Former Stambaugh golf manager files complaint against city
YOUNGSTOWN
David Boos, longtime manager of the city-owned Henry Stambaugh Golf Course, said he wasn’t brought back this year because of a racial-discrimination complaint he filed last year against a park and recreation worker who wrote “# Black Power #” on the envelope of his paycheck.
The complaint to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission was dismissed, and Boos recently filed a similar complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
However, Deputy Law Director Anthony Donofrio, speaking on behalf of the city, said the complaint had nothing to do with the decision not to retain Boos to run the golf course this year. The park and recreation department’s budget was cut by $356,000 this year, compared with 2015’s, and eliminating Boos’ $33,900 contract to manage the course from March to November “was a logical” cost-saving decision.
The city is using park and recreation department workers to run the nine-hole Henry Stambaugh Golf Course. The course opened March 1 and closes in November, depending on the weather.
Mayor John A. McNally said the city hasn't received a complaint from golfers about not having Boos manage the city-owned course on the North Side.
Boos, who’s run the course since 2006 as an independent contractor, said he was the victim of retaliation by those in the park and recreation department.
“I brought that course to excellent condition, and our play has increased over the years,” he said. “I can see no reason to eliminate my position except for retaliation. They’ll say the park department had to make cuts, but that’s not true. Also, nobody notified me I’m not coming back, and the season started March 1. If that doesn’t sound retaliatory, I don’t know what is.”
Boos said the issue originated in June 2015 when the park department reduced the number of hours in a week for three workers at the golf course from 35 to 29, which eliminated their health care coverage. Two of the three quit, he said, and the department assigned part-time seasonal workers who didn’t know how to maintain a golf course.
Boos said he complained to Robert Burke, park and recreation director, about the situation, and after it wasn’t resolved, he went to McNally. That also didn’t make things better, he said.
When Boos picked up his paycheck at the park office Aug. 28, 2015, “# Black Power #” was written on the envelope below his name. Boos said he asked about it at the office and he wasn’t given an answer. He filed the complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission on Sept. 18, 2015.
The city conducted an internal investigation when it found out about Boos’ complaint and learned Tiffany Chavers, an administrative aide at the department who is responsible for placing checks in envelopes, wrote the message, according to documents provided by Donofrio to The Vindicator at the request of the newspaper.
Chavers, who is black and a park employee since 2001, admitted she wrote the message contending Boos, who is white, treated black workers “unfairly” and she “wanted him to know that.” Boos said he didn’t treat anyone who worked for him at the golf course unfairly.
A Dec. 2, 2015, memo from Burke to Chavers said the two of them met three days prior. Chavers received a written reprimand that will be in her employment file until Dec. 1 of this year, and was required to review the city’s whistle-blower policy and its “violence and bullying in the workplace policy.”
In his Ohio Civil Rights Commission complaint, Boos wrote: “I believe I have been subjected to unlawful discrimination because of my race” and “I believe this was done with an intent to intimidate me because of my race.”
The commission investigated Boos’ complaint and ruled Feb. 25 that there’s no probable cause to issue a complaint and dismissed it.
“The commission found that [Boos was] subjected to one isolated offensive comment,” Sandra E. Manis, the commission’s Akron regional supervisor, wrote to Boos and Donofrio. “The employee responsible was disciplined. The commission found no credible information supporting [Boos’] allegation of unlawful activity.”
Boos said he filed a similar complaint about a week ago with the federal EEOC.
“It’s essentially the same claim,” Donofrio said. “I doubt they’re going to hear it.”