On October 21, 2015, city employee Patrick “P.J.” Leonard appeared before the Bayonne City Council to blow his proverbial whistle at the Davis Administration, charging that members of the mayoral campaign to elect James Davis received preferential treatment, that council members received health benefits they were not entitled to, and that Business Administrator Joe DeMarco allegedly accepted unreported donations in the amount of $5,000 in return for awarding an engineering firm a contract with the city. In response, DeMarco called Leonard a “disgruntled employee that didn’t get paid what he thought he was worth.” Leonard, however, calls himself a “political operative,” and said that feeling wrongly compensated is “one-half true.”
Joe DeMarco was not able to comment.
Pay
Leonard, who grew up in Bayonne and has known Mayor Davis since they played Pony League Baseball, alleges that he was promised by the Davis campaign a job in the administration with a $50,000 annual salary. “Instead,” he said in October, “Mr. DeMarco thought I should start as a clerk and be paid $35,000.” The complaint reads that Leonard was “denied the salary for which he was hired and promised on multiple occasions …”
While not being paid what he felt he should is not a crime, Leonard’s other allegations may be.
His allegations against the city are on record not only in council meeting minutes, but in a civil complaint filed by former business administrator and local attorney on Leonard’s behalf, Peter Cresci on July 14, 2016, against the City of Bayonne and DeMarco. In the complaint, Leonard argues that the city violated, among other laws, his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by retaliating against him for his whistleblowing, and also that he suffered “discriminatory and tortious conduct as an employee.” He is seeking judgment by trial for damages, including a “professional reference letter signed by the Mayor,” a “scripted reference call for personnel to answer when and if subsequent employers call for references,” a non-retaliation agreement by the City, attorney’s fees, and $775,000 in “compensatory damages.”
Whistleblower
According to the complaint, Leonard reported to the state in June 2015 that some city council members, being part-time employees, received health benefits only allowed full-time employees. The city was thereafter ordered to cease providing those benefits, and council members then made arrangements to pay the city back.
Leonard also allegedly made “protected communications to federal agents regarding the [alleged] illegal ‘kickback’ and conspiracy he witnessed between Defendants and third parties,” including allegations that the city paid HudsonCountyTV $27,000 of Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) funds as “payback” for covering the Davis campaign favorably, and a “real estate conflict of interest created by the Director of Municipal Services,” in which preferential treatment was given to certain people “in return for real estate listings, being named to boards, and financial support.”
“Some will say I am complaining and exposing all the wrongdoings of city hall because I was not given a salary I was promised. Well that is half true.” – P.J. Leonard
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Retaliation
Leonard is still a city employee on an unpaid leave of absence. His case relies on proof that the city retaliated against him for engaging in “protected communications” with state and federal agents. Leonard claims to be “humiliated” by the city for his use of derogatory and offensive language in the workplace. DeMarco was his direct superior, and Leonard admitted at the October council meeting to calling DeMarco a “scumbag” in the workplace and defended his use of the word at the council meeting.
Leonard also alleges that the city “created and sustained a hostile work environment.” He claims to have been “mocked, ridiculed, intimidated, and mistreated because of his age and gender.” He claims DeMarco had younger female employees spy on him.
Leonard is classified as a disabled person, and claims to be wrongly discriminated against because of that disability. He alleges retaliation in the form of being relocated to a “standalone abandoned trailer at the Department of Public Works Yard” on Hook Road, as described in the complaint, “from a white-collar workplace to a demeaning PEOSHA (Public Employee Occupational Safety and Health Administration) challenged workplace, for which there was no bathroom, sidewalks, and was two miles away from the main building.”
Rory Pasquariello may be reached at roryp@hudsonreporter.com.