Ex-staffer sues Stouffville, mayor over ‘harassment’
Tamara Carlson reported the wall in the mayor's office bathroom to the CAO.
A former Whitchurch-Stouffville staff member whose complaint sparked an ethics investigation into the mayor’s CSIstyle wall last year has filed a lawsuit against the town and the mayor for $1.7 million alleging wrongful dismissal, “infliction of mental distress” and harassment.
In her claim filed last Friday, Tamara Carlson, who worked at the town for seven years, including for a period as executive assistant to Mayor Justin Altmann, says the “town failed in its responsibility to provide a safe and harassmentfree working environment and failed to take the steps that it could have in order to protect (her) general safety and well-being.”
Carlson is seeking $1million in damages from the town.
She also alleges that from the time she began to work with the mayor in 2014, she “experienced harassment” and is seeking $700,000 in damages.
The allegations have not been proven in court, and neither the town nor the mayor has yet filed a statement of defence. A town spokeperson declined to speak, while the mayor said he had “no comment at this time.”
The lawsuit comes after a turbulent political term for the York Region community of 45,000, after news and pictures emerged last summer of a bizarre wall found in the mayor’s office washroom, which included photos of staff, former politicians and members of the public linked together with black lines and graphics.
In a previous interview with the Star, Altmann said that the wall was not “bad, not scary, not vexatious and it’s not malice.” He said the wall was his attempt at an internal human resources investigation or a “mind map.”
An ethics investigation found the wall breached the town’s code of conduct and constitut- ed workplace harassment, and Altmann was ordered to apologize and docked a month’s pay. Yet the mayor didn’t apologize, prompting a second ethics investigation this year that led to harsher penalties enacted by council, including docking him six months’ pay, barring him from town offices and limiting his interaction with staff.
In her claim, Carlson says her relationship started off rocky with the mayor, who said “he did not trust her,” and interactions often included him asking her to do things she found questionable, such as “turn the cameras in the workplace and block them so that he could move throughout the building without being monitored.”
In her claim, she describes one incident when the mayor was angered by the dismissal of a staff member by the former chief administrative officer, Rob Raycroft. According to the suit, the mayor said he wanted “Rob’s head on a platter, I want him done. I want him dead.” She alleges he also threatened that she “would never become director in the town.”
The same day, according to the claim, he showed Carlson the walls in his washroom, which made her feel “shocked” and “threatened.” She reported what she saw to the CAO, leading to the ethics investigation and a third-party independent investigation launched by the town, both of which she participated in “in good faith.”
The claim alleges that during this time, she was informed that a threat assessment had been conducted on the mayor and, due to the results of the assessment, her “personal safety was at risk.” She claims she was provided with “lengthy instructions as to the steps she was to take in order to protect her personal safety” but was not advised of the nature or the extent of the threats.
“This caused Ms. Carlson a tremendous amount of personal distress,” the claim says.
In a previous story, the Star reported that the town has not released the findings of the threat assessment, in which the mayor scored an 8 out of10. The town commissioned the threat assessment as part of an independent investigation into the mayor, but the results have been hidden from councillors, staff, the integrity commissioner and Altmann himself.
Altmann previously told the Star he would like the assessment to be made public.
Carlson claims she was finally allowed to see the assessment in November 2017, and was “shocked to learn the content of that report.” According to the lawsuit, the report said:
á There was evidence the mayor was (at the time of the report) “stalking or inappropriately pursuing another person within the organization,” including hiding in bushes and taking pictures of people. She also alleges the mayor asked her to attend local restaurants and take pictures of members of council having dinner together.
á There was evidence of the mayor’s possession of firearms.
á The mayor has extreme mood swings.
á The mayor has “an intent or fascination with themes of power and violence.”
á The mayor has a “history of assaultive behaviour.”
In her claim, Carlson says that while the threat assessment was taking place, the investigator recommended to the town that she stay home with pay. But Carlson alleges the “town ignored this recommendation and in doing so put Ms. Carlson in a vulnerable and potentially dangerous position.”
She also alleges that during the ethics investigation process, the mayor and town community members became aware that she had reported the wall, and it put her in a “vulnerable position” in the workplace as she continued to interact with him and he “subjected her to verbal abuse and threats in the community.”
Carlson says in the lawsuit she has “been forced to contact York Regional Police in order to take steps to protect herself from harm from” Altmann.
The claim says her employment was terminated in March, and she has not been able to secure a job since.