New Haven Civilian Review Board gets administrative staffer

NEW HAVEN — For the first time since it came together, the Civilian Review Board will have a staff member to take care of basic administrative duties.

Alyson Heimer, currently the administrator for the New Haven Democracy Fund, has been awarded the administrative management services contract for the CRB at a salary of $52,000 for the first year.

A total of $20,000 will be a one-time payment for Heimer to dig the board out of a backlog of 25 board meetings for which minutes have to be written or corrected.

It involves listening to an estimated 2.5-hour recording for each meeting. Deputy Corporation Counsel Catherine LaMarr said it will likely take two to three times that to transcribe the material and write the minutes.

Heimer will be paid at a rate of $32,000 in a base salary to manage the monthly meetings, monitor the detailed digital record system set up by the former secretary of the board, Richard Crouse, and write the board’s annual report, among other duties.

The missing minutes have been a sore point for much of the new board’s existence.

While the updated CRB ordinance with subpoena power was adopted in January 2019, the 13 appointments to the board took more than a year until summer 2020 to be approved. Its first meetings were in late 2020 and new bylaws were not adopted until January 2021.

Emma Jones was hired as a coordinator/consultant for the CRB by Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers. Jones for more than two decades has worked to get a CRB with teeth since her son Malik was shot and killed by an East Haven police officer in 1997 following a chase that ended in New Haven.

The updated CRB ordinance stipulated that the first coordinator/consultant be hired by the Board of Alders.

Al Lucas, director of Legislative Services, said Walker-Myers did the hiring for the $50,000 position given her prerogative to engage consultants when needed.

Jones, under the Malik Organization, applied for the position in September 2019 through the city’s Purchasing Office, which described the job as coordinating the functions of the CRB to ensure appropriate procedures are followed in reviewing civilian complaints and serving as liaison to city officials, the public and the union leadership.

The managing consultant position in the bylaws appears more demanding, with several administrative tasks in addition to minute taking.

Shawn Garris, acting purchasing agent, said Jones did submit a timely application, but he had her resubmit it because of technical difficulties with the Bonfire process.

Another person who complied with the purchasing rules was Heimer, who had also sought the job of coordinator in 2019. She had no comment on the turn of events.

In June 2022, city Corporation Counsel Patricia King wrote to Anne Marie Rivera-Berrios, acting chair of the CRB, that Jones’ original agreement had expired more than a year before. She said there was no contract for fiscal 2020-21, but the CRB had accepted services from Jones “creating liability for the city.”

The CRB wasn’t aware of the expenditure until informed by King.

“The city’s procurement policies require that there be a contract in place for all goods and services received by the city,” King wrote.

“Once Ms. Jones submits documentation detailing the services provided during FY 2021-22 as necessary to justify payment, a direct pay order will be issued by the Acting Controller,” King wrote.

She did not answer whether she had received documentation, but another $50,000 check was issued to Jones at the end of fiscal 2022 for a total of $100,000 from the CRB budget..

King had recommended a short-term contract until a longer one was put in place, but Jones was not interested in that, according to the CRB.

Michael Gormany, the city’s budget chief, said the payment to Jones for fiscal year 2021-22, would need to be signed by Walker-Myers as a direct payment for services rendered.

“The RFP was awarded to Emma Jones / Malik Organization. Unfortunately, a contract/RFA was not submitted through Corporation Counsel. The City ended up paying Emma Jones $50,000 for services rendered in FY 2020-21,” Gormany wrote to LaMarr.

A second RFP for the coordinator job for the CRB was issued in January 2022, but it expired with no bidders.

Jones made it clear how she feels about her job at a CRB meeting in April when Rick Crouse, the then-secretary of the board, asked her how the members could help her with the minutes.

Jones said given her extensive knowledge of the CRB, models of which she has studied for years across the country using her own money, she felt it was insulting to be asked to do the minutes.

The board is looking to specific tasks to assign to a consultant as an RFP is developed.