DEP Whistleblower Wins $185G in Suit

February 8,2002
William Van Auken

A former Department of Environmental Protection employee who claimed she was harassed and then fired for complaining that her boss was taking private flying lessons on city time settled a Federal lawsuit against the city for $185,000.

The employee, Suzan M. Porto, was hired in 1992 as a Project Coordinator I and assigned as Enforcement Coordinator, overseeing all watershed enforcement actions.

Tried to Hide Sewage

Her job entailed ensuring the city's compliance with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreement aimed at avoiding the need to build expensive new filtration plants for the New York City water supply.

She was fired four years later. In addition to reporting that her supervisor was playing hooky, Ms. Porto went to the DEP's Inspector General complaining that statistics gathered by wastewater treatment plant inspectors were being altered by department officials in an attempt to conceal the amount of sewage and other pollutant seeping into the watershed.

Ms. Porto's work in the watershed convinced her that there were substantial problems with pollution of the water supply due to what she claimed was the department's failure to diligently enforce the law against wastewater treatment plant and owners of failing septic system.

Her supervisor, however, insisted that the source of increased fecal matter and other pollutants in the water supply was a growth in the geese and seagull populations, according to her federal complaint. To correct this problem, the DEP determined that 10,000 geese would have to be slaughtered.

Something Smelled

When she proposed that rather than killing the geese the department should enforce the law against polluters, she was told by supervisors that her "animal rights" beliefs were interfering with the protection of the water supply, Ms. Porto charged. In August 1994, she was relieved of her enforcement responsibilities and assigned primarily to clerical work.

According to her complaint, Ms. Porto became aware in 1995 that her supervisor was "taking a vacation, flying lessons and golfing while she was supposed to be at work and was signed in on the job."

After she complained about this alleged theft of city time, her life at DEP became "a living hell," according to her attorney, Philip Taubman, an environmental litigator.

She received unfavorable work evaluations and memos charging her with "unprofessional conduct." Supervisors spread rumors, her complaint charged, that she was "paranoid, unbalanced and becoming unglued." They enjoyed the collusion, according to the legal papers, of a District Council 37 shop stewart who was appointed to fill her former position.

In February 1996, Ms. Porto's supervisor issued a written evaluation stating that she "should be recommended for professional counseling but she appears to be more disruptive each day." The evaluation, the former employee charged, was widely circulated among other DEP workers.

A DEP spokesman said that it was the department's policy not to comment on legal settlements. The city admitted to no wrongdoing in settling with Ms. Porto.

The Federal complaint charged the city with violating her rights to free speech and due process, as well as the New York State Whistleblower Statute, and sought tens of millions of dollars in damages.

Ms. Porto, 51, currently resides in Westchester County and works as an adjunct professor at Pace University School of Law's Environmental Legal Studies Center.