KINGSTON — Three Ulster County Human Rights Commission members resigned on Saturday, throwing the beleaguered board into more upheaval three months after its former director, Tyrone Wilson, was fired for using offensive language amid reporting inquiries by the Times Union.
The commissioners — Bruce Ginsberg, Martin Dunkley and Carl Brown, a former chairman — authored a resignation letter that was first published by the Kingston Daily Freeman. In it, they detailed concerns over the leadership of Acting Commissioner Esi Lewis, who was elevated to acting director by Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger after Metzger fired Wilson in April, and that the commission has been stacked with “those more loyal to Jen Metzger than to any sense of helping marginalized individuals who have experienced discrimination.”
The letter states that Lewis’s tenure “has been marred by canceled meetings, failure to pursue complaints in a timely manner and misleading our commissioners about details on these matters.” As an example, they cite a discrimination case brought by an unnamed county employee that was “not being properly handled in accordance with our process over the past few years.”
The letter did not specify who brought the case, but on Saturday, the Daily Freeman also reported the story of a lactation specialist with the Ulster County Department of Health who said her complaints over race-based harassment by her superiors were mishandled and minimized.
More explosively, the...
Continue without agreeing We value your privacy With your agreement, we and our 386 partners use cookies or similar technologies to store, access, and process personal data like your visit on this...