU was even in place,” he said. “There was no way for me to know to request that in the budget. It could have been an oversight on my predecessor’s part.”
In an interview the day after the meeting, Poindexter said that she reminded Campbell about the arrangement three times between January and June 2015, taking him aside at a meeting one day to fill him in on the terms of the agreement.
She said she was willing, however, to give the department a second chance, meeting with Campbell and Police Chief Dean Esserman in September to devise a second memorandum of understanding that essentially amounted to a six-month extension of the first document.
It called for the police department to “take all necessary steps” for the position to be included in the city budget. And in the spring, the Board of Alders voted to fund a police department grant-writing position, after a convoluted back-and-forth.
But crucially, the memorandum, which was obtained by the Independent, also stipulated that the “period of subcontracting” should end on March 1. The police department has continued the subcontracting arrangement over the last two months without paying monthly union dues.
“The chief shook my hand and gave me his word that he will not disrespect” the union, Poindexter said. “Every chance I gave them, they blew.”
“You Won’t Sit Down With Us”
According to Campbell, the police department approached Poindexter in February, hoping to arrange a short extension to the second memorandum.
She agreed to the request, he said, on one condition — that the department send a letter to the Harp administration expressing support for the union in its ongoing contract disputes with the city.
“And we said, ‘We cannot get involved with your dispute with your city. We can’t write any letters or be any party in a dispute,’” Campbell recalled.
“I don’t doubt that we’re in violation of the MOU,” he added. “We’re in violation because you wouldn’t sit down with us, because you wanted us to do something that was unethical.”
Poindexter told a different story. She said she did ask the police department to send the letter but never made it a condition for extending the grant-writing agreement.
“I’m not going to even talk about the letter,” she said, “because that has nothing to do with them violating the MOU.”
Poindexter has clashed with city officials before: Last year, she accused the Harp administration of “union busting” after it attempted to downsize Local 3144.
And after the meeting, she told the Independent that she has already contacted the State Labor Board to file a charge of municipal prohibited practice against the police department.
“It’s the theme of this administration to close the unions, bust the unions,” she said.
Campbell, who sat ashen-faced as Poindexter addressed the board Tuesday night, said the union’s dispute with the city has blinded Poindexter to the consequences of a decision that could cost the cops crucial grant money.
“My hope and prayer is that no one gets hurt as a result of us not being able to execute these grants,” he said. “But if someone does, I think the board and Ms. Poindexter should hold themselves accountable.”
Poindexter later released this statement: “The union has made every attempt to assistance the police department. We entered into two agreements (totaling 18 months of subcontracting), and they violated both. This is not about the person in the position. This is about them bargaining in bad faith, violating the MOU, violating the collective bargaining agreement and MERA (Municipal Prohibited Practice).”
Only Woman For Job?
David Yaffe-Bellany Photo
Chair Williams at the civil service meeting.
After the meeting, James Williams, the chair of the Civil Service Committee, told the Independent that he hopes the union and the police department resolve their dispute and find a mutually agreeable candidate for the grant-writing position.
He emphasized that the commission’s vote against the temporary appointment request was not tied to the union dispute. He said the commissioners generally reject such requests, lest they give one candidate an unfair advantage on the exam.
“We feel that the [grant-writing] operation is still going to go on,” even without the department grant writer in place, Williams said.
Campbell disputed that claim in an interview the day after the meeting.
“Our grant writer is specifically assigned to our department for a specific reason,” he said. “We have specific needs that a general grant writer would not be able to do. There’s no one else to come in and step into this position.”
For her part, Koorejian told the Independent that she doubts another city grant writer could do her job.
“I don’t know what kind of grant writing they do, I don’t know if they’re familiar with federal grants, I don’t know if they’re familiar with the needs of the department,” she said. “Someone would have to train them on the specific requirements of the various grants here. And I don’t know who that person would be.”
“If those reports are not sent in on time, the government has the authority to freeze funds,” Koorejian added. “That could hamstring the city.”
Campbell said he will work harder to convey that message when he meets with the commission next month to advocate again for the temporary appointment.
“I let Ms. Poindexter have her say, because I don’t want to get into a screaming match with her,” he said. “I feel that [the commissioners] were intimidated by Ms. Poindexter. That is her primary tool — she intimidates people, she yells and screams.”
Poindexter, who does not plan to give up the fight, promised to crash the July 7 meeting and to attend any subsequent sessions with the grant-writing position on the agenda.
“I’m going to be there to put a stop to it,” she said. “They can do it a million times. I’m going to be there.”
Wow.
No wonder taxes are so high.
New Haven city government is a jobs program.
Wow.