ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An Allentown employee whose firing two years ago sparked a no-confidence vote against Mayor Matt Tuerk is suing the city.
Former human resources worker Karen Ocasio in a federal lawsuit filed Monday alleges Tuerk forced her out of his administration in November 2023 for reporting discrimination.
Ocasio repeatedly spoke out at Allentown City Council meetings in the wake of a July 2023 open letter that included numerous claims of racism and discrimination within municipal government.
She urged members to authorize an investigation into those claims, which they did in October 2023.
Ocasio was fired the next month; she said she was terminated without reason or prior notice.
Council voted 4-3 in December 2023 to pass a no-confidence measure that criticized “Tuerk’s ineffective leadership.”
The next day, Tuerk spokeswoman Genesis Ortega said Ocasio was one of three HR employees who were fired after independent counsel investigated multiple complaints within the city’s human resources department.
'Illegal retaliation'
Ocasio told council members two years ago that some of her co-workers said lower-level HR employees sit in “Mexico,” while managers work in the U.S.
That claim is among several she makes against the city in her federal lawsuit.
She alleges she was denied training and assistance when taking new roles and faced hostility due to her race. The suit states Ocasio, who identifies as Black and Hispanic, was at times the only non-white employee in the HR department.
Ocasio’s suit says she took six months of medical leave during the first half of 2023 due to stress from an “increasingly hostile work environment; when she returned, she was demoted and lost her office, it alleges.
Ocasio was hired in November 2018 as a clerk for the Allentown Police Department; she was promoted twice before being demoted to HR generalist, the title she held when she was fired in November 2023, according to her suit.
Ocasio’s attorney, Marc Weinstein, argues her firing was “illegal retaliation” for filing complaints in fall 2023 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
City employees seeking to sue for employment-based claims must first file a formal charge with the EEOC and await the results of an investigation.
Plaintiffs who receive a “right to sue” letter from the EEOC have 90 days to file a lawsuit. Ocasio’s window to sue was due to expire Dec. 22.
Ocasio is seeking an unspecified amount of lost wages, benefits and bonuses she said she would have otherwise earned.
Ortega, Allentown’s communications director, was not immediately available Monday night. The city typically does not comment on pending litigation or personnel issues.
Lawsuits piling up
Weinstein also is representing Deputy City Clerk Tawanna Whitehead and former Human Resources Director Nadeem Shahzad in their lawsuits against the city.
Shahzad in October sued the city over his quick departure. He served in his role for just 35 working days in summer 2023.
He said in August 2023 that he was illegally fired as HR director for refusing to fire Ocasio, who the mayor deemed a “troublemaker.” Shahzad later said Tuerk forced him to resign.
His federal lawsuit alleges illegal retaliation and discrimination pushed him out of his position.
The suit also claims Shahzad has faced trouble finding work or accessing unemployment benefits because the city filed “false statements” that state he “voluntarily quit.”
Whitehead’s lawsuit claims city officials “did shamefully little” to intervene as Councilwoman Candida Affa created a “racially hostile” work environment.
The City Council probe — it took several forms, lasted more than two years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars — found isolated incidents but no widespread pattern of discrimination.
No further results of that investigation have yet been made public.
A federal judge ordered the city to turn over some investigative records, but officials are appealing that ruling.
