NEWBURGH – Former Newburgh City Manager Joe Donat, DPW Director George Garrison, and former Fire Chief William Horton have been named in a federal lawsuit alleging racism and discrimination brought by five city employees. The City of Newburgh has been named in the suit.
The five plaintiffs are represented by attorney Michael Sussman. All are African American or Hispanic and the individual defendants are white.
The lawsuit alleges that on August 23, 2019, Donat announced that code enforcement officers would no longer report to Chief Horton and would be under the supervision of Garrison. The majority of the code enforcement officers are black and the lawsuit alleges that Garrison “had a well-known history of racist utterances made while in his position.”
Patricia Bunsten is Hispanic and serves as the city’s bilingual account clerk for the code compliance office. When the pandemic came, Bunsten took 15 days off at full pay to assist her children with virtual learning. When she needed more time, the city told her to take up to 12 weeks at 70 percent pay under the Emergency Family Leave Act. Bunsten took 11 weeks. When she returned to work, she learned that non-Hispanic and white employees were being permitted to work remotely at full pay, doing similar work. Bunsten is alleging discrimination in the lawsuit.
Reginald Brown, an African American code enforcement officer, is alleging that Horton discriminated against the black code officers when he proposed to replace the officers with firefighters who Sussman says are predominately white.
Brown is also claiming racial discrimination by Donat for hiring a white person to supervise the code enforcement officers even though Brown was qualified and applied for the position.
Tamie Hollins, who is black, is the vacant property specialist for the city. Hollins claims that she was racially discriminated against in a variety of ways. She maintains that her office was 46 degrees in the winter and had no air conditioning in the summer. Hollins was declared an essential employee during the pandemic but says Horton failed to provide PPE to her but distributed it to police and firefighters. Hollins says Horton and the city violated her 14th Amendment rights by subjecting her to inferior working conditions.
African American code compliance officer Lisa Ross is claiming discrimination because she was passed over for a promotion due to her race.
Maurice Williams, a black man, who has worked for the city for more than 10 years, sought to transfer to the water department but Donat told him there were no openings. According to the lawsuit, Donat then hired two white men for positions at the department. Williams is seeking compensation for racial discrimination.
Maritza Williams, who is Hispanic, has worked for the city for more than 30 years. Williams claims she applied for the position of recreation director but was passed over when the city hired Sam Sutton. Williams claims that Sutton has her doing work and has threatened her by saying he “has the support of Joe Donat. Williams is seeking financial compensation due to discrimination based on gender.
The lawsuit is seeking punitive damages against the individual defendants and compensatory damages from the city.
