Religious discrimination suit filed against Greenwich housing authority

Religious discrimination suit filed against Greenwich housing authority - CoS 14 Sep 2002

From
http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-suit4sep14.story?coll=green-news-local-headlines
and
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-scientology3sep14.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines

Religious discrimination suit filed against Greenwich housing authority

By Lindsay Faber
Staff Writer
September 14, 2002

A former Greenwich Housing Authority employee filed a document in federal court this week, claiming she was fired two years ago because she was not a member of the Church of Scientology.

After she was fired from her position as administrator of Parsonage Cottage in 2000, Ursula Milde, 62, filed suit against the housing authority, its board of commissioners and its director, Ben Little, claiming age and gender discrimination. Several claims were dismissed or withdrawn before Milde and her lawyer amended the complaint five times and attempted to amend it again.

Now, Milde's lawyer has filed the latest memo asking the court to reconsider allowing Milde to file her sixth complaint to include religious discrimination amid allegations that Little is attempting to infiltrate the housing authority with principles from Scientology.

Housing officials deny the claims.

"Once you peel back the pages of his so-called 'management practices' you discover a remarkable plan of infiltration and control over the Housing Authority and its employees," Milde's lawyer, Mark Carey, wrote in the memo.

According to the memo, in 1998 and last year, Little required all employees to attend Scientology training sessions entitled, "Improving Business Through Communication, Based on the Works of L. Ron Hubbard."

Hubbard is widely considered the founder of Scientology, a philosophy based on self-discovery.

The training sessions were conducted by two renowned Scientologists and were paid for with federal money, the lawsuit alleges.

It also says that Little fired Milde and another employee, former Director of Finance Russell Kemp, for not following his "Executive Directives," a term apparently coined by Hubbard, which, according to the suit, "provides for the infiltration of an organization such as the Greenwich Housing Authority and terminate (sic) all those employees whom oppose the controlling Scientologists' directives."

"Apparently, Mr. Kemp failed to have Plaintiff 'sign in' when she visited the Housing Authority on just one occasion," according to the memo. "The Defendant Little had radically transformed the Housing Authority offices into a highly secured military operation."

Milde was not available for comment this week.

She said in the memo that in the spring of 2000, Little informed her she would have to be "audited."

In Scientology, an audit is a process through which a person becomes aware of a spiritual dimension. It involves an electronic device called an "E-meter," according to a passage in the memo quoted from the U.S. Supreme Court.

"At the time I assumed this referred to a fiscal audit," Milde wrote. "Now understanding that the term 'audit' holds a very different meaning in the Scientology system, I realize that he was applying Scientology principles in influencing and managing me."

Little, informed of the allegations against him, issued a statement through his lawyer, Frank Alvarez of Stamford, who also is defending the Housing Authority.

"Since the lawsuit's inception, the Housing Authority has rejected categorically Mrs. Milde's claim that she was the victim of unlawful discrimination or conduct," the statement said. "A number of Mrs. Milde's claims already have been dismissed by the court including her claim of religious discrimination."

Sue McClenahan, the chairwoman of the Board of Commissioners, called the suit "another effort to attack the Housing Authority."

"She was fired because she did not want to work within the structure of the Housing Authority," McClenahan said. "She wanted to do things on her own, and this Scientology had nothing to do with the reason she was fired."

Meanwhile, several Housing Authority employees have quit or been fired over the past two years.

The agency's former director, Thomas Crawford, who retired in 1999 and worked closely with Little, said, "I know from Ben, since we were personal friends, that he and his wife are very active in Scientology. Just before I left there was a reorganization plan for the divisions and departments, and it was a very complex, laid-out thing that didn't fully make sense for an in-house staff of 15 people," said Crawford, who worked as the director for more than nine years and now lives in Florida. "That's the kind of management style taught by Scientology. I know he recently had another trainer in there and that gentleman had been a very senior person in Scientology."

Two former top finance officials of the agency now work for the Stamford Housing Authority. Also, the No. 2 official left and started her own business in Weston. Another official who left was the agency's union representative who worked in maintenance.

Kemp, who now works as finance director of the housing authority in Stamford, said he felt at the time of the training sessions that Scientology did not belong in the workplace.

"I didn't understand where the guy was going. He was making really bizarre statements," Kemp said. "I thought it was definitely over the line for a public workplace, let alone one that is semi-sponsored by government. It really shows questionable judgment."

Others said they did not want to discuss the allegations or did not return phone calls.

Carey, who declined to comment, wrote in the memo that the issue of religious discrimination could not have been brought up earlier because depositions in the case that took place as late as this summer brought forth the religious aspect of the case.

Carey added that Milde would withdraw her claims of age and gender discrimination if the court were to grant the motion for reconsideration of her religious discrimination claim.

The case was filed in U.S. District Court in Hartford.

Copyright © 2002, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc