Markeshia Ricks file photo
Jason Bartlett with Mayor Toni Harp.
Another drama unfolded at City Hall Thursday afternoon, as Mayor Toni Harp cut the second cord to one of her closest strategists, putting youth services chief Jason Bartlett on paid administrative leave.
Bartlett left the office of mayoral Chief of Staff Tomas Reyes on the second floor of City Hall at 3:55 p.m. after meeting with Reyes and city labor relations chief Tom McCarthy. Harp did not attend the meeting.
After receiving the news of his leave Thursday afternoon, Bartlett departed the building and said he could not offer comment.
After meeting with Bartlett Thursday afternoon, Chief of Staff Reyes said Bartlett was not fired, but rather was placed on administrative leave. He said no decision had been made yet on who will run the youth services department in Bartlett’s absence.
Reyes said he couldn’t disclose details about the decision. “It’s city policy not to discuss personnel items,” Reyes said.
The Board of Alders leadership released a statement in response to a request for comment from the Independent: “We stand with the mayor’s decision to put Mr. Bartlett on administrative leave during the course of this investigation.”
Bartlett had served as Harp’s youth services director since she took office in 2014, after managing the campaign that elected her to office. She trusted him with some of her highest-profile initiatives: She tasked him with developing a response to a string of murders of young people in town. The resulting “YouthStat” program and a related vo-tech after-school program for at-risk high-schoolers have become marquee talking points in her list of accomplishments. Bartlett has remained Harp’s top political strategist as well, coaching her on how to frame issues and pursue campaigns. He signed on as the chair of her reelection campaign this year as she faces a tough Democratic primary challenge from Justin Elicker.
Along the way, Bartlett, who has a sharp political style, became a lightning rod for criticism of the Harp administration, including over his failure to complete one signature project, construction of a youth center/homeless shelter at the former Community Outreach Center on Orchard Street. The Rev. Boise Kimber, after a disagreement with Bartlett, penned a New Haven Register op-ed article calling for Harp to fire him. Harp at the time declined to follow the advice.
Then came the news this week that federal investigators have subpoenaed voluminous records from the Harp administration, centering on programs run out of Bartlett’s absence.
Amid furor over that revelation, Bartlett resigned Wednesday as Harp’s reelection campaign chair. But Harp continued receiving pressure from political allies to remove Bartlett from City Hall as her youth services chief as well. Opponent Elicker made the same call in a press release, stating that Bartlett “should be placed on administrative leave as Youth Director pending the outcome of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into corruption in City Hall.”
Which is what subsequently happened on Thursday.
The Board of Alders ordered an independent audit of the Youth Services Bureau last December in response to this article by New Haven Independent reporter Christopher Peak raising questions about some of the Byrne Grant spending.
Earlier in the week he denied that he has done anything wrong and told the Independent he expects the federal investigation to clear him.
“I’ve been in public service. I understand that people are concerned and always want to know what you’re doing with the public’s money. I have nothing to hide,” he said in an interview. “I am proud of what we’ve done as a department. At the end of the day, I’ll be totally exonerated.”
An earlier version of this story appears below:
Paul Bass photo
Bartlett at the Harp reelection campaign hadquarters kick-off.
Mayor Toni Harp suddenly faces a reelection fight without her top campaign advisor at her side, at least officially.
That advisor, Jason Bartlett, stepped down Wednesday as her reelection campaign chair.
He said he did so in the wake of Tuesday’s public revelation that the federal government has subpoenaed voluminous records involving programs Bartlett has run as the city’s youth services chief.
Bartlett repeated that he did nothing wrong, but he still felt he needed to remove himself from an official campaign role.
“I didn’t want to become a distraction for the mayor. It was in the campaign’s best interest that I step aside,” he said.
“I accept his resignation,” Harp said Wednesday. Asked who might replace Bartlett, she responded, “I’m having discussions with a number of folks and will let you know who will fulfill that role.”
Harp tapped Bartlett to run her first campaign for mayor in 2013, which she won. She then tapped him as youth services chief — and almost immediately tasked him with developing a response to a string of murders of young people in town. The resulting “YouthStat” program and a related vo-tech after-school program for at-risk high-schoolers have become marquee talking points in her list of accomplishments. Bartlett has remained Harp’s top political strategist as well, coaching her on how to frame issues and pursue campaigns. As Harp faces a spirited challenge from the Democratic nomination this year, he has set up the events (like this one) and team as unpaid campaign chair.
Asked if he will still play a role in the campaign, Bartlett said he will step back from day to day work. “I support the mayor. I’m going to make sure that my friends and family and everybody else is, ‘Go Toni,’” he said.
Elicker: Too Late
Justin Elicker, who is challenging Harp for the Democratic mayoral nomination, released the following response to Bartlett’s move:
“Mayor Harp has known for nearly three weeks that her Campaign Chair was at the center of an FBI investigation. Mayor Harp should have relieved him from this role much earlier. To only do so now, after it became public, is yet another betrayal of public trust. Bartlett is Harp’s top political advisor, and he was given the political appointment of Director of Youth Services. If he is truly at the center of an FBI investigation into projects related to his official work, the ethical and appropriate thing to do would be for Mr. Bartlett to have stepped aside as soon as this information came to light,” Elicker emphasized. “He should be placed on administrative leave as Youth Director pending the outcome of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into corruption in City Hall.
“The fact that Mayor Harp waited for the press to break this story infers that there is something to hide. What did she know? And when? Her Administration was clearly hoping to hide this FBI investigation from the public, further violating our trust about what goes on in City Hall. The public deserves to know the truth.”
Is he still drawing a salary as Youth Services director and BoE liaison?