An Ansonia lawyer who used to represent the city’s Water Pollution Control Authority is claiming the WPCA fired him illegally in January and discriminated against him because of his age.
John F.X. Androski, who is 71 years old, filed a complaint with the state’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities July 3.
In it, Androski says the WPCA violated the federal and state constitutions, laws prohibiting age discrimination, and the city charter when it “terminated” him at its Jan. 8 meeting.
The WPCA chairman and the city’s lawyer fiercely disputed Androski’s claims Thursday (July 24).
They say the WPCA didn’t “terminate” Androski at all — its members just decided not to renew his contract.
“It’s absolute hogwash,” John Marini, the city’s corporation counsel, said. “It’s a claim that holds no water.”
The Complaint
Androski’s complaint says the WPCA fired him at its Jan. 8 meeting, about a month after Mayor David Cassetti took office. The WPCA board had being reconstituted with four new members, including a new chairman, Nunzio Parente.
The Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities investigates accusations of discrimination in the work place. They field complaints on matters such as ageism, gender bias, racism and sexual harassment.
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“I was terminated, notwithstanding the WPCA knew full well that and mentioned on several occasions that I had a long history with the City of Ansonia and the Ansonia WPCA but was told I was too old to serve in that capacity,” Androski’s complaint says.
Article continues after the document.
During a brief interview outside his office Thursday, Androski said WPCA members never explicitly said “Hey, we don’t want to work with you because you’re too old,” but their comments at the meeting indicate that’s what they were thinking.
He said he hoped to shed more light on that fact through the discovery process — taking depositions, seeking access to records of communications between WPCA members — as the complaint, which is still in its early stages, moves through the CHRO.
In the complaint, Androski said Parente made a motion at the Jan. 8 meeting stating that Androski “has been steeped in the long tradition of being an attorney and has represented the WPCA for a long time and has been an attorney for the City of Ansonia for a sizable term which was initiated with the Adanti administration of 1978.”
The complaint says another WPCA member, First Ward Alderman Charles Stowe, told Androski: “I know you have served the City for a long time but you are an attorney at law you are not a city employee, (you’re) subcontracted to do a job and the reason this board has made this decision was we feel you fell a little short in some areas.”
The minutes from the meeting say that Parente “thanked Attorney Androski for his many years of working with the WPCA but explained that at this time his services are no longer needed.”
Article continues after meeting minutes from the Jan. 8 WPCA meeting. Scroll to page six for the account of the board’s interaction with Androski.
Ansonia WPCA Jan. 8, 2014 by ValleyIndyDotOrg
WPCA, City Respond
Parente, the WPCA chairman, said Thursday that the WPCA didn’t fire Androski at all.
“He had a contract that ended in 2013,” he said. “We made a decision not to renew the contract.”
“It had nothing to do with age,” Parente went on, saying the WPCA “needed a clean start.”
“If you switch from cable to AT&T, do they file a suit against you?” Parente said. “If he were 26 and we didn’t renew his contract, what would he say then? ‘Oh you thought I was too young.’”
Parente said it’s because of the “clean start” made by the WPCA this year that the authority was able to lower rates to users this year. He said he anticipates another decrease next year.
“We came in and stripped away a lot of the veneer and tried to just get back to basics and become more efficient at what we’re doing,” Parente said.
John Marini, the city’s corporation counsel, said the city would dispute Androski’s complaint at the CHRO.
“There’s no merit to those claims,” Marini said. “It’s an appointed position. The WPCA has discretion to appoint its counsel.”
He said the move was kosher, and will prove to be “absolutely crystal clear to any objective observer.”
What Happens Now?
The city has until Aug. 16 to file a response to Androski’s complaint.
James O’Neill, a spokesman for the CHRO, said via email Thursday he couldn’t comment on the complaint’s specifics.
In general, he said, once someone accused of discrimination files a response to a complaint, the person filing the complaint has an opportunity to file a “rebuttal” with the CHRO.
After that, the CHRO conducts a “merit assessment review” to determine whether the complaint warrants further investigation or should be dismissed.
If dismissed, the person filing the complaint can ask for a “release of jurisdiction” within 15 days to pursue the matter in court.
If not dismissed, the CHRO will try to mediate the case between the parties involved. If the matter can’t be resolved at that point, it is assigned to a CHRO investigator.
A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the complaint process is posted below.
