Nichole Jefferson Returns To City Hall

Nichole Jefferson is back in charge of the city’s fair-hiring department — and is still waiting for her court-ordered back pay from the city.

Jefferson assumed her new as well as old role as executive director of the city’s Commission on Equal Opportunities (CEO) on April 5.

That city job is responsible for enforcing the city ordinance that requires the hiring of Black, Latino, and female workers and minority-owned and female-headed firms on government-funded construction projects.

As part of that turnover at the top of CEO, on April 16, the city laid off that division’s former acting head, Angel Fernandez-Chavero.

The city’s rehiring of Jefferson followed a state Supreme Court decision in early March that the city give her her old job back after a five-year legal dispute that spanned two mayoral administrations and hinged on transparency and ethics concerns. Click here, here, and here for background on the case.

That court order also required the city to pay Jefferson back pay and other contractually required benefits.

During two separate Tuesday afternoon interviews, both Mayor Justin Elicker and AFSCME Council 4 union representative and former city union president Cherlyn Poindexter told the Independent that the city has not yet paid Jefferson any of those court-ordered dollars. (Jefferson declined to comment for this story.)

“We’re doing what we are supposed to do and are required to do by court direction,” Elicker said. ​“I am excited to have Nichole back.”

Elicker and city Budget Director and Acting Controller Michael Gormany said that the city is still calculating exactly how much it owes Jefferson in back pay and benefits. In early March, Elicker estimated that amount to be around $300,000.

He and Gormany declined to stick to that number on Tuesday, saying instead that Gormany’s office is still figuring out exactly how much the back wage, pension obligations, and other court settlement-related tax issues will add up to.

Poindexter, meanwhile, criticized the city for the way in which it’s taken Jefferson back on the job. She said that the city sent a letter to Jefferson, threatening to fire her if she did not return to work by a certain date. (Elicker said that the city did indeed send Jefferson a letter after the court decision, letting her know about when she was expected to return to work.)

Poindexter also said (and Elicker confirmed) that Jefferson has filed a new complaint against the city with the state labor board about the city allegedly not following the terms of the court’s order.

That’s both in terms of the city not yet making good on court-ordered back pay, as well as on the city returning Jefferson to a department that has been so depleted of staffing and budget over the years that Jefferson is now just ​“director in name only” of CEO.

Poindexter added that Jefferson has filed a grievance with the city labor relations department alleging that the city has violated the terms of the Local 3144 collective bargaining agreement in the way that it has brought Jefferson back on board.

“They’re now going to spend more taxpayer dollars” avoiding what they owe to Jefferson, Poindexter said about the city.