Two earlier losses didn't end it - now she can argue she was pushed out for whistleblowing
A federal appeals court has revived a fired public corporation CEO's due process claim, ruling a lower court wrongly threw it out.
On August 10, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled the former president and CEO of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) can pursue a claim a federal district judge had dismissed.
RIOC is a public benefit corporation that governs New York's Roosevelt Island. She led it from 2015 to 2020. The New York Governor's Office fired her on June 19, 2020.
That same day, according to the decision, a senior gubernatorial adviser told a New York Post reporter she had been terminated after a complaint and investigation into offensive comments. The paper ran a story saying she was fired over "racially and sexually offensive" remarks.
The former CEO denies that account. She says the real reason was political payback for her warnings about weather-related threats to Roosevelt Island's steam tunnels. Her complaint claims she raised the danger in a memo and that state officials then fed false allegations to the press to discredit her.
The internal inquiry is where HR readers should slow down. The decision notes the investigator's later sworn affidavit said the original June 12 complaint had "not been substantiated as violations" of the state's EEO policies, though it pointed to other evidence. She says officials later conceded the complaint...
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