HHC A DIRTY JOKE
City health bigs’ crass jabs at female workers
High-ranking city health officials crassly joked about which female hospital consultants they wanted to have sex with — in front of female coworkers, The Post has learned.
Health + Hospitals Corporation assistant vice president Al Garofalo polled several mostly male colleagues about who they would sleep with during a 2015 holiday party, according to sworn testimony given by a former IT director for HHC, James Gomez.
The deposition was taken as part of a sexual harassment law- suit being brought against the agency.
“Garofalo then announced for everyone at the table words to the effect of, ‘I would much rather f--k [consultant] Julie Smith than Terri Couts,’” Gomez said in the deposition.
Rather than admonish Garofalo for the highly inappropriate comments, HHC leaders at the table, including his supervisor Sal Guido, allegedly indulged him by also voting on who they would rather bed — with female coworkers present, according to Gomez’s deposition.
Smith and Couts were consultants hired to guide HHC through the disastrous 2016 rollout of the $764 million medical record-keeping software Epic.
Gomez gave the deposition as part of an ongoing gender discrimination case being brought against HHC by Loretta Gallagher, whose consultancy Gallagher Associates was hired to help the city transition to Epic.
Gallagher claims Garofalo has had it out for her firm since her employees blamed him for Epic’s boondoggle rollout.
One consultant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, questioned why such a high-ranking city official would make the offcolor comments.
“Why would you be at a company Christmas party and say something like that?” she said.
Garofalo received $203,166 in salary and benefits in 2016 and his boss Guido hauled in $278,779 the same year, according to public records.
Through a doorman, Garofalo declined to comment. Guido did not return calls. The HHC wouldn’t say whether it had investigated or disciplined the men, instead saying the agency “makes every effort to create an environment in which employees can feel comfortable and respected.”