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VINDY EXCLUSIVE || MVSD chief engineer accused of sexual harassment
MVSD Complaint
Document
A charge of sexual harassment has been filed with the EEOC against MVSD chief engineer Ramesh Kashinkunti.
By Jordan Cohen
MINERAL RIDGE
Two female employees of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District have filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing Chief Engineer Ramesh Kashinkunti of sexual harassment.
Both women, who spoke exclusively with The Vindicator on Tuesday, claim that Kashinkunti sent them a series of texts that became sexually suggestive after their job interviews last May and November.
Kashinkunti has been chief engineer since October 2017.
The two saved the texts and showed some of them to The Vindicator. The newspaper is not disclosing their identities.
One said the first text came only 90 minutes after her job interview with the chief engineer last May.
“He tried to get me to meet him outside the district, [and] I thought it was for a business meeting,” she said. Her impression changed when he later sent a follow-up message while she was having dinner with her family.
“He asked if the [location] had lodging,” she said. “It made me feel extremely uncomfortable.”
She said she did not report it immediately because “we were new and didn’t know how we would be portrayed.”
The texts, however, continued as she waited to learn whether she had gotten the job.
Several of the messages asked if she trusted him when she would not respond.
She answered in a text that described her active association with her church and her strong belief in her Christian faith in the hope that it would dissuade Kashinkunti from continuing the conversation.
“My Hindu faith tells me to pleasure women,” read his text in response that she showed The Vindicator.
The woman said the chief engineer’s messages stopped when she was hired. That was not the case for the second woman. Her complaint with the EEOC claims the harassment began in early November 2017 and continued through August of this year, many months after she was hired.
His messages told her she was in his thoughts and to keep everything “confidential.”
“I thought this was weird,” she said, later telling him: “I’m interested in a purely professional relationship and I hope you are too.”
Both women said they eventually shared the messages with Richard Hale, MVSD board chairman. They said he appeared to listen closely, but neither he nor the other board members ever asked for more details and have yet to question them further. The two subsequently filed their federal complaints.
Vindicator messages left for Hale were not returned, while efforts to contact other board members were unsuccessful. The newspaper, however, was able to reach Kashinkunti, said to be on vacation, and asked him about the EEOC complaints.
“I have not seen it. This is the first call I’ve received about it, and I honestly do not have any idea,” he said. He referred the reporter to the board’s legal counsel, Thomas Wilson.
Yet Kashinkunti apparently ran afoul of the board last summer to the point that directors docked him “one week of his biweekly compensation,” according to a July 5 letter from Wilson to the MVSD obtained by The Vindicator. “Given the circumstances the board agreed with Mr. Kashinkunti to continue to provide confidentiality,” Wilson’s letter states, but the reason for the disciplinary action was not disclosed.
The Vindicator could find no record at the MVSD that the board took any public action against the chief engineer during that time period. There also is no indication that the action is related to the harassment allegations. Wilson would not provide any information.
“Litigation is ongoing, and I don’t have authority from my client to discuss this or any potential litigation with the chief engineer,” he said.
The board has its regular monthly meeting later today.