Hackensack seeks to toughen sexual harassment policy in wake of lawsuit settlementFriday, October 18, 2013
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER
The Record
HACKENSACK — The city has pledged to strengthen its sexual harassment policy in the wake of a $495,000 settlement of a lawsuit that raised serious allegations about the Building Department chief and the city's handling of complaints.
Members of the City Council said any employee or manager who violates the policy will face penalties ranging from a written reprimand to firing. However, they did not say whether any disciplinary action would be taken on earlier claims against Construction Official Joseph Mellone, who was named in the 2011 lawsuit along with City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono.
"There will be zero tolerance in the new administration for incidents of employee intimidation or sexual harassment," Deputy Mayor Kathy Canestrino said.
Any employee or manager who violates the policy "can count on receiving the maximum punishment that can be meted out, including termination of employment," she said.
Marcella Sbarbaro, a former clerk typist in the Buildings Department, sued the city in April 2010, claiming that Mellone sexually harassed her and forced her to have sex under threat of losing her job. She alleged that she complained to Lo Iacono, who did nothing to stop the harassment.
The 35-page lawsuit detailed several alleged sexual incidents between Sbarbaro and Mellone from 2006 to 2010. Sbarbaro said she was shown pornographic photos and videos and was subject to sexual and harassing comments. The suit also alleged that Mellone went to Sbarbaro's apartment and made sexual demands.
Sbarbaro claimed Mellone made inappropriate remarks in front of Lo Iacono and in emails. She said in the lawsuit that Mellone and the city manager retaliated against her when she complained.
"The case had two elements to it: sexual harassment and retaliation for reporting sexual harassment," Sbarbaro's lawyer Mark Frost said. "The retaliation led to her being discharged. Discovery showed they wrongfully terminated her and that those charges were bogus."
Under the settlement filed in Superior Court in Bergen County, Sbarbaro received $495,000, but there was no admission of guilt by the city or the officials. Sbarbaro was barred from talking to the media under the terms of the agreement and from releasing a copy of the settlement to the press. The Record obtained a copy through an Open Public Records Act request.
The city paid $200,000 of the total cost of the settlement, and the insurer paid the rest, city spokesman Thom Ammirato said. The insurance company also paid the cost for lawyers, which totaled $285,000.
Mellone, who heads the building, housing and land use department, did not return calls this week.
Lo Iacono denied allegations that he failed to respond to complaints of harassment. He said he took the strongest action he could under civil service regulations when he ordered Mellone suspended without pay for 90 days.
Initially, Lo Iacono told The Record that the suspension — for causes including neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming a public employee — was not related to Sbarbaro's allegations. The city attorney at the time, Joseph Zisa, said the same.
This week, Lo Iacono said the suspension was related to Sbarbaro's allegations, but not a direct response to the lawsuit.
"I'm very, very confident I took the proper steps," he said. "Again, this is something I feel strongly about. I have three daughters and four granddaughters. These issues are very important to me. As soon as I became aware of them, I acted immediately."
Mellone was the subject of controversy again in December when The Record reported that his office failed to enforce basic safety standards on rental homes owned by two high-profile landlords with political connections to the city. When code violations were exposed, Mellone initially said he would cite the tenants and not the landlords. In January, the city manager suspended Mellone for 30 days.
Political observers say Mellone is close to the Zisa family that had dominated city politics for decades until the May council election, when an anti-Zisa slate swept every seat. The council made new appointments and hires, but Mellone, a tenured employee, remained in his job.
The City Council has asked labor attorney Juan Fernandez to review the sexual harassment policy and make recommendations on how to improve it.
The city adopted a new policy last year as a requirement when it switched insurers. The policy, written into the employee handbook, calls for complaints to be reported to supervisors and for disciplinary action to be imposed for violations. It bars discrimination or retaliation against anyone who files a complaint. Employees and managers must complete an online training video on sexual harassment.
Councilwoman Rose Greenman said she wants the new policy to go beyond what's now required. "We want a much more detailed and much more grand policy — something that will have some teeth in it," she said, including sanctions against offenders encompassing "written reprimand, suspensions, demotion or termination."
But she said she did not know if the council could take further action on the case that is the subject of the settlement. "That is all being examined at this point," she said.
It's unclear whether any action can be taken against Mellone if, in fact, he already was disciplined as a result of the sexual harassment allegations. Under Hackensack's form of government, the city manager has the authority to discipline a department head, while the manager answers to the council.
Peter Lyden, spokesman for the state Civil Service Commission, said there was nothing in the administrative code that addressed dual punishment for the same crime.
"It doesn't say one thing or another, which means the law is silent on it," he said.
Email: adely@northjersey.com
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