Council OK's $154K payout to former city clerk

Benjamin Joe, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
·2 min read

Apr. 10—Former city clerk Richelle Pasceri will be paid more than $150,000 to compensate for her illegal termination in 2020.

By a 4-2 vote Wednesday, the Common Council approved payment of the settlement. Aldermen Anita Mullane and Margaret Lupo cast the dissenting votes.

Pasceri was appointed city clerk in 2012, by then-mayor Michael Tucker, and reappointed to a five-year term in 2017 by then-mayor Anne McCaffrey. In 2018, the city clerk became a member of the city managers' union, Lockport Department Head Association.

Pasceri's employment was terminated effective April 1, 2020, by then-mayor Michelle Roman, who never said why publicly. When the department head union fought Pasceri's dismissal, the city asserted the city clerk is an at-will employee, and not lawfully a member of the union. A state Supreme Court justice disagreed and ordered arbitration. In 2022 an arbitrator found in Pasceri's favor, determining that the city did not have just cause to fire her and as a member of the union she was owed "due process."

Current Corporation Counsel David Blackley noted the Roman administration could have removed the city clerk from the union by applying to the state Public Employment Relations Board, and failed to do so.

Litigation between the city and the union on Pasceri's behalf continued into 2024. On Jan. 24, state Supreme Court ordered the city to pay Pasceri for lost wages and benefits from April 2020 through June 2022, when her term would have expired. The tab comes to $154,256.15 including 9% interest accruing since October 2022. The court order says the city must also restore Pasceri's state retirement credit from April 2020 to June 2022 or, if unable to restore it, pay Pasceri the cash value for the benefit.

As determined by the arbitrator, part of the settlement tab, almost $49,000, represents the value of city-paid health insurance following Pasceri's retirement, had she not been dismissed. The council's authorizing resolution says Pasceri will receive health insurance coverage as provided for in the department heads' union contract when she reaches age 55 and files for state retirement.