Port authority buys silence with our tax dollars, again

If allegations of sexual harassment by two former female employees of the Western Reserve Port Authority are without merit, why were they paid $70,000 to keep quiet?

Dan Dickten, director of aviation at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, contended last week that the letters to the port authority from the lawyer who represented Andrea Hoffman this year and Lauren Iaderosa last year alleging misconduct “contained nothing more than wild allegations and misinformation.”

“It was not proven, nor will it be proven because it didn’t happen,” Dickten said in a statement, triggered by a front-page story in Thursday’s Vindicator.

And yet, Hoffman, former marketing/business development coordinator for the port authority, received $30,000, and Iaderosa, former administrative assistant, got $40,000 last year to drop their threatened lawsuits.

The authority paid the $1,000 deductible on its insurance policy with Cincinnati Insurance Co. for each settlement. The premiums are paid with taxpayer dollars.

But what is most troubling about these cases is the secrecy that surrounds them.

The WRPA, governing body of the regional airport in Vienna, is a public entity that operates with public dollars. Boards of commissioners in Mahoning and Trumbull counties appoint members of the authority’s board .

Last year, after the settlement was reached with Iaderosa, we strongly objected to its confidentiality.

We noted that when authority Chairman Ron Klingle was asked by The Vindicator why Dickten was not fired as a result of the complaint, he replied, “There’s nothing that has happened that I have seen that would give us any reason to dismiss.”

Here’s what our July 2016 editorial said:

“In the absence of any details about Iaderosa’s complaint or the settlement agreement, Valley residents have no alternative but to accept the word of Klingle and his colleagues on the authority board.”

Last week, Marty Loney, who has succeeded Klingle as chairman, was asked about the settlement with Hoffman, and not surprisingly said he could not comment because of the confidentiality agreement.

The Vindicator asked Loney if Hoffman’s allegations raise any questions about whether Dickten or anyone else in the organization should be disciplined or removed.

“I don’t think so, personally,” the new chairman said.

But the public has no way of judging if the sexual harassment complaints lodged by the women have merit because everyone involved is required to stay tight-lipped.

LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

That is not how a quasi-government entity is supposed to operate. The lack of transparency could give rise to speculation about what’s going on at the airport and why the authority is so willing to give Dickten the benefit of the doubt.

The willingness to settle claims of harassment brings to mind the principle underlying America’s refusal to succumb to ransom demands from terrorists who take Americans hostage: Pay once, and you open the floodgates for hostage- taking worldwide.

Now that the port authority has agreed to pay to settle two complaints, what’s to stop other current or former employees from filing claims related to a hostile work environment?

As we did last year, we again ask the question: If there was no basis for the sexual harassment allegations made by Hoffman and Iaderosa, why were Dickten and the port authority willing to put their reputations on the line by buying the silence of the former employees?

Indeed, there’s language in each agreement that appears to bolster the contention of the director of aviation that no harassment occurred.

The agreement states that it is “the compromise of a doubtful and disputed claim” and that the port authority “specifically denies any violation of [the woman’s] rights.” It also says the agreement is being entered into “merely to avoid litigation and buy … peace.”

But if there’s no basis for the allegations, and the same lawyer, Bryan Ridder, represented Hoffman and Iaderosa, was any thought given to calling his bluff? Let him sue, and then make the case that the lawsuits are frivolous?

After all, Dickten and the port authority, through its approval of the settlements, insist that nothing untoward occurred.

If so, why are they willing to not only pay to make the threatened lawsuits go away, but agree to secrecy?

It’s a question that has not been answered persuasively. The public, which is footing the bill for the port authority and the regional airport, has a right to know.