Politics or Problems?

On August 17th, the New Haven Register article entitled "W. Haven official seeks probe of incident", talks further about an incident that I had bypassed, due to time contraints, which was assault allegation against the Finance Director Nalini Srinivas. If you missed the complaint which was filed with the West Haven Police by Benefits Administrator Yvette Cintron, she alleges that "Srinivas grabbed and shook her after she misunderstood a departmental policy."

Whether or not this incident truly happened, this alleged incident has now become political fodder. Councilman Stuart Arotsky, a member of the independent "A Better Future-4" party which former Mayor Borer had run under, apparently has contacted the police regarding concerns that Major Picard didn't report this incident of abuse citing employment harassment laws and the city's no-tolerance rules.

Mayor Picard indicated in the article that he offered to involve the police when meeting with Cintron; Cintron responds that "she believed the mayor wasn’t keen on her filing a police report." Arotsky goes one step further and says that Picard discouraged Cintron from filing a police report.

The New Haven Register also had an August 16th article entitled "City Hall worker accuses finance director of assault" which details the allegations. It explains that Cintron weighed her options with the Union prior to disclosing the incident, and that she has been suffering from emotional distress.

According to this article:

According to Cintron, she had been repeatedly subjected to Srinivas’ verbal abuse, including condescending remarks, and a "hostile" work environment created by Srinivas shortly after Mayor John M. Picard hired the finance chief on March 1.

The issue culminated on July 21, Cintron said, when Srinivas allegedly grabbed Cintron’s left arm and proceeded to violently shake her because Cintron — a three-year finance employee — unknowingly attempted to help a mayoral secretary obtain office materials under a policy Srinivas had changed but allegedly failed to notify Cintron about.

What is disturbing about this allegation is that apparently, Cintron isn't the only one complaining about Srinivas. According to the article, "at least two other employees in the finance and tax office, respectively, have complained to interim Personnel Director Robert Sandella that Srinivas has screamed at them and acted rudely."