Улстерский округ выплатил $250 000 бывшей секретарше за дискриминацию и враждебную рабочую среду

KINGSTON, N.Y.— Ulster County has agreed to pay $250,000 to Heather Mikesh, the one-time confidential secretary of former Finance Commissioner Burt Gulnick, to settle a 2022 gender discrimination and hostile workplace lawsuit brought by Mikesh. As part of the May 5 settlement, the two sides agreed the resolution does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing or illegal conduct. A copy of the settlement agreement was obtained by the Freeman through a Freedom of Information request. Mikesh sued Ulster County, Gulnick and former payroll supervisor Wendy Trojak in March 2023 for creating what she said was a hostile work environment. In her lawsuit, Mikesh alleged that Trojak — who was Mikesh’s supervisor —began bullying her in the workplace in late 2018 by yelling at her in front of coworkers and demeaning her work. That behavior escalated in 2020, shortly after Mikesh was promoted to confidential secretary to Gulnick and Mikesh discovered Trojak had mistakenly made a $1 million overpayment to the state, the lawsuit stated. She claimed in the lawsuit that Gulnick refused to address the rampant harassment due to his own sexist beliefs about women in the workplace and that Gulnick dismissed her repeated complaints as a “she-said-she-said” situation. Mikesh said Gulnick also stated on occasion that he would “rather work with 30 men in a department any day over women.” She also claimed Gulnick characterized the conflict between Mikesh and Trojak as just “women being nasty” and said that Mikesh and Trojak should “go to the basement and hash it out.” Mikesh also claimed in her lawsuit that Gulnick would “often” make similar comments, including saying “women were too vocal,” “the women in the office had big personalities,” and that there were too many women in his department. A second lawsuit was filed against the county in 2013, by former Finance Department employee Lena Serrano, who also claimed Gulnick created a hostile work environment and subjected her to workplace discrimination, harassment and retaliation. Court documents show that as of Jan. 1, 2025, that case was still pending. Gulnick resigned as finance commissioner on March 1, 2023, after news broke of an investigation into allegations that he embezzled funds from the Hurley Recreation Association, where he served as treasurer. He pleaded guilty to two counts of grand larceny, admitting in Ulster County Court that he stole more than $100,000 from two organizations for which he served as treasurer and was sentenced to two consecutive one-year sentences in Ulster County Jail. He has since been released from custody. Comptroller March Gallagher said in an interview Wednesday that the county would pay a $75,000 deductible toward the settlement, with the remaining funds paid by the county’s insurer.