Conversation with Kimone Napier

Hey Lena, OK, so I had the most stressful day yesterday and I have a lot to update you on.

So, um, couple of things.

So I, I was supposed to start my, the job at corrections on Monday, like everything was good.

I got my offer letter yesterday and so forth.

Now.

Because I have a contract with New York City through the mayor's office of contract Services, um, I Previously, before this, before I even, you know, got the offer letter or anything, I had called the conflict of Interest board and I told them I said, hey, I'm, you know, I'm about to start this job.

I don't have a start date yet, but I'm about to start the job and you know, my business has a contract with the city and they were like, well, do you, um, they were like, well, what's the, what is the contract, what does your business do and what are you gonna be working? And so when I had Um, inquired, the lady had said, well, that doesn't, that doesn't sound like it should really be a problem.

So, um, She just told me once you get your offer letter to fill out the form that goes to the legal person at corrections, if they approve it, then it goes to the board to be approved.

So I, once I got the offer letter on Tuesday, like in the evening, so I did it yesterday.

And he had told me uh once I submitted just to call the lie at corrections, which I did.

Ultimately she basically told me they don't allow any outside employment for the 1st 6 months and that would also include um my business and so I said, but I'm the owner of this business and I've been the owner of the business and essentially she said it didn't matter.

So I think what I'm going to do is just, although I already accepted the order, I'm just gonna have to email them and say I can't.

Move forward with this because I don't, I, I cannot uh think of a workaround for the mere fact is.

I can't pay myself from the business for 6 months and.

With the contract with Max, definitely I, I can't, I wouldn't be able to do anything and then I was like, well, I wonder if I appoint somebody to manage, um, to manage everything, but I could do that, but I, it still feels like it would be a lot because I'm like, one, how would I even explain that to the people at mocks, a mayor's office of contract services? How would I even explain that? And I can't, they basically can't see my face have any correspondence with me for 6 months and then at the 6 month mark, I would have to resubmit it to be approved.

Is how that would work and so.

I don't know if it doesn't feel like it's worth it, to be honest, because it just feels like a lot of bells.

And whistles, and she even said when she's like, you can't even oversee anything.

Now, if I didn't have this contract with the mayor's office, I would have never even said anything because how would they even really know, but because I have a contract with the mayor's office and my name will show up in the vendor system, I was like, I have to say anything and everybody I talked to, they were like, yeah, you know, you'd have to say anything, so.

I didn't jump and send the email yet, but I was kind of like, I was trying to think in my head if there's any work around, but essentially I don't think there's any type of workaround for this, which sucks because I actually really was excited about the role like and I don't feel like necessarily sad, but I'm just like, this is the reason why.

Um New York City cannot keep good employees.

This is why.

You know, like, you can't retain people, cause that's crazy, like.

You're controlling people's income and the crazy thing is that the policy is like, yeah, you can't have outside employment for 6 months.

It doesn't even matter if it's outside city hours.

Remember cause I had like, I'm thinking like, OK, I can.

You know, just organize the time around this job, which I did.

I was gonna do webinars in the evening and stuff, and they're basically like.

You can't do anything outside of city hours, which is crazy to me because if you need to provide, you need to provide, and I feel like that's just ridiculous, um.

And I think this varies per agency, but I think basically 6 months, so I'm basically planning to just write an email and just say unfortunately I can't accept the position any longer because of this, so that's the plan