Palisades Park clerk's resignation letter accuses mayor of intimidation, sexual harassment

PALISADES PARK — Longtime Clerk Gina Kim has resigned due to "egregious conduct" by the borough's mayor and facilities manager that was ignored by officials, her letter of resignation says.

Her last day, after 15 years with the borough, was Tuesday.

In her letter, she accuses Mayor Chong "Paul" Kim and borough Facilities Manager Paul Lee of harassment, intimidation and sexual and cultural harassment, incidents she says were ignored even after she reported them to borough officials.

The mayor, Lee and the borough attorney did not respond to requests for more information or comments.

"As an adult, I strive to be mindful of the things my family taught me while maintaining my right to live and work in our society with the basic dignity all of us are entitled to enjoy," Gina Kim's resignation letter reads. "I was stripped of that basic dignity when Mayor Kim subjected me to grotesque behavior in my workplace."

Gina Kim, who did not wish to comment further when reached Thursday, wrote in her letter that "inappropriate comments" began when Paul Kim was still a council member and included "crude language and graphic sexual imagery" in her workplace.

The letter says the mayor once discussed his prostate and said it was uncomfortable and in need of a "prostate massage." It also goes into detail about the mayor telling Kim's co-workers, in front of her, that she had been mistaken for a prostitute at a past League of Municipalities event. "His comments humiliated me," her letter reads.

According to the letter, Gina Kim reported all incidents to the borough through the internal grievance procedure, to members of the council and to the Police Department.

"None of my complaints have been properly addressed, and the harassing conduct continued in spite of them and escalated because of them," she wrote. "No reasonable person could continue to work under these conditions, and, for this reason, I have elected to take another position even though my compensation will be less in my new role."

Gina Kim is now working as the assistant to the administrator for Oakland.

In a supervisory role

After he was elected mayor, Paul Kim took on a supervising role to Gina Kim.

In her letter, she says that after Paul Kim became mayor, he regularly had "inappropriate sexual conversations" in front of her and attempted to get her to participate. During one conversation, the mayor allegedly detailed a story of a councilman having sex with his wife. "The story was nothing short of graphic porn, and after expressing my disgust and demand for him to stop, he laughed and continued," the letter says.

Gina Kim also says in the letter that the mayor would "physically intimidate" her by hovering over her shoulder, getting "uncomfortably close" and making comments about how great she smelled.

"This happened regularly, and there were multiple times when I had to tell him to respect my personal space and to back away to a more appropriate distance," according to the resignation letter. "I believe he did this in a poor attempt to express his physical and sexual dominance over me as I had never witnessed Mayor Kim do this to any male employee."

Gina Kim started as a part-time bilingual secretary with the borough in 2009 and was named municipal clerk in 2014.

In 2019, Gina Kim was married in Borough Hall during her lunch break to a man who works for the borough as a police officer.

"We chose to have it today because we wanted to share a special day with everyone at Borough Hall," Gina Kim said at the time. "Palisades Park is such a big part of my life, so it only made sense."

Earlier this year, Gina Kim filed a complaint related to the November 2023 elections against Paul Kim to the superintendent of elections.

In the complaint, Gina Kim said the mayor was seen entering a polling booth, helping voters outside of the polling booth while speaking Korean to a voter, passing out campaign materials inside the polling location and yelling at poll workers.

In 2020, Gina Kim filed a similar report to the Bergen County superintendent of elections, who is currently investigating Republican Councilwoman Stephanie Jang.

More harassment reported

According to Gina Kim's resignation letter, after she filed complaints to the labor counsel, the harassment from Paul Kim increased. There was more yelling and public humiliation as well as the involvement of Lee, the facilities manager. Gina Kim's letter says the increased harassment was aimed at getting her to "fall back in line."

"There have been multiple instances where male co-workers caught Mr. Lee stalking and recording me at the Clerk’s Office to see what I was doing during work hours so that he could report back to the mayor," Kim wrote in her letter. "Mr. Lee engaged in predatory and harassing behavior, not only toward me but to other female staff members."

More: Palisades Park replaces fired borough administrator with interim hire at $100 per hour

Gina Kim says she filed multiple complaints to the labor counsel and filed police reports about Lee's conduct, which she says continued until her last day of work. She says she also complained to the borough attorney as recently as March 11, without any response.

"Yet the borough has ignored my complaints, and there has been no relief from Mr. Lee’s harassment and intimidation as a surrogate of the mayor," her letter reads.

Employees who did speak up to "protect" Kim were fired from their positions, the letter says. Gina Kim specifically named David Lorenzo, Austin Ashley and Robert DeVito for making numerous attempts to speak up and protect her against harassment by the mayor and Lee, "and all three have been fired from their positions." DeVito still works in the borough as a police officer but was terminated from his role as the borough's communication manager.

Lee and Paul Kim also used their Korean culture and values against her, reads Gina Kim's resignation letter. She says Lee would use an "insulting Korean slang" toward her.

"As Korean Americans, Mayor Kim and Mr. Lee know the values and cultural outlook my family instilled in me. They used this knowledge to take advantage of me, singling me out and harassing me because of my complaints," she wrote. "They knew I would be particularly sensitive to this abusive conduct and tried to use my sensitivities to punish me for speaking out against them."

"It is apparent that the borough of Palisades Park, under the leadership of Mayor Kim, the Borough Council and borough attorneys have shown a staunch unwillingness to address the ongoing and pervasive sexual harassment and workplace hostility problems regardless of the dire consequences for its employees," the letter states. "I have done my best as the Borough Clerk of Palisades Park despite the extreme challenges that I have faced during my tenure, and it is with deep disappointment and regret that I have been forced to tender my resignation under these circumstances."

Other issues in Palisades Park

The borough is dealing with multiple lawsuits filed by current and past employees, including the recently fired Lorenzo, the former borough administrator. One day after he was placed on administrative leave, Lorenzo filed a federal lawsuit against the borough, the mayor and Councilman Suk "John" Min, claiming retaliation for protected speech, conspiracy to violate civil rights and common-law conspiracy to violate civil rights.

The borough is also dealing with the issue of mold in Borough Hall and police headquarters.

More than 50 claims of injury were filed to the insurers about illness caused by the building conditions and mold in Borough Hall, police headquarters and attached buildings, according to officials and documents received through the Open Public Records Act.

Over 400 pages of emails and documents obtained by The Record and NorthJersey.com, mostly through OPRA requests, show lingering health concerns among employees attributed to mold contamination and air quality in the buildings — conditions that have mostly been unaddressed.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Palisades Park clerk resigns, cites intimidation, sexual harassment