Updated, 10:37 p.m., employees furloughed, comments from Mike Berkhoff.
NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk’s state legislators and Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now (NEON) Board of Directors Chairman Michael Berkoff said Wednesday night that the interim leader of a South Norwalk anti-poverty agency would be replaced Thursday night.
The action comes less than 24 hours after NEON interim President and CEO Chiquita Stephenson was placed on unpaid leave one day after employee paychecks bounced.
Berkhoff said Wednesday night that NEON board members will appoint a new CEO Thursday and that most of NEON’s employees have been furloughed for an indefinite period.
NEON’s board will hold a special meeting Thursday evening in Stamford to discuss the situation with employee paychecks and the status of NEON’s child development programs, according to a press release from NEON. Berkhoff said the meeting will begin with an executive session, after which he will announce the new leader.
A source said the candidate under consideration is the Rev. Tommie Jackson of Stamford’s Faith Tabernacle Baptist. Berkhoff had no comment. He did say that the candidate has experience in turning around this type of situation.
Berkhoff said in a Wednesday afternoon statement that the board is putting a new management team in place.
“We deeply regret the current situation of NEON,” he said in the statement. “We are going to do what’s best for the children, families and staff.”
He said wrong decisions had been made for issuing paychecks.
“Over the last week we have held in-house meetings with Mrs. Stephenson with recovery and payments owed to NEON, which have led to the current situation,” he said in the statement. “From Oct. 27, through present, management failed to provide the board with accurate answers about the financial situation. This has resulted in my call for a Board Meeting Nov. 7th to make decisions regarding current management and future direction at NEON.”
NEON’s Head Start program was suspended last week by the U.S. Department of Human and Health Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Stephenson and NEON have been negotiating to work out an arrangement with Community Development Institute (CDI), the agency appointed to take over NEON’s Head Start program while continuing to run a child development program for the children enrolled in Head Start.
Monday, employees were made to wait for paychecks for the third time this fall. The checks were not handed out until after midnight, and employees were unable to cash them. One was told by a Citibank employee that there were insufficient funds in the account, another that the check was not valid. Other NEON employees told of co-workers stranded in Waterbury and Ohio because the expected money from their checks was not available.
That was the last straw, Duff said.
“This has been an ongoing problem for many, many months. Many of us have been working in the background – legislators, Congressman Himes’ office, the Malloy administration – behind the scenes for many many months to try and right the ship and help NEON to be able to deliver services to families and children and be able to pay their staff,” he said. “It was apparent yesterday when checks bounced that we were at a breaking point. Therefore, we wanted to let the community know that we have been working on this for months and we want to continue to work hard to open up Head Start or whatever the new program is called. We want to ensure that stays open to deliver the services that are needed and that staff is paid.”
Duff said that “Department of Labor Rapid Response people” were at NEON.
“I don’t know what that would necessarily mean from the standpoint of how fast that would deliver checks,” he said.
He said that state legislators don’t have any direct authority over NEON. “However, we are working closely with Congressman Himes’ office and the Malloy administration. Most of the authority lies with the executive branches at all three levels of government,” he said in an email.
Stephenson refused comment to the press Tuesday as NEON employees waited to talk to them about their invalid paychecks. She promised “answers” after holding a staff meeting but then refused.
An employee said Stephenson was “grandstanding” during the hour-long staff meeting, from which Head Start workers emerged in tears. She was quoted by one as telling them that NEON was “being raped by people who do not see the love and the care.”
Monday evening, as NEON employees waited to get their paychecks, Stephenson initially refused comment. Caught in a hallway by this reporter as she emerged from a staff meeting, she said, “Why don’t you go to the Housing Authority and why don’t you ask them how many people they have on furlough? Why don’t you go to the Housing Authority and ask them about nepotism? Ask them why do they have the director that’s at Housing Authority and the wife working in the same capacity? You’ve got a lot of communities, you’ve got a lot of things happening, and as our organization is trying to restructure everybody wants to keep it in the paper. Right now our staff is getting ready to be taken care of while a media group is blowing it out of proportion. So ask that question.”
That was before telling employees they would not be paid.
A NEON employee who described herself as a shop steward said the problem with the paychecks was “stolen funds.”
“I can’t sugar coat it,” she said. “You can’t say misappropriated because when we speak to the funding source the funding sources say money has been given. So if money has been given and it’s not been put into our property what do you call it but stealing?”
“I am reaching out to anyone that can help and assist families to be fed,” she said. “I myself, thanks to my mom I am able to stand my ground but others don’t have that support. … Because this is election day we cannot get help from our elected officials.”
Former NEON board member Susan Weinberger hailed the latest development.
“To survive and fulfill its vital mission, NEON must change,” she said in an email. “Only a wholesale change in management will ensure the survival of the agency. The fact that Ms. Stephenson is on a leave of absence is a good first step in that direction. In order to better meet the needs of the precious children and families served by NEON, I hope that the agency will now replace its entire top management in favor of a trusted, transparent transition team with a proven track record. Only then will NEON be able to rebuild. We deserve nothing less!”
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