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In Focus: Don’t our seniors deserve more?

Luzerne County Council may settle a lawsuit with former 911 supervisor Rebecca Adams for $80,000.Adams, of Exeter, alleged she was subjected to a hostile working environment in 2010 because she refused to sign a petition urging commissioners to appoint Edward Casaldi as 911 executive director, according to her April 2013 complaint filed in federal court.Her complaint focuses heavily on Casaldi&#8217;s alleged directive to record Adams&#8217; conversations with fellow dispatch supervisor Thomas Farrell on a supervisor phone line not used for emergency calls.Adams said she and Farrell never knew their conversations were being recorded, and she alleges conversations over several days were spliced together and presented as one to make it appear they spent two hours on a single shift talking largely about personal business instead of working.Casaldi was deputy 911 director and had served as the acting overseer of the emergency call center after Alan Pugh&#8217;s resignation in August 2008. Commissioners hired James McFarland as 911 executive director in April 2010.When McFarland was terminated in November 2010, Casaldi again served as acting 911 director. Some employees publicly pushed to keep Casaldi in the leadership post, but commissioners promoted David Parsnik from security director to 911 director in February 2011.Casaldi was among more than 50 employees furloughed for budgetary purposes in March 2012.Fred Rosencrans took over the 911 executive director post last year after Parsnik was promoted to administrative services division head.Council is set to vote Tuesday night on the administration&#8217;s recommendation to settle the suit for $80,000 &#8212; $60,000 from the county&#8217;s general fund operating budget and $20,000 picked up by the county&#8217;s insurance carrier. The county has paid $40,000 in an insurance deductible on the litigation to date.The county&#8217;s assigned insurance legal counsel will discuss the &#8220;likelihood of success&#8221; in the matter with council in executive session before the voting meeting, the agenda submission said.Adams filed the litigation with McFarland, though a settlement agreement has not been reached with him. McFarland maintains his termination was based, in part, on his objection to the targeted discrimination of Adams and Farrell.According to the complaint:Around May 2010, a petition was circulated among 911 workers to permanently keep Casaldi as executive director. Adams and Farrell chose to not sign the petition &#8220;based upon a number of personal factors.&#8221;Adams later learned several conversations about 40 minutes each over several days containing both personal and business-related materials had been recorded.The spliced version was presented to then-commissioner Maryanne Petrilla, who &#8220;demanded&#8221; the suspension of Adams and Farrell in June 2010 after listening to the recording. The suspensions were not implemented.At least two other 911 employees were aware of the recording before Adams, and it was later determined that a third employee recorded and combined the conversations into one at Casaldi&#8217;s direction.The supervisor&#8217;s phone line had no beeping sound to warn of a recording, though employees later were informed they must announce recording may occur when they use the line.&#8220;It is believed and averred that this recording was done because neither of these particular shift supervisors signed the particular petition to retain Casaldi as the executive director.&#8221;Adams points out other examples of &#8220;targeted discriminatory behavior&#8221; that prompted her to resign from the $34,000-a-year position in October 2010, saying some colleagues&#8217; claims against her were either unfounded or considered standard for all other shift supervisors.For example, Adams said Casaldi and another worker presented an internal message to Petrilla indicating Adams was permitting employees to sleep while on duty.&#8220;This representation was false as the CAD message was put out to alert employees, who were permitted to sleep by management on breaks as allowed by policy, not by Adams, that should they choose to sleep while on break, to not do so during a specific period when management would be on site.&#8221;Adams said she was given a five-day suspension with no opportunity to explain what happened that evening.The suit was filed in federal court against the county, 911 and prior commissioners Petrilla, Stephen A. Urban and Thomas Cooney.

Luzerne County Council to consider $80,000 settlement with former 911 worker