Port authority resolves second sexual harassment complaint with settlement

January 19, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

Former port authority employee is paid $30K in latest Dickten claim

WARREN

For the second time in a year, the Western Reserve Port Authority has approved a settlement with a former employee — paying her to drop legal action threatened against the board.

The port authority authorized the agreement and payment of $1,000 as the deductible on the port authority’s insurance policy with Cincinnati Insurance Co. The insurance will pay former employee Andrea Hoffman $30,000 to resolve her claim.

Hoffman was port authority marketing/business development coordinator from February 2014 to April 2016, when she was told her position had been eliminated.

Atty. Bryan Ridder wrote to port authority executive director John Moliterno and the board’s attorney, Dan Keating, Oct. 22, 2015, alleging that Hoffman was subjected to on-the-job sexual harassment.

The letter said Dan Dickten, aviation director for the port authority, told Hoffman that certain board members felt Hoffman should “wine and dine” influential airline personnel in order to increase the number of flights they offer at the airport.

Dickten also told Hoffman that certain members of the board “want her to ‘do the dirty dog’ — an unmistakable directive for her to use her sexuality, rather than her marketing expertise, in performing her job,” the complaint alleged.

The settlement is similar to one the port authority authorized in July in which the port authority’s insurance carrier paid former port authority office employee Lauren Iaderosa $40,000 to drop her claim that she had been sexually harassed by Dickten and others.

Ridder also was the attorney who filed that complaint with the port authority, also in October 2015.

In the Iaderosa matter, port authority officials said they could not discuss the allegations or comment on their truthfulness because of a confidentiality agreement contained in the settlement documents.

The Hoffman documents also contain a confidentiality agreement. Dickten told The Vindicator he could not comment due to the agreement.

Marty Loney of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 396, who was elected chairman of the port authority at its meeting Wednesday, said the confidentiality agreement prevents him from discussing the allegations in the Hoffman matter.

When asked whether Hoffman’s allegations raise any questions about whether Dickten or anyone else in the organization needs to be disciplined or removed, Loney said, “I don’t think so, personally.”

In addition to Loney being elected chairman, other officers are Sam Covelli, vice chairman, and Richard Edwards, secretary.