Opinion ID: 794655
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Demoret's Claims

Text: 6 Theresa Demoret's duties initially included answering the telephone, faxing documents, and drafting letters. During the three years she was employed by the Village prior to Douglas's hire as Village Administrator in May 2000, Demoret worked without much direct supervision, reporting to the acting administrator and the part-time Mayor as necessary. In addition to her duties as secretary/assistant, she took on special projects from time to time. For example, in 1998 she began assisting the treasurer with preparing the payroll. 7 When Douglas became the Village Administrator, he told Demoret he objected to her working on the payroll because he needed a full-time assistant. When Demoret continued her assistance on the payroll, Douglas checked frequently at her desk to see if she was accomplishing her other duties for him. One of Demoret's charges is Douglas acted condescendingly toward her by closely supervising her work. 8 She also asserts Douglas treated her rudely throughout the time they worked together—in failing to say good morning to her or engage her in conversation, and that when he did speak he was condescending. At the same time, Demoret asserts that she observed Douglas treating male colleagues in a friendly manner and with courtesy. According to Demoret, Douglas micromanaged the assignments he gave her. For example, he asked her to double check the spelling of another employee's name even after she assured him the spelling was correct, wrote unnecessarily detailed notes to her about assignments she had performed in the past, and accused her of reading the newspaper instead of working when she clipped newspaper articles mentioning Sleepy Hollow as part of her job duties. Further, Demoret complains defendants failed to give her meaningful or enough work to do. Douglas relegated to her basic tasks such as typing, photocopying, and answering the telephone. He delegated substantive projects, such as assisting with park renovation plans, to a male college student intern, while relying on Demoret only for administrative work. 9 When Demoret complained to Mayor Zegarelli about Douglas's treatment of her and other women in the office, Zegarelli replied by telling Demoret that others had also complained about the Village Administrator because of Douglas's difficult personality. The Mayor promised to talk to Douglas and to try to resolve the personality conflict. To Demoret's knowledge, the Mayor never took such remedial action. 10 Demoret also contends the Mayor gradually removed meaningful job duties and responsibilities from her, including editing the Village's newsletter, preparing payroll, and using the mayoral stamp. Custody of the mayoral stamp was given to the Village clerk (a female). In addition, the Mayor hired a woman whom he knew from his prior work in the private sector to serve as deputy clerk, and he gave her some duties previously assigned to plaintiff. Without these duties, Demoret complains she was left with little to do. Further, she laments, the Mayor and Village Administrator moved her workspace from the second floor to the third floor of the Village office building after she filed the present lawsuit, and they took from her still more duties at that time. 11 Through discovery conducted in this litigation, the Village learned that Demoret had engaged in the unauthorized disclosure of Village documents to her attorneys, who were involved with other litigation against the Village. The Village held a hearing on September 3, 2003 to allow Demoret to respond to the allegations. Thereafter, Mayor Zegarelli announced his decision to fire Demoret, which the Village Board of Trustees approved by resolution on October 14, 2003.