State Sen. and Union City Mayor Brian Stack is being sued by a woman who claims she was removed from her positions of personal secretary and legislative aide after Stack discovered her affiliation with one of his so-called political enemies, and because she said she would never lie about alleged misdeeds in Town Hall.
Francia Forrester worked for Stack in various capacities since 2004, but was suspended from her secretarial post in Town Hall and terminated as his legislative aide this past February. Stack had also previously hired her as a freeholder’s aide and as the director of a local food program.
Stack referred all questions to Union City labor attorney Juan Fernandez last week. Fernandez said, “I read the complaint and all I can say is Francia Forrester was a private secretary, and it was felt she could no longer perform the duties of a private secretary in the mayor’s office.”
Fernandez added that the allegations are not accurate and the complaint does not have any merit.
“The mayor is used to litigation, including frivolous litigation, and we will deal with this as we would any lawsuit,” he said.
Fernandez questioned Forrester’s motives for filing the suit, and mentioned a March 9 letter he received from her lawyer, Ty Hyderally, that offered a $300,000 settlement “to make one attempt at resolving this dispute” before a formal complaint would be filed, according to the letter.
“We don’t want to settle with someone who is wrong,” said Fernandez.
Hyderally said that his client’s financial well-being was greatly affected by the sudden loss of the two jobs, and that they proposed a settlement in order to avoid a costly lawsuit.
Sensational allegations
According to the complaint filed in state Superior Court on April 13, Forrester said that while employed by Stack, she tried to keep quiet her friendship with a man named Francisco Nunez, since Nunez was someone she was “well aware that Stack harbored a deep hatred for.”
The complaint says that two years into her employment at Town Hall, Forrester was approached “in an aggressive and threatening manner” by a female colleague, whom – the suit claims – is also Stack’s girlfriend. The suit says that the female colleague told Forrester that she knew about her association with a woman close to Nunez.
Forrester claims in the complaint that she was so shaken by the confrontation that she decided to discuss it with Stack. Stack said that Nunez had caused him trouble, according to the suit. Forrester told Stack that her colleague should not be so intrusive, but the female colleague repeatedly reminded Forrester “who her friends were” and told Forrester that she had already had two other employees removed for similar trespasses.
Forrester also alleges that the female colleague “warned Forrester to be careful because, at the end of the day … she gets what she wants,” according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, Forrester again brought the issue before Stack, who this time assured her that “he was Forrester’s close friend and would take care of her.”
Then, late last year, according to the suit, a fax with information “pertaining to pending litigation with Nunez” was sent to the mayor’s office. Forrester retrieved the fax from the machine and placed it on the female colleague’s desk, and afterward was allegedly questioned by her as to whether she was “reporting things back to her friends,” according to the suit.
A subsequent fax, this one a letter “accusing Stack of engaging in illegal actions,” arrived in Town Hall in early February, although it had been addressed to a local daily newspaper.
After the mayor and the female colleague saw the fax, Forrester was again allegedly confronted by her female colleague about possibly leaking information, she says in the complaint.
According to the complaint, the letter contained, among other things, allegations that the female colleague allegedly reported working hours when she was actually on vacation, that Stack had given her a raise because of their relationship, and that he allowed her to make personal calls from the office to the Dominican Republic.
The letter also allegedly “likened Stack’s office to Bill Clinton’s office,” according to the complaint.
Stack soon asked Forrester, she claims, about what she would say if someone questioned her about the contents of the letter. Forrester told him that she would not lie.
That, the complaint says, caused a series of problems.
The morning of Feb. 17, before Forrester left for work, she allegedly received a phone call from a Department of Public Works employee telling her to stay home that day, as insects had been found in the mayor’s office. When Forrester reported to work the next day, she found that the locks had been changed and her keys no longer worked, she says in the complaint.
Forrester was then directed into an office where the city’s labor attorney allegedly told her she was suspended without pay. When she asked Fernandez why this was happening, he told her he did not have to tell her, Forrester says in the complaint. Forrester was then escorted out of the building by a woman who arrived at the scene with a Department of Public Works employee, she says.
Forrester later received a letter dated Feb. 18 notifying her that her employment as a legislative aide had been terminated and another letter stating she had been suspended from her Town Hall duties “due to an investigation into several issues relating to her ability to serve the mayor…as a private secretary,” according to the suit.
Attorneys respond
Fernandez, the town’s labor attorney, gave his recollection of those events last week.
“I told her that she was being suspended and that there was an investigation pending,” he said. “There were certain issues that came up and they had to be looked into.”
Regarding Nunez, Fernandez said he is a town employee who has been involved in two lawsuits against the city. Fernandez also said that Nunez is currently trying to get a Superior Court decision appealed that was made in the city’s favor.
Fernandez said that Nunez isn’t an enemy for political reasons.
“I think some of the lawsuits characterize him as being a political enemy,” said Fernandez. “That’s not accurate.”
Fernandez was asked how Stack came to know Forrester, whom he hired in at least four different capacities over the years, but Fernandez was not sure.
However, Forrester’s attorney, Ty Hyderally, said he believes she was an intern for him at first and was asked by either Stack or a town commissioner to work at Town Hall full-time.
Hyderally added, “I think the fact that her performance was exemplary and the fact that she was asked to perform so many job duties shows that she was such an exemplary employee.”
He said that Forrester’s loss of two jobs was devastating.
“Brian Stack controls so much of her financial well-being so that when he [allegedly] retaliated against her, her terminated her from all these positions at once, which magnified the implications. Her bills continue but her salary on so many different fronts has stopped.”
Amanda Staab can be reached at astaab@hudsonreporter.com.