Ex-park director, city face lawsuit

The lawsuit claims the city created an ‘unsafe and sexually hostile work environment.’

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — A park and recreation commission employee is suing the city and the agency’s former director, accusing him of exposing himself to her and other inappropriate sexual conduct at least six times while riding in a city vehicle.

Park and recreation commissioners had met behind closed doors in May 2007 to discuss a disciplinary matter after Joseph R. McRae’s abrupt retirement as department director.

Tiffany Chavers, the commission’s administrative assistant, filed the lawsuit Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court seeking at least $75,000 in damages and legal fees.

In the lawsuit, Bruce B. Elfvin of Cleveland, Chavers’ attorney, wrote that the city’s “failure to act” regarding McRae’s “wrongful acts” created “an unsafe and sexually hostile work environment” for his client.

City Law Director Iris Torres-Guglucello and Mayor Jay Williams declined to comment Monday.

McRae couldn’t be reached Monday to comment and in the past has declined to discuss the reasons for his sudden early retirement.

Chavers sued McRae, her direct supervisor, and the city for sexual harassment and creating a sexually hostile work environment; the city for negligent supervision/retention, and McRae for assault.

The lawsuit claims that while in a city vehicle on “work-related rides,” McRae, who would drive, exposed himself to Chavers at least six times between Nov. 6, 2006, and April 2007, “touched his genitalia in a sexual manner and began to masturbate.”

The lawsuit also alleges McRae asked Chavers to lie back and unbutton her blouse while he did this. Chavers refused and told McRae “that his conduct made her uncomfortable and was inappropriate and unwelcome,” the suit reads.

The lawsuit also states McRae told Chavers “about his friends on the city of Youngstown Park and Recreation Commission, implying that if Chavers said anything about his actions, he would arrange for her to lose her job.”

After an incident in April 2007, Chavers complained directly to Guglucello, who told her that “many people had complained about defendant McRae in the past, but there was never enough evidence to proceed any further,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit states McRae subjected other women to “unwelcome and unwanted conduct of a sexual nature.”

It also claims the city failed to provide a “safe and nonhostile work environment” to Chavers by negligently supervising McRae and negligently retaining him as director despite his actions.

The assault claim is based on Chavers’ being “placed in apprehension of harm and unwanted sexual conduct as a result of defendant McRae’s inappropriate conduct.”

As a result of McRae’s actions, the lawsuit states, Chavers suffers “emotional distress, anxiety, loss of reputation, humiliation, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, loss of sleep, extreme frustration, anger, resentment and hyper-vigilance.”

McRae started working for the city commission as athletics director in 1979, and was promoted to park and recreation director a decade later.

When he retired in May, he was earning about $70,000 a year. The city paid about $40,000 to McRae for unused sick, vacation and other accumulated time.