Youth center costs vex alders

Bartlett threatens lawsuit if salary is cut

NEW HAVEN — New year, same old issues.

As it reviews department requests for 2018-19,the Board of Alders’ finance committee is frustrated by the lack of progress on the Escape Teen Center as negotiations stall on a revised lease and $250,000 in repairs are still outstanding.

For the second year in a row, Youth Services Director Jason Bartlett had to answer questions on the center, which would be located on property at 654 Orchard St. owned by the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The plan is to renovate the 3,000-squarefoot grand ballroom to be used for community events and after-school programs. A second 2,000-square-foot space would be a drop-in center where youths could come on a daily basis. The third component is a 15bed homeless shelter for young people.

The lease, signed in October 2015, calls for a monthly rent of $4,000, which increases annually in three five-year leases. At the end of 15 years, the improved property reverts to use by the church.

Separately, the city pays the church $47,352 a year to run a senior center on the church’s property at 255 Goffe St.

Bartlett is caught in the middle of a fight between alders and Mayor Toni Harp’s administration, which gave the director a $20,000 raise to reach a salary of $105,000 in 2015, something that was not approved by the alders, but has been carried through since.

Other department heads also received raises without an OK from the alders.

Bartlett told the committee members at

their latest meeting if an effort is made to take the money away, it becomes a legal issue.

“From my standpoint, I have legal rights ... to what I am earning,” Bartlett said. “It will continue because that is my salary.”

If it is not addressed, “it becomes a legal matter,” Bartlett said of the two funding sources for his salary.

“I’d had to assert my rights to what I consider I have been paid by the city,” Bartlett said.

Festa said the board had voted not to allow the increase for fiscal 2016 and she is concerned the administration ignored the board’s vote.

“The concern is special funds run out, and we can’t keep paying this year after year through special funds,” she said.

Bartlett said he feels he deserves the raise after bringing in more than $1 million in funding to the department and is successfully running programs involving hundreds of young people.

The director said his salary was never supplemented by the school system, although he has done considerable work as the mayor’s liaison by facilitating a commission on reading, and strategizing on issues with school personnel to avoid duplication of efforts.

The salary listed for Bartlett for the past several years in the general fund budget is $85,000. The extra $20,000 has been taken from special funds. For fiscal 2018-19, in an effort to be transparent, the $105,000 is listed in the general fund.

Harp last year said she brought a description of Bartlett’s duties to human resources and that office approved the salary. The mayor said once that was done, she had no choice but to continue to pay Bartlett at the higher rate, given his duties and performance.

The alders cited several charter references as to their power over salaries as part of their argument, but the issue stalled after that.

Bartlett said he would have to defer to corporation counsel to explain the administration’s position. “I’m only the recipient,” he said.

On the proposed Escape Youth Center, Bartlett said they are in talks with the church on revamping the current lease.

Alder Jeanette Morrison said it has been frustrating to be asked BY her constituents when the center will open and, so far, “there is no product.” She said she needs to pin down the costs and “when do we get our return?”

She said her biggest priority is the homeless shelter. Morrison said that is a need “the city has to attack.”

Bartlett said he agreed the homeless shelter probably represents the most serious need, but it is also the “most complicated piece.” He said they will need approval from the state Department of Children and Families and others and it will take longer to do.

Once the building is finished, however, he can apply for state funds to make it a reality. The $200,000 approved by the city to upgrade the facility for a youth center was sequestered last year by the alders when it became apparent the facility was in worse shape than had been anticipated and certain repairs should not have been picked up by the city.

Another $50,000 is in the proposed fiscal 2019 capital projects budget for the center.

Bartlett told the Finance Committee the city is in negotiations on “givebacks and have them (the church) contribute to some of the capital improvements.”

A published report in 2017 said $300,000 had already been spent on the project. Bartlett said that was covered by excess federal funds and did not come from the city’s capital account.

Bartlett said once negotiations end, it will take three months to finish the work.

As part of those negotiations, he said he is seeking a warranty on the scope of the roof work, in particular.

He said once they have a correct figure on those costs, they will sit down with the church to pin down the givebacks.

The original contract, signed 21⁄2 years ago, gave the city six months to carry out certain capital improvements, with the first installment of the rent to be paid in January 2016 for a total of $36,000 that year.

The second year of the rent was $4,916 a month, increasing to $5,161 monthly in the third year, according to the lease.

The estimated cost of the capital improvements at that time was $285,000. If it exceeded that figure, up to $385,000, a total of $100,000 would be credited toward the rent in the seventh year of the contract or 2022, but nothing beyond that.

Since it was signed, the city has undertaken various renovations in the Escape space and the senior center, according to a report by City Engineer Giovanni Zinn.

They include roof repairs, replacement of a HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) unit, painting, wallboard installation, demolition of drop ceilings, new carpeting and construction of partitions.

The work was stopped in February 2017 due to a lack of funding and questions about New Haven’s contribution.

Zinn said the $250,000 would cover the work to open the two large community spaces for use by the center, but not the third floor and basement because of the need for a working elevator.

In his report, Zinn said primarily electrical work and fire-safety installations, along with carpentry and general building work, were needed.

“What if they tell us, ‘Sorry, we don’t have any money?’ ” East Rock Alder Anna Festa, D-10, asked Bartlett at the committee meeting.

“Well, they probably don’t have any money to write a check, but we will knock it off the lease is pretty much the understanding,” Bartlett said.

On another issue, Bartlett said the city for the past few years has been able to put 640 young people to work in its summer job program.

He said they did this even though the state pulled the funding in 2017 at the last minute, although it continued to fund Hartford.

Bartlett said he has asked for a separate line item next year to come directly to New Haven, as it has for Hartford, rather than going to the Workforce Alliance. Right now, he expects to be cut again by the state and the number of jobs for young people will drop unless they can raise more funds.