Elicker: Fire Bartlett

I agree with Justin. Toni will spend us into bankruptcy before January.

Yes Mayor Harp, there are rules re: firing public employees , if they are unionized , which I hope someone at a Director level is not. Otherwise, people can be fired for any reason/ no reason , as long as the reason isn't discriminatory. In this case , you would want to establish a good reason to take that action. That's why you put someone on paid leave , so you can investigate and not harm the person if they are innocent. So, how long will you drag this one out? I think I can safely bet that the election will come first. Of course , you can always go the Payoff/ Non-Disclosure route , just as you did w/ Will Clark.
Or, you could show some courage and decency , quickly " investigate" what you already know and make a decision. Taxpayers deserve no less.

Let's be frank - Jason Bartlett should have been fired years ago. Period. This investigation is just starting. He could be on paid leave for more than a year - and if it comes back that technically no laws were broken, what you have is a pattern and practice of not even remotely following the contracting rules. His willy nilly way of doing things has cost taxpayers big money and a lot of staff time trying to cover and recover from his arrogance.

The presumption of innocence is a hallmark of the American way: Public-sector employment standards protect workers and are far more complex than this simplistic suggestion reflecting a naive misunderstanding of the responsibilities of mayor," she said in a statement released by her office.

If this is the case.Then how come Nichole Jefferson who is a public sector worker and a belongs to Local 3144 union and has won in the courts three times has not got her Job back?

Last year Chief Alston and the NHFD squandered $1 million on fire personnel on paid administrative leave. At one point 8 fire department employees were sitting home not working, all the while accruing sick time, and pension time. Meanwhile, due to minimum staffing requirements, the City filled these spots with personnel who earned OT. $1 million dollars can pay for lots of teachers and school supplies.

Cue the Circus Themes Song - Again!


Dennis Serfilippi
https://www.facebook.com/SerfilippiForAlder-675305186265543

A very close confidant, adviser, defender and supporter of Mayor Harp is local minister Boise Kimber. He recently endorsed her reelection
In January of this year, Kimber penned an op-ed in the Register, titled A BIG PROBLEM AT CITY HALL, in which he called on the mayor to fire Jason Bartlett because of his great liability to her administration.
Kimber said in part:
"He has been in the middle of most of the noise swirling around her administration. And controversy is not new for Bartlett. The Republican turned Democrat seems to thrive on "drama." While a mover and shaker in Bethel, he was described in a Danbury News-Times 2004 piece, "Bartlett has capacity to divide, not unite" as willing to "do anything to get elected to any office." It appears that he has brought that same drive and mentality, as well as chaos, to New Haven."
Kimber listed his reasons for his call to fire Bartlett:

Continued...
It must have taken a lot for Kimber to renounce Bartlett, because he recently called on Black people to stand behind Black leaders in New Haven because they are Black. Jason's Black, but I guess Kimber in this rare case had decided to judge Bartlett by his character and not the color of his skin.
There is an old saying that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Who would have ever thought that the Rev. Boise Kimber would stand in agreement with Democratic mayoral candidate Justin Elicker in calling for Mayor Toni Harp to immediately terminate Youth Services director Jason Bartlett!
Politics sometimes can be very hilarious!
It is is the best interests of the city that Jason Bartlett go now.
After all, why should Bartlett be treated any differently than Toni Harp treated Nicole Jefferson?

3/5ths, I am a staunch believer in the presumption of innocence. But it applies to criminal cases, not administrative proceedings. And while firing a unionized employee is in fact complicated, I very much doubt Mr. Bartlett is a union member.

The right thing for Harp to do is to fire him. Will she do it? Is the million dollar question.

Says the guy running around town with a woman whose actions the courts described as egregious. Looks like the lead advocacy is on its last leg.

Hypocrisy personified would be an apt description of our mayor as she used a different yardstick for others than the one she has used to keep Jason on the public payroll. Toni's list of victims that did not receive the due process she claims is owed everyone starts with Ima Canelli who was forced out while she had a year remaining on her contract. Nicole Jefferson, Mende Blue, and Marcus Paca are others. They were not put on leave pending an investigation, not given progressive discipline, and not presumed innocent. She gave Nemerson an unpaid leave and tolerated the temper tantrums of her former police chief who threatened an elderly gentleman at a Yale football game. Kimber was nowhere to be found when Harp waged her battle against Jefferson, Blue, and Paca, all Black leaders. Nicole built hundreds of homes in New Haven for low-income residents, recovered lost wages for working class people of all ethnicities, and continues to place young people in good construction jobs. Mende is helping the poor in Fairfield County. What we know Jason did by his own admission is enough to terminate him. Now Toni claims to love the Ville. The same Ville where Jason ran a candidate against Democratic Alder Delphine Clyburn and the same community that DID NOT receive its fair share of the Byrne grant. They got burned instead.Many politicians and some preachers belong to a species called homo hypocritus and not the more genuine Homo sapiens that people most of the Earth. There are wonderful politicians and great preachers in our midst so do not say I am generalizing. But, we need them to speak up and call out the hypocrites in their midst. Bartlett is not a union employee and firing him would save all those necks he said he would step on when Harp bragged about his service in an earlier article in the NHI. Of course if he tried to step on the wrong neck, it would save him (Bartlett) a foot.

Go campaign on some policies and stop it. You can't even run on an idea.
Vote Toni Harp! Elicker has nothing.

Stop the Madness: Correction: Will Harp fire Bartlett is the $65,000 question. Will Chief Alston and the Mayor wake up and stop paying fire personnel to stay home is the $1 million question.

@LivingInNewHaven
Again I appeal to LINH to give the public legitimate reasons to support Harp's re-election. At the undemocratic Democratic convention, those who nominated Harp said that although she has made many mistakes, Harp deserved another chance.
That was quite a lackluster endorsement. Throughout the city there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm for Harp to have "another chance."
So, LINH, instead striving in vain to berate and slander Justin Elicker and his supporters, and accusing his campaign of being short on issues and substance, a "nothing" campaign, why don't you tell us why we should vote for Harp?
Instead of attacking the Elicker supporter who the mayor sang gleefully, "Nicole's going to jail. Nicole's going to jail," why don't you present the Harp campaign platform on the major issues.
The Elicker platform is readily available for all to see with a list of numerous ideas that he is running on! I have not seen the Harp platform.
The lead issue is not yet fully resolved because the Harp administration is still in court, fighting!
Tens of thousands of New Haveners have resolved that Justin Elicker has "something," something far different and better than what we have seen in City Hall.
LINH is right, Elicker has been "running around town," meeting with people and listening to their concerns. Elicker has been in my neighborhood at least FIVE times during this campaign. I have not seen Toni Harp once!
I would never be so unfair to say that Harp is running on "nothing," but many residents are convinced that it is time to shift gears to fresh, new, invigorating leadership for new Haven!
So I say, "Vote Elicker!"

@ Thomas Alfred Paine

"Tens of thousands of New Haveners have resolved that Justin Elicker has 'something'". Come on, how much can you exaggerate. Tens of thousands? The last time he ran he got less than 10,000 votes, so how does that become tens of thousands?

It appears that there is a lot of Trumpism with Elicker Elitists. When Trump lost the popular vote, he claimed that he was cheated, illegals voted, with no evidence to back his claims. When Elicker lost the convention, somehow the process was undemocratic, though when he was winning ward committees he crowed about his wins.

You also state that Harp supporters "berate and slander" Elicker., but who is running around town calling Harp a "baby poisoner", and corrupt? Again, a very Trumpish move.

And yes, Elicker is a nothing candidat. What has he managed in his life. He worked for the diplomatic corp, but he doesn't speak much on that. He was on the Board of Alders, where he voted raise taxes, cut school spending, and sell Yale New Haven streets on the cheap. He suggested that New Haveners were extortionists when they asked Yale to pony up more money. He ran a non profit with a very small budget, 5 or 6 staff people, NONE who were black or brown. His platform is a whole lot of nothing, making promises he will not be able to keep (affordable housing?).

He is a nothing candidate, whose only plus is that he is NOT Harp. Oops, maybe he has another plus, he is also a white male from East Rock.

@Real Discourse
I find it rather unfortunate that Real Discourse resorts to the harp campaign strategy of trying to compare and link Justin Elicker with Donald Trump as a means to discredit Elicker in the eyes of the minority communities.
Twice the Harp campaign tried that, once with a charge of an imaginary conspiracy theory that Trump, the FBI, Vincent Mauro the Democratic Town committee chair and the Elicker family had plotted to unseat Toni Harp by sending the FBI to investigate her administration.
"Tens of thousands..." I will concede was a bit hyperbolic. I would have revised that number to simply thousands. Thousands of people from every area of New Haven are convinced that Elicker should be the next mayor.
References to Elicker and his supporters as "Elitists" and Elicker-Lites smacks of racism. Elicker has a multi-racial, multi-ethnic,multi-cultural coalition of supporters. Tell those Elicker Newhallville supporters that they are elitists.
It is clear to anyone who knows the meaning of democracy that the New Haven Democratic Party Ward committees are oligarchic and not democratic. The ward chairs are the super-delegates that can dismiss the will of the people and vote as they will. (Just like the DNC super-delegates pushed Hillary over Bernie to the frustration of other party delegtes). The process is not transparent and the rules are not consistent. Meetings and votes were not always public. Some chairs did not even attend the convention because they did not want to vote as their committee voted. It is a severely flawed process that many have just learned about.
Elicker never made a big deal about the convention, or filed any charges, but reform is needed for this nominating process to be true representative democracy in which the preferences of the people in the wards is given genuine consideration. Nobody polled people in my ward!

Continued...
Elicker has been a gentleman in this campaign. He has not spread lies or conspiracy theory against Harp. He has made no personal attacks. He has never accused the mayor personally of being a "baby poisoner." But her policies, as admitted in court, have exposed kids to greater risks of lead poisoning. That is a fact that cannot be denied! Read the court records and the reporting on the case!
As far as corruption, there are several cases of misuse and abuse of city funds in this administration, one outstanding case is the reason for the federal investigation of Harp's very close confidant, Jason Bartlett and the Escape affair.
Trumpism usually involves circulation of fake news, not facts.
Reducing the Elicker campaign to nothingness is the strategy of a desperate campaign. Thousands of people around New Haven are not so stupid and so gullible to give serious consideration to a candidate who had absolutely nothing to offer that is better than what we have seen. Those who like Harp find it difficult to accept that many people do not share their views, but this is political reality. Public opinion shifts. People change their allegiances based on performance. Many believe the time for change has come.
Elicker has a new and different vision for New Haven and people are listening. They will not limit their choices out of devotion to a person or loyalty to a race. This race is not about race, although many Harp supporters have striven to make it so. One of them compared this election to a race war!
To many taxpayers it matters not if the mayor is Black or White. They just want a person who is right for New Haven, right for the job, sensitive to the needs of each community, responsive and transparent with the public, one who will not abuse authority and spend money unwisely, one who will respect the taxpayers in tangible and meaningful ways, and one who is a good judge of character and who consistently uses good judgment.
To many that person is Justin Elicker!