Fired Watertown employee files court papers to get her job back
Erin Gardner (Source: WWNY)
By Jeff Nelson | February 5, 2021 at 9:35 PM EST - Updated February 5 at 9:35 PM
WATERTOWN, N.Y. (WWNY) - Fired Watertown Parks and Recreation Superintendent Erin Gardner has filed paperwork in State Supreme Court in a bid to get her job back.
Gardner’s attorneys, Gleason, Dunn, Walsh & O’shea, of Albany, call Gardner’s firing “retaliatory.” They’re looking for Gardner’s reinstatement to her manager’s position, along with back pay and benefits.
Gardner is the city employee who filed a hostile work environment complaint against former Watertown City Manager Rick Finn back in 2019. That complaint sparked a third party investigation into Finn’s behavior, and determined that while Gardner’s claims didn’t rise to the level of a violation of city policy, her complaints against Finn had merit.