Fired managers Susan Rosenthal and Arthur Eliav saw their cases to make New York, RIOC and its executives pay for misconduct rejected. Next steps are unknown, but lawsuits can wind their way endlessly through the courts before they’re exhausted.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Regardless of the results, both lawsuits helped Roosevelt Islanders better understand the workplace at RIOC, exposing juvenile behavior and petty score-settling. Unethical antics stretched from cubicles to executive workspaces.
Fired Managers: Susan Rosenthal
Formerly RIOC’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Rosenthal has fought a three-year battle over a sleazy, apparently racially motivated dismissal.
The heart of her case is simple, but its soul is complex. The results for both are unfair.
Rosenthal’s lawsuit and appeal were rejected because, as an “at-will” employee, she could legally be fired for any reason or no reason. But there’s a catch. An at-will employee cannot be fired for an illegal reason, that is, in her case, racial discrimination.
The judges dodged that, never letting her case get off the ground, refusing compliance even with a judge’s orders for discovery materials.
What made this case so sleazy were details surfaced as filings from both sides built up over the years.
For example, an executive reporting directly to Rosenthal secretly recorded at least one private telephone conversation with her. That’s unethical, but multiple sources reported that he, then, played it back for fellow African-American employees.
His original intent, apparently, was undermining and embarrassing her, but after her firing, it became the core evidence against her. That tape, however, became nothing more than a rumor when neither RIOC nor the state could produce it in discovery.
If the recording was made on company time, which it was, it belongs to RIOC, but in a FOIL response, the agency says they don’t have it. There is no conclusive evidence that it ever existed, and its contents have never been revealed.
Meanwhile…
When an initial investigation came up empty-handed, state investigators suddenly and mysteriously discovered new evidence against Rosenthal, including the disputed tape.
One alleged professional came out of the woodwork, claiming a sexually explicit comment by Rosenthal. But there is no sworn statement, and the alleged incident happened two years earlier, which meant that she – along with the unidentified recorder – failed to comply with state rules about reporting violations.
In short, they abruptly appeared when needed by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Neither employee suffered any consequences, and in fact, both soon received pay increases and promotions.
Rosenthal was not given any opportunity to defend herself and her reputation before being fired, which led to the lawsuits.
Arthur Eliav
The second fired manager, a seventeen-year staff attorney, provided a string of misconduct revelations in his lawsuit.
Eliav’s lawsuit differs from Rosenthal’s because it tackles RIOC President/CEO Shelton J. Haynes, Chief Counsel Gretchen Robinson and Administrative Vice President Tajuna Sharpe. He accuses them of teaming up to fire him after he called them out for unethical conduct.
Along with a cloud of evidence suggesting discrimination against him as an Orthodox Jew, creating a hostile work environment, Eliav details, blow by blow, the conflict that led to his dismissal.
He claims that Haynes, Robinson and Sharpe conjured a job description that intentionally denied him a promotion. Other unfair denials, he said, preceded it, but this time his patience ran out.
In no uncertain terms, Eliav accused the executives of conspiring against him, and for that, despite his long tenure and numerous positive evaluations, he was immediately fired. He got the notice from Sharpe while home on a sick day. He sees it as retaliation against him because he is a whistleblower.
In the meantime, though, another factor crept into the greased machine.
Eliav reports in his lawsuit, that Chief Counsel Robinson, his boss, routinely violated legal rules governing FOIL requests, especially those filed by The Daily. He alleges that she developed a policy of delaying responses without reason and, then, suggested providing false or misleading information.
When challenged by Eliav in the days before his dismissal, he says, Robinson released an employee roster that included salaries. For the first time, it was revealed that Haynes paid himself a salary higher than the governor’s.
While this raised other questions as well, Haynes went ballistic, in Eliav’s telling. It may have set the stage for the firing that followed.
The lawsuit rejected…
A federal district court judge granted a dismissal of Eliav’s claims based on a request from RIOC, Haynes and the other managers. The rejection was based mainly on technical grounds concerned with timing. Decisions on how to proceed have not been made as of this writing.
Conclusion: The Fired Managers
Eliav’s and Rosenthal’s lawsuits are only two among many filed and tossed back and forth involving Haynes and RIOC. Whatever the eventual results, this era at the state agency will be remembered most for its endless conflicts and turmoil. That’s largely because little of any other concrete activity has been done.
RIOC, awash in lawsuits and investigations, flounders at a high cost to the community forced to pay its bills. No end is in sight, even with recently blocked lawsuits, because appeals and revelations continue.
Roosevelt Islanders have been cast as powerless spectators while the drama and ethical let’s-call-them issues disrupt local government. A vacuum in leadership, starting with the governor’s office, is the primary cause.
Rivercross and the Quiet Green Light
Rivercross privatization was enabled in 2010. This matters now because the same governance structures that allowed Rivercross to privatize without formal conflict controls are still in place. The same public authority oversees land leases, settlements, and redevelopment decisions that affect every resident on Roosevelt Island today.
