By Adam Swift
A City Council motion asking Acting Mayor Patrick Keefe to request an external investigation into harassment allegations against City Solicitor Paul Capizzi turned into a broader discussion of an atmosphere of intimidation within City Hall, threats against the council, and the role of the council in city government on Monday night.
Ward 3 Councilor Anthony Cogliandro said he filed the motion in response to an email the council received informing it that there were complaints from three city employees against the city solicitor involving gender discrimination and harassment.
Cogliandro said his main concern with filing the motion was in making sure the investigative process is done fairly and with full transparency.
“Apparently, that is a huge problem for some of the people in (City Hall),” said Cogliandro.
While not specifying who he talked to in the city administration, Cogliandro said that after filing the motion, he was contacted and told he didn’t have the right to file the motion, that it made the city look bad, and could hurt the city’s case if the incidents ended up in litigation.
“My favorite was, ‘You are only doing this to put yourself in the public eye,” said Cogliandro. “Let me inform the entire city that we are well within our rights as a City Council to ask for an investigation to be done. I am not sitting here, launching it on my own or demanding it, we are asking that it be done properly.”
Cogliandro said he went back through council agendas and videos since 2010 and that on many occasions, the council has asked the administration to investigate different things.
“Keeping this quiet, that’s the status quo, don’t let the public know what’s happening,” said Cogliandro. “I feel that as a resident, I have every right to know what’s going on with the employees whose salaries I pay along with the rest of the residents in the city.”
Cogliandro went on to state that he was accused of doing the dirty work for a disgruntled city employee.
“I was asked why I did not call the mayor,” he said. “For the same reason that I want the investigation to be from an external source and transparent, especially given since I was told that there would not be support from the administration on this motion.”
Cogliandro said he was later informed that he was threatened by a city employee claiming they would release information that would be detrimental to himself and his fellow councillors.
“Making threats to release public or private information about anyone in an attempt to intimidate to withdraw the motion is clearly retaliation for filing (the motion),” said Cogliandro. “We also call this blackmail, and this employee should be fired. I was shocked that an employee would threaten to release information about a city councillor’s past over a motion that was filed over an external investigation.”
Cogliandro noted that an external investigation could not only clear someone’s name, but also add to the validity to the findings because they were done outside City Hall.
“If there was nothing to hide or worry about, I’d think people would be thankful for this motion,” said Cogliandro. “How many times as city councillors have we had the opportunity to say something and not said a word? How many times have we had the opportunity to act and not acted, all because we are afraid we are going to hurt somebody’s feelings?”
The Ward 3 Councillor said he has been told more stories of harassment, retaliation, and gender discrimination in the city than anyone can imagine.
“The problem is that no one speaks up about it because they know nothing will be done or they are scared to lose their job or scared that their character will be assassinated,” said Cogliandro.
Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri said he has done some research on his own talking to several city employees and has concerns about the city solicitor’s behavior.
“I ask the mayor, if he does not want this to be a public issue, please do something, sir,” said Silvestri.
Councillor-at-Large Dan Rizzo said he has worked with the city solicitor for close to two decades, and that to his knowledge, he did not have a blemish on his record.
“Whenever there is something like this … and there are allegations out there, obviously it was against him or any other municipal employee, it needs to be investigated,” said Rizzo. “What’s bothering me the most, not necessarily about the motion, but the dialogue surrounding the motion, is this environment … over the last several years that we’ve seen with these threats and intimidation coming towards elected officials.”
Rizzo said there needs to be some kind of action taken by the council.
“This has to stop, this environment we have of intimidation and threats cannot continue because it is a slippery slope,” said Rizzo. “If we allow it to continue, it will only get worse.”
Robert Marra, the senior advisor to Keefe, argued that Cogliandro’s motion was beyond the scope of the city council.
“The city council is a legislative body, the city council is not a human resources department,” said Marra. “The city council’s function, as established in the city charter, the city ordinance, and state law is to enact and perform the function of enacting legislation. When the city council takes a step like this in these circumstances, it sends a dangerous message to employees.”
Marra said he did not question the integrity of Cogliandro and the other councilors, but said it was the responsibility of the city’s human resources department to take up the concerns in the motion.
“There is a human resources department that handles human resources matters, and that’s what this is,” said Marra. He added that the discussion at Monday night’s meeting had already gone past what should be discussed related to personnel issues outside of executive session.
“It creates uncertainty in the municipal staff, it undermines the function of the human resources department, it impairs the city’s ability to deal with employment issues in a consistent manner, and it creates confusion about the proper channels of employee grievances and it misleads the public by casting aspersions, in this case on the solicitor, without premise,” said Marra. “It’s not unusual that matters that end up in front of the human resources department might take place in the anticipation of litigation. Random discussion, again, like we are hearing tonight, can subvert the city’s legal position and legal standing when a complaint follows its proper procedures.”
Cogliandro argued that the council was not acting outside of its scope and that he was not seeking to launch an investigation, rather, to ask the mayor have an external source come in to conduct an investigation that is already under way.
“Do you believe that someone who oversees that department should be investigated by them?” Cogliandro asked. “If you polled the audience, I think the answer would unanimously be no.”
