nothin Keitazulu Re-Exits The Stage | New Haven Independent

Keitazulu Re-Exits The Stage

Thomas MacMillan Photo

Former mayoral candidate Sundiata Keitazulu said Thursday that he was forced out of his new job as head of the city’s prison re-entry initiative.

Keitazulu (pictured in a file photo with Mayor Toni Harp) said he resigned Wednesday after clashing with Jason Bartlett, head of the city’s Youth Services Department, over job training. Keitazulu said he was not given the freedom to run the re-entry initiative, and was eventually told to quit or be fired.

Bartlett declined to comment.

Harp said the city is looking for a replacement. The prison re-entry intitiative will have an overhaul and a new name: Fresh Start. The full plans are scheduled to be unveiled at a Monday press conference.

Keitazulu, a former Newhallville plumber, first entered the political stage last summer when he mounted an unfunded quixotic campaign for mayor. Then he dropped out to support Harp, the eventual winner and now current mayor. In office, Harp appointed Keitazulu to the city job.

As prison re-entry coordinator, Keitazulu was put in charge of the city’s efforts to help people returning to New Haven from time in prison. When Harp announced Keitazulu’s appointment to the post, in December, some critics said he was not prepared for the job.

I could not do the job that I was assigned to do,” Keitazulu said Thursday. He said Bartlett prevented him from implementing any projects.

He put me in the dog house,” Keitazulu said.

Keitazulu said Bartlett sent him to four weeks of training at New Haven Family Alliance, where Keitazulu said he learned about networking, writing reports, and outreach.

They were telling me stuff, but I didn’t want to be told what to do,” Keitazulu said.

On Wednesday, Keitazulu said, he was told he could either quit and get unemployment benefits, or be fired and receive nothing. Keitazulu chose the former.

Keitazulu, who had a $50,000 annual salary as prison re-entry coordinator, said he’ll now go back to being a plumber. He said he’s also planning to start a non-profit called the Keitazulu Re-entry Prevention Program.”

I’m going to prevent people from making violence,” he said. Because violence is preventable.”

Mayor Harp, in comments Thursday to the New Haven Register’s editorial board, said that she supports Keitazulu’s plans to start his own re-entry organization. I think that he felt that sometimes working with government, that there are a lot of rules and regulations that may actually impede working with folks and he would like to try it from a different perspective,” Harp said. I support that and I look forward to his success.”

My administration remains committed to a pro-active re-entry program for those residents who would benefit from job training programs, counseling, and other services. A search to fill this now-vacant coordinator position will be underway shortly,” Mayor Harp said Thursday evening in an emailed statement.

Also on the horizon for Keitazulu: another possible mayoral campaign.

Next year I’m going to run for office again,” Keitazulu said.

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