NORFOLK – Linda Berardi lost her job with the Norfolk Community Services board over the agency’s scandal surrounding a 12-year no-show worker. A short time later, Berardi sued for defamation, saying she wasn’t responsible and was being made a scapegoat.
Her former employer sued her back, arguing that Berardi and four other former employees committed fraud and should repay the nearly $320,000 that the agency paid to the worker.
Now, a ruling from the Virginia Employment Commission has found “absolutely no evidence” that Berardi “engaged in any type of fraud, dishonesty, misrepresentation or deceit” over the incident. It also found that the CSB, represented by the Norfolk city attorney’s office, could not demonstrate that Berardi had done anything wrong.
It means that, now, at least three of the workers forced out of the agency over the no-show scandal are entitled to unemployment benefits.
The June 9 ruling, a copy of which was provided by Berardi’s attorney, stated that Berardi was credible when she testified that she had reported her concerns about the absent worker.
The commission wrote that Berardi was believable when she stated that she thought her superiors were handling the situation and believed the worker’s paid status must have been some kind of “legal settlement matter.”
Berardi also believed that knowledge of Jill McGlone’s no-show status was “well-known” to CSB managers, former Executive Director George Pratt, city of Norfolk human resources employees, and staff in the city attorney’s office, the ruling says.
CSB Executive Director Maureen Womack, who gave Berardi the choice of resignation or termination from her job as human resources officer, referred questions about the commission’s findings on Wednesday to the city attorney; City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko did not respond to emails and a phone call Wednesday seeking comment.
Kevin Martingayle, Berardi’s attorney, said the ruling supports what Berardi has stated all along.
“We view this as strong vindication for Ms. Berardi and a pretty strong rebuke of the stance that has been adopted so far by the Norfolk CSB,” he said. “The city fought tooth and nail to keep her from getting any unemployment benefits.”
Martingayle said city leaders should apologize to Berardi: “She is owed a lot of apologies from a lot of people.”
In an email, Berardi said she’s thankful for the commission’s ruling.
“The examiner’s report concurs with my position that I kept the matter in front of leadership whenever it arose during my tenure” in human resources.
Martingayle and Assistant City Attorney Derek Mungo argued their sides in April at an employment benefits hearing in Richmond, in which Berardi appealed an earlier decision by the agency that denied her access to any unemployment benefits.
Another of Martingayle’s clients, Anthony Crisp, who was director of clinical services at the CSB, also has been awarded unemployment benefits, Martingayle said.
Crisp and Berardi are alleging in lawsuits that Womack and the board defamed them, as is former secretary Laurie Paquin, who also was approved for unemployment benefits despite a challenge from the city. They were among the five employees forced out from the agency in August when the no-show-worker situation was made public.
It remains unclear to the public why the CSB left McGlone, a former office assistant, on the payroll after she was accused in 1998 of having a weapon on board property, according to the suspension letter, which was viewed by The Virginian-Pilot; and of illegally disclosing that a CSB client was HIV-positive, according to a lawsuit filed in 1999 that was later dismissed.
According to the employment commission ruling, Berardi several times asked her superior, former Administration Director Brenda Wise, why McGlone was still being paid and what should be done about it. The ruling states that Wise told Berardi she would handle the situation. Berardi became human resources officer in 2002, four years after McGlone was suspended.
According to the ruling, Wise later told Womack, who became director in 2009, “It was just a simple oversight.”
Womack fired Wise.
The special examiner who wrote the decision said the commission did not agree with Wise’s “self-serving explanation to the new director.”
A criminal investigation by Norfolk police remains ongoing. The FBI also has investigated, but no charges have been filed.
By Patrick Wilson
The Virginian-Pilot
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