A Common Council committee investigating issues inside the city of Albany’s workforce is hearing a wide range of allegations from former and current Department of General Services employees.
The first meeting of the council’s Ethics and Workplace Culture Committee last week was an eye-opener for the panel.
The committee was formed after councilors say they received several complaints regarding treatment of city employees by supervisors and City Hall, including breaches of confidentiality, discrimination, wrongful terminations and allegations supervisors propositioned female employees for sex.
Sean Tarver claimed he has been "wrongfully fired" from his DGS job in April. He says he won an arbitration case to restore his position and collect back wages.
"However, the city of Albany has refused to let me return to work or pay me, going against the arbitration decision. This situation has made it impossible. Impossible for me to pay my daily living expenses. I'm backed up in rent. And to make matters worse, the city of Albany has also challenged my unemployment claim for the time they had kept me out of work, saying I was fired for the reason why they wrongfully terminated me from my job, which goes against what the arbitration decision stated," Tarver said.
Alex Catello is a labor relations specialist with AFSCME Council 66, which represents many city workers. He told councilors the numerous issues and incidents are systemic, reflecting "a broader culture of discrimination that undermines the principles of equity and justice." Catello also cited cases of what he termed "unethical conduct."
"A current deputy commissioner at DGS had created his own company in September of 2023 and subsequently secured a contract with DGS, raising serious questions about conflicts of interest and the ethical implications of self-dealing. Such actions erode public trust, and they highlight the urgent need for oversight and accountability within the government operations to prevent similar abuses in the future. As members of the Common Council, you have the power to implement change. I urge you to take decisive action by reviewing and reforming disciplinary policies to ensure all employees, regardless of race, are treated equitably and afforded due process," said Catello.
DGS employee of 14 years Ashanti Brown says there's a gang culture within DGS hierarchy that includes favoring employees who give supervisors "gifts," adding that he "walks on eggshells" every day he's on the job.
"I'm in a locker room every day with about 40-50 guys that has evidence of exchange of alcohol, exchange of marijuana from the supervisors," said Brown. "And it's not just sanitation, because even a higher up white collar, they all everybody's in cahoots, because even with DGS, nobody's promoted of hard work, nobody's promoted off what they know. Everybody's promoted off the relationship, drinking buddies."
Brown added "it's the worst administration" he's ever worked under. 11th ward Councilor Alfredo Balarin urges the committee to help the workers by following through.
"I'm embarrassed for what I'm hearing is going on in our city here, and I think we owe it to our residents. We owe it to the people we asked to do this, to get some clear information and hopefully try to resolve some of these issues. More than anything, let people know that it's not acceptable, and somehow we gotta hold people's feet to the fire," Balarin said.
WAMC has requested comment from DGS Commissioner Sergio Panunzio.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan says the workers are represented by a collective bargaining unit. She encourages the disgruntled to follow grievance procedure.
"We can't investigate complaints that people do not bring forward, and typically, when a grievance is filed, we're able to work through the issue with the union and come out with a resolution. And so there were lots of things that were alleged at that meeting, we're taking a look at what has actually been filed as a complaint, and what the outcomes of those investigations were, and we will move forward from there. If the union knows the process, the union president and the business representative were there, and I know how they could resolve these issues. It's by coming forward, filing complaints, letting us know dates, times, you know, when these alleged actions allegedly took place, and then we would move forward with them. And that has not occurred," said Sheehan.
The Ethics committee's next meeting is scheduled Monday night, where it is expected the panel will discuss demanding paperwork from city departments as it investigates the workforce culture.
