A former city worker is suing both the city and his former supervisor, alleging that he was forced into early retirement in part because of a pervasive anti-gay environment.
Mark O’Connor filed a federal suit in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania Dec. 14 against both the city and its personnel director, Albert D’Attilio, citing federal, state and local civil-rights violations.
O’Connor, who is gay, contends that — following his involvement in the investigation of a former supervisor — the city and D’Attilio violated his free-speech and due-process constitutional rights and discriminated against him based on sex and sexual orientation under the federal Civil Rights Act, the state Human Relations Act and the city’s Fair Practice Ordinance.
D’Attilio did not return a call for comment and O’Connor’s attorney, Arthur Bugay, declined to comment.
O’Connor worked for the city since 1987, beginning as a personnel selection specialist trainee with the Office of Central Personnel, later promoted to hiring-services manager in 1999. For the majority of his tenure, O’Connor who was overseen by then-personnel director Tanya Smith.
The complaint states that throughout this time, O’Connor was “discreet about his sexual orientation but never hid the fact that he is gay,” which was “common knowledge” among those with whom he worked.
D’Attilio was appointed as personnel director in 2008 after Smith resigned following an Inspector General investigation into allegations she and other employees manipulated the results of a civil-service test to promote certain individuals. O’Connor furnished information requested by the Inspector General as part of the investigation, an aspect the complaint says D’Attilio was aware of.
Following D’Attilio’s appointment, the complaint alleges he began targeting employees who assisted in the investigation of Smith and made numerous antigay comments to O’Connor.
According to the filing, D’Attilio made disparaging remarks about the city’s domestic-partner law after he learned D’Attilio’s partner was on his benefits plan. He allegedly told O’Connor “people can tell” that he’s gay because he “waves his hands around,” and said the theater world wouldn’t exist “if it wasn’t for fags and Jews.”
D’Attilio allegedly said O’Connor was “the problem” in the uniformed services department, and said others in his unit couldn’t relate to him because he was gay.
The complaint says the supervisor was “mocking, abusive and belligerent” and created a hostile working environment for O’Connor, sending e-mails that cast his performance in a false light, reassigning duties he handled for years and excluding him from meetings.
O’Connor sought psychiatric help because of the conditions in his workplace and was prescribed anxiety and depression medications. In December, D’Attilio promoted a coworker of O’Connor’s to deputy director for uniformed testing and, the complaint says, did not allow other employees to compete for the position.
The filing notes that O’Connor was the most qualified person in the department and contends D’Attilio declined to promote him because of his sex and sexual orientation, as well as his role in the Smith investigation.
When O’Connor questioned D’Attilio about the promotion, he allegedly told him he “did not give [him] what he want[s],” while D’Attilio’s assistant allegedly asked O’Connor why he decided to “come out” at work during a conversation about the promotion.
Later that day, O’Connor applied for early retirement, which D’Attilio refused to accept, threatening to fire him for job abandonment if he didn’t return in five days, although O’Connor had at the time accrued 200 sick days and 15 vacation days.
O’Connor rescinded his application and applied for Family Medical Leave Act, which the city approved. Although the FMLA entitled him to be out of work until March 15, 2009, the complaint says D’Attilio reduced O’Connor’s pay rate in January and took steps that signaled he had been replaced, like placing another employee in his position and wiping his computer.
Believing “he had no job to which he could return,” O’Connor again applied for early retirement, several years before his planned 2015 retirement.
O’Connor is seeking DROP benefits, back wages, front pay, pension benefits, compensatory and liquidated damages from the city and compensatory and punitive damages from D’Attilio.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].