Sex discrimination alleged in Milton Township

YOUNGSTOWN -- A woman has sued Milton Township and its trustees, saying she was a victim of sex discrimination when she was fired from her job as the township zoning inspector in July 2004.
Elizabeth Opre of Mill Road, who filed the lawsuit this week in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, said she became zoning inspector in 2002, working 30 to 40 hours a week and being paid 650 per month.
In the suit, Opre said trustees Loy Metzler and Sue Lemmon harassed her by more closely supervising and slowing her work and impeding her enforcement of the zoning code after Opre declined to issue a building permit for a Lake Milton lot that was 22 feet short of the minimum required depth.
Opre said that because of the conduct of Metzler and Lemmon, she suffered emotional distress and went on medical leave in March 2004 before trustees put her on unpaid administrative leave in June of that year.
During a July 21, 2004, disciplinary hearing, trustees brought 19 charges of deficient job performance against her. During that hearing, Metzler said the position of zoning inspector was "unsuited for a woman," and Lemmon seconded his view before trustees fired her and replaced her with a man named Nick Bellas, the suit said.
The suit also said trustees illegally failed to maintain complete and accurate records of the hours Opre worked and failed to ensure that she received the minimum wage, which was then 5.15 per hour. The suit, filed by Atty. F. Benjamin Riek III of Cleveland, seeks back wages and unspecified punitive damages and demands a jury trial.
Linette Stratford, chief of the civil division of the county prosecutor's office, which defends townships in civil cases, did not respond to a request to comment. Opre and Metzler, who is no longer a trustee, could not be reached to comment; and Lemmon declined to comment because she hadn't seen the suit.