Jonette Arms sues Milwaukee County for discrimination
Jonette Arms, a former interim director of the Milwaukee County Department on Aging, claims in a federal lawsuit that county officials discriminated against her due to her race and medical disabilities when she was not appointed as the permanent director in the fall of 2016.
Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele appointed Holly Davis as director of the county Department on Aging in November 2016. Davis previously worked as bureau director for the Milwaukee Early Care Administration in the state Department of Children and Families. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Milwaukee, Arms asks a judge to order the county to give her the aging department director job and award her unspecified damages for the alleged discrimination.
Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel Margaret Daun said Wednesday that Arms previously took her claims to the Wisconsin Equal Rights Division and the agency “concluded they were baseless.”
The Equal Rights Division found “there was no probable cause to believe that any discrimination occurred,” Daun said. “The county fully expects the federal court will reach the same conclusion.”
Arms now serves as executive director of the Aging & Disability Resource Center of Central Wisconsin based in Wausau.
Arms, who is AfricanAmerican, was hired as the department’s assistant director in May 2010. She stepped into the interim director job following the June 2015 retirement of Stephanie Sue Stein.
The lawsuit says the county did not follow through on a commitment to pay Arms the same salary as Stein had received. Arms alleges that administration officials also told her that she could not speak with news media without obtaining prior approval from them.
Arms formally applied for the director job on May 15, 2016, and one month later started a medical leave “because she was unable to work due to her various disabilities,” according to the lawsuit. Those disabilities include fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s syndrome, osteoarthritis, depression and anxiety.
The lawsuit claims the medical leave was necessary because an “overwhelming workload” as both assistant director and interim director, and “consistent undermining” of her authority by Abele administration officials had resulted in Arms becoming ill with sinus and bronchial infections.
“Arms’ fybromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms were exacerbated by the hostile work environment and consistently caused her pain and stiffness, and the inability to concentrate and stay focused,” according to the lawsuit. Arms claims she had consistent anxiety “and was extremely paranoid that she was being set up to fail.”
Arms further claims the county discriminated against her by not granting her request for an extended medical leave of absence in September 2016 “because she was not yet adequately recovered to return to work.”
The extension request was denied. A subsequent extension request in October of that year also was denied, according to the lawsuit.
Arms resigned on Oct. 31, 2016.
“Ms. Arms refuses to acknowledge that the county had legitimate reasons for its decision to select someone else to lead the Department on Aging,” Daun said Wednesday.