2 city officials accuse mayor of discrimination

3/9/2007

Daugherty

The fallout from Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner's firing of the city's executive director of affirmative action/contract compliance continues to grow as two city administrators filed discrimination charges against Mr. Finkbeiner.

Dwayne Morehead, co-executive director of the Toledo Youth Commission, and Gary Daugherty, a manager in environmental services, filed the charges this week with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

Perlean Griffin, a long-time city employee who was serving her second stint with Mr. Finkbeiner in the affirmative action/contract compliance office, was fired Tuesday after she said she refused to endorse the mayor's budget-cutting proposal involving her office.

Mr. Finkbeiner last week announced plans to divide the duties of the affirmative action/contract compliance office between the human resources and finance departments.

The mayor yesterday named Calvin Brown, a manager in the human resources office, as the interim commissioner of affirmative action/contract compliance.

Mrs. Griffin will attend a news conference at 1 p.m. today in front of Government Center with other citizens regarding the proposed merger of the office, but Mrs. Griffin said she will not speak.

Mr. Morehead said in his discrimination charge, which was filed Tuesday and released by the civil rights commission yesterday, that Mr. Finkbeiner told him March 2 and on Monday that he would be fired if he contacted Mrs. Griffin.

The complaint did not indicate why Mr. Morehead was not allowed to contact Mrs. Griffin. Mr. Morehead could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A spokesman in the youth commission office said Mr. Morehead was on sick leave the rest of the week.

Mr. Morehead was one of Mr. Finkbeiner's staunchest supporters during the mayor's effort to win re-election in 2005. Mr. Finkbeiner named him co-executive director of the youth commission after he was elected.

Mr. Daugherty, who filed his charge with the commission Wednesday, was one of the 23 employees who received 30-day layoff notices last Friday. He said Mr. Finkbeiner told him he was being laid off because he was perceived as lazy.

Mr. Daugherty said he was paid less than other managers and believed his layoff was because of his involvement in a case involving an African-American female investigated by the affirmative action/contract compliance office and his personal relationship with Mrs. Griffin.

"I was campaigning for the mayor side-by-side with Perlean," Mr. Daugherty said yesterday in a telephone interview. "I believed in what [Mr. Finkbeiner] was saying during the campaign. She was one of my sponsors for this job. If she's on the outs, I guess I'm on the outs, too."

Mr. Finkbeiner, through his spokesman Brian Schwartz, declined comment yesterday.

Contact Clyde Hughes at:

chughes@theblade.com

or 419-724-6095.