Six women who worked for Joel Greenberg at the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office — including a longtime chief operations officer — have settled sexual harassment, racial discrimination and First Amendment lawsuits and complaints against the agency for a total of $215,000.
The earliest of the settlements happened in November, then one in April, three in July — after Greenberg resigned following an indictment on federal criminal charges — and the last in late August. The Orlando Sentinel obtained records documenting the women’s complaints from their attorneys and the agency.
A witness for one of the women testified that Greenberg and other top managers used the N-word and referred to employee Keesha Richardson as the “Black b—-,” according to Richardson’s attorney Deborah Frimmel.
Richardson, who began working for the Tax Collector’s Office in 1997 and was the Lake Mary branch manager, claimed in her federal lawsuit that Greenberg preferred branch managers who were white, and that she was held back from a promotion because of her race.
Richardson and two other employees also said in their federal lawsuit that their First Amendment rights were violated when they were fired because they campaigned for former Tax Collector Ray Valdes. Greenberg defeated Valdes in the GOP primary in 2016 and went on to win the general election against a write-in opponent.
Richardson, who was fired in May 2017, received $50,000 in her settlement agreement signed July 1.
The other employees, Fidela Denny, a branch manager at the Altamonte Springs office; and Maria Humphreys, a supervisor at the Altamonte Springs branch; claimed that Greenberg fired them within four days after he took office on Jan. 2, 2017, because they took part in campaign events, debates and waved signs for Valdes while they were off the clock.
Denny received $25,000, and Humphreys received $30,000, according to the July 1 settlement agreements.
Under Florida law, public employees cannot be prohibited from taking part in political campaigns during their “off-duty hours.” Florida also bans public officials from appointing, demoting or dismissing a public employee because of their political opinion or affiliation.
The Tax Collector’s Office denied the allegations by the three employees in a court brief submitted in October 2018.
“Defendant affirmatively asserts that each and every Plaintiff was discharged based on legitimate, non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory business reasons,” the brief said.
On Aug. 27, the Tax Collector’s Office signed a settlement agreement with Amy Tyler, a chief operations officer, for $50,000.
Tyler, who worked for 29 years for the Tax Collector’s Office, said in her complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that she was wrongfully terminated by Greenberg on Aug. 20, 2019, after she complained that a manager was making “inappropriate sexual jokes,” according to her attorney Daniel Perez.
In a written statement sent by her attorney, Tyler said the goal of her complaint was “righting the wrongs committed by the former Tax Collector and shedding light on his misdeeds while in office.”
“After learning that Mr. Greenberg resigned from office, I decided that it was in the best interest of the Tax Collector’s Office and the residents of Seminole County that I resolve my pending … complaint rather than to put the agency through the public spectacle of a lawsuit,” she added.
The Tax Collector’s Office on April 30 settled for $20,000 a federal discrimination lawsuit filed in October 2018 by former accounting clerk and customer-service representative Minaz Mukhi-Skees.
Mukhi-Skees, who is Muslim, was fired by Greenberg in 2017, soon after she was forced to return early from maternity leave. She cited in her lawsuit that Greenberg posted anti-Muslim rants on social media, including a cartoon of a woman in a chador — a cloth worn by Muslim women that covers the head and upper body — saying, “Does this bomb make my butt look big?”
Mukhi-Skees said in her lawsuit that Greenberg fired her after she lodged a complaint against the tax collector with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She said Greenberg violated the Family Leave Act and federal employment laws pertaining to sex, race and religious discrimination.
In November 2019, the Tax Collector’s Office settled for $40,000 a sexual harassment complaint raised by employee Scarlett Stephenson. Stephenson was a records management liaison officer and claimed a manager often made sexually explicit remarks to her. She stopped working for the Tax Collector’s Office in August 2019.
The settlement agreements are paid out from a Seminole County fund that is self-insured by the board of county commissioners, the Tax Collector’s Office, the Property Appraiser’s Office, the Clerk of the Court’s Office, and the Supervisor of Elections.
Greenberg resigned as Tax Collector on June 24, a day after he faced his first federal grand jury indictment on charges that he stalked a political opponent and stole his identity by creating fake social media accounts. He later was indicted on charges that he used two fake IDs that he allegedly created.
Greenberg also faces additional charges, including sex trafficking allegations from federal prosecutors who said that he illegally used a state database to look up private information about a girl between the ages of 14 and 17 as well as individuals with whom he was engaged in “sugar daddy” relationships.
Greenberg has pleaded not guilty to all 12 charges and remains free. However, he must wear an ankle monitor and has an 8 p.m. curfew. A trial is scheduled for early 2021.
mcomas@orlandosentinel.com
