Bullying claim surfaces in Schenectady
Housing coordinator’s email describes hostile environment at meeting
Ahmad Yusufi, the city’s longtime fair housing coordinator, is the latest employee to claim that bullying by bosses at City Hall is a problem.
He is awaiting the outcome of a grievance after his complaints against his boss Kristin Diotte and City Attorney Carl Falotico could not be substantiated by an investigator.
Yusufi, who has 17 years on the job and previously served as treasurer to Mayor Gary Mccarthy’s campaign, claims he was disciplined without having his union representative present.
“In my personal opinion, there is a culture of bullying in general that has to stop,” he said.
Yusufi described his recent experience less than a month after Falotico told city leaders the system in place to deal with allegations of bullying and harassment of municipal workers is working.
Falotico also disputed allegations by union leaders for AFSCME 1037, which represents Schenectady’s blue collar workers, that bullying is rampant.
Yusufi told the Times Union that his problems began when a woman who applied for a home loan through the city demanded a meeting with him after learning the loan had been denied.
During that Nov. 28 meeting, Yusufi said, he informed her that the Schenectady Housing Development Fund Corp. board would take a second look at the application if she gave them new information to address their concerns over the size of her debt relative to income.
Upset, the woman contacted Diotte, Yusufi’s supervisor. He said he was summoned to Diotte’s office on Nov. 29, where she questioned him thoroughly but apparently didn’t find his responses entirely forthcoming.
That led to a meeting on Dec. 4 with Diotte, Falotico and Tiffany White, the city’s human resources director, where Yusufi claims he was ordered to sign paperwork saying he had not answered all of Diotte’s questions — a charge he denies.
Yusufi said he asked the trio for time to confer with the CSEA union, but that Falotico told him if he didn’t sign the document he would be charged with insubordination and be suspended.
In an email obtained by the Times Union that Yusufi sent to the Housing Development Fund, Yusufi said the “environment became hostile” but that he kept his cool even as the “picture of the journalist killed at Saudi embassy in Turkey traveled through my head,” a reference to the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“I was very scared of getting fired and not that I would be cut to pieces but scared that people I am surrounded by will do something harmful to my (career),” he wrote.
On Friday, Falotico said Diotte has issues with Yusufi — she
“will ask him for information and he would get very defensive and not provide it.”
He stressed that the counseling notice they wanted Yusufi to sign was not disciplinary in nature but a way to come up with an improvement plan and that signing it was an acknowledgment that the meeting was held on that particular date.
After speaking with the union, Yusufi signed the paper Dec. 5. He was sent home, returned to work the following day and filed a complaint against Falotico and Diotte under the city’s workplace violence policy.
He also filed a complaint against the woman who had applied for the loan, saying he was so scared that he had a co-worker in the office during the meeting with her.
The city hired an independent investigator to look into the allegations against Falotico because his office, along with White in human resources, usually investigates workplace violence complaints, said Yusufi.
Yusufi was placed on paid administrative leave on Dec. 12 while his complaint was being investigated, but returned to work Dec. 27 after the probe determined that his claims were unfounded.
Yusufi said he wants to recoup the four hours of pay he lost when he was sent home on suspension, and wants to see the letter of reprimand for being insubordinate removed from his employee file.
“I got blamed for the board’s decision, which I didn’t have anything to do with,” he said of the loan rejection.
City Councilwoman Marion Porterfield, who also sits on board, declined to discuss the matter, but emphasized that it was the board and not Yusufi who rejected the application. In this case, Porterfield recused herself from the vote because she knows the applicant.
Judy Versocki, president of the CSEA Local 88, said Yusufi’s grievance is being looked into.