Borough President Markowitz used city-paid staffers as campaign workers and ignored “inappropriate sexual activity” by four of his employees, a new bombshell lawsuit by Markowitz’s former spokeswoman contends.
Those claims represent the juicy nuggets in an otherwise unsensational age and gender discrimination lawsuit filed Monday in Brooklyn Supreme Court by Markowitz’s former communications director, Regina Weiss. Virtually all of the 16-page filing sticks to the central allegation that Weiss, 50, was “discriminated against and [was] unlawfully discharged … on the bases of her age and gender.”
Specifically, Weiss’s suit targets Markowitz’s chief of staff, Greg Atkins. Weiss says Atkins forced her to resign in early 2006, despite glowing job-performance reviews from Markowitz himself.
Asked about the lawsuit, the borough president’s office said, effectively, bring it on.
“These unfounded claims should be taken in context — they are from a disgruntled former employee who was dismissed,” the statement read. “If served with court papers, we will address these baseless allegations in court. This office stands by its excellent EEO [Equal Employment Opportunity] record.”
Atkins did not return an e-mail seeking an additional comment. A spokesman in the Borough President’s office said Atkins would not be available to comment.
The suit is seeking unspecified damages, including lost wages, lost retirement income, compensation for pain and suffering and punitive damages against Markowitz and his office for multiple violations of the city’s Human Rights Law.
Weiss, who once worked for Markowitz’s predecessor, Howard Golden, joined Markowitz’s team as a speechwriter in July 2003. But soon after, the borough president announced a round of “seniority-based staff layoffs” and, since she was a recent hire, she opted to leave on her own volition before the cuts were made.
But while Weiss was working at another public relations job, Markowitz courted her to return, promising a promotion to communications director, court papers say.
Weiss took that job in late 2004 — but was immediately “subjected to unlawful treatment” by Atkins that was based, she said, on her gender.
Some of the charges in Weiss’s suit read like the overblown grousing of a disgruntled employee. She complains that Atkins, her boss, “indefensibly insisted on micro-managing” and “was compelled to supervise her every move,” and added that Atkins lavished praise on male employees, yet never on her.
But the legal papers make a much more serious claim that Weiss’s communication team “was being misused for political purposes during a year [2005] when the borough president was running for re-election.” She said that Atkins told her in January 2006 that she was asked to resign because the office needed someone “who can test the political waters.”
Weiss also alleges that after she left the borough president’s office, another employee told her union shop steward that she “was being subjected to a hostile work environment due to inappropriate sexual activity taking place in the executive office among Atkins and three other staff members.”
The court papers do not explain the activity, and Weiss’s lawyer, Jack Tuckner, refused to elaborate, saying the allegation occurred after Weiss had left the office.
Tuckner was more forthcoming about Weiss’s allegation that she did political work for Markowitz during his re-election year. Tuckner said the work included prepping the Beep for debates and reviewing campaign literature. He called it “a fairly significant distraction” from her official duties.
If true, it would be more than a distraction for Markowitz, who is apparently still considering a run for mayor. Using city workers for campaign purposes is illegal, though Tuckner was quick to say that the “alleged misuse of public employees” and the “allusion to sexual goings on” is not part of this case.
“It’s contextual. It shows the broader hostile work environment,” he said. “It shows how this office conducts itself on ethical and human rights issues.”
Weiss declined to discuss her case, but issued a statement saying, “My career and my self-confidence have been hugely damaged by the discriminatory and disparaging treatment I endured at Brooklyn Borough Hall. I cannot let that stand.”
