Medford City Council Questions Removal Of Veterans Services Head

MEDFORD, MA — An outside investigator found no wrongdoing on the part of the city administration in connection with Veterans Services Director Michael Durham's claims that he was not properly compensated, that veterans were being discriminated against and that he faced retaliation for bringing these issues to light.

The findings come amid public outcry over Durham's removal from his role. Durham was escorted from City Hall by police last Friday after he was placed on paid administrative leave pending a psychological evaluation.

"The mayor is using a vicious stereotype that veterans are imbalanced and violent to smear the reputation of a good man," Durham's wife, Briana, told the city council at its meeting on Tuesday.

Briana Durham spoke at length about the events she alleges preceded her husband's removal. She said Durham repeatedly tried to get Chief People Officer Neil Osborne to share his planned comments at a civil service meeting on Sept. 24.

Briana Durham said Osborne is expected to speak on veteran benefits in civil service, a claim the city administration denies. Jackie Piques, a spokesperson for the mayor's office, said Osborne is scheduled to speak about civil rights, not matters related to veterans, and is appearing in his capacity as a volunteer with the NAACP.

Briana Durham went on to say Osborne told her husband to take the issue up with the mayor and "slammed" the men's room door in his face. When he went to the front desk of Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn's office, the mayor "slammed the door as she retreated into the chief of staff's office," Durham told the council.

Four hours after the encounter, Durham was called to the chief of staff's office and told he was being placed on leave.

"This was done even though Mike's behavior at the meeting was described as being the 'perfect gentleman,' 'very professional' and 'extremely polite' by the two police officers that the mayor had called to City Hall to walk Mike down to his office and out of the building," Briana Durham said.

"In the city of Medford, they give you the perp walk outside"

Residents and city councilors who spoke at Tuesday's meeting decried the mayor's decision and wondered if it set a poor precedent for potential whistleblowers.

Durham had filed multiple complaints against the administration, alleging that Osborne was improperly paid instead of him for his work clearing a backlog of parking appeals, that the city was discriminating against veterans by bypassing them in favor of bilingual candidates for police officer jobs and that he was facing retaliation for his claims.

"In the city of Medford, they give you the perp walk outside, and they ask you to go for a psychological exam if you're a whistleblower," City Councilor Michael Marks said.

Councilors said they considered Durham one of the city's top department heads and wondered how his work – the importance of which several residents attested to at the meeting – would continue in his absence.

"You've removed the one person who could have helped me," Betsy Lister, who cares for her ex-husband, a Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, said. Lister described her efforts to place her ex-husband in a veterans' facility following a series of health problems.

Durham being on leave "shuts down our veterans department that provides emergency services to veterans," Edward Linehan, a U.S. Navy veteran and longtime Department of Public Works employee, said.

The city council resolved to hold an emergency meeting Saturday to discuss staffing in the Veterans Services Office and ensure veterans are not being neglected while Durham is on leave. The council has invited a representative from Lungo-Koehn's administration, City Solicitor Kim Scanlon and Darlene White from the Office of Veterans Services to attend.

White, who has been working with acting Chief of Staff Nina Nazarian this week, painted a bleak picture of the department's future without Durham at the helm.

"I don't know what's going to happen in two weeks when these 33 veterans in the city are waiting for their check," White told the council.

"I don't have any help. I don't have the knowledge that Mike has," she added.

"We did not bypass any veterans"

In an email to Patch, Piques said she could not comment on Durham's leave, citing ongoing personnel matters. She reiterated the mayor's position that no local veterans were passed over for police consideration.

"I do want to go on record and clarify that we received a new Civil Service List from the state earlier this month, and no Medford residents with Veteran/Disabled Veteran status were included on that list as provided to us," Piques wrote. "We have not received nor are we working from a list that includes candidates who speak a language other than English, nor are we working from any other list. In other words, we did not bypass any veterans, and we do not have control over who does or does not appear on the list provided to us."

Piques also denied that Durham was being retaliated against, citing an independent investigation conducted by Corinne Hood Greene of the firm Greene & Hafer Employment Law. Greene concluded that "neither Mayor Lungo-Koehn's or Mr. Osborne's conduct violated the city’s anti-harassment or whistleblower policies."

Greene interviewed Lungo-Koehn, Osborne, former chief of staff David Rodrigues, Scanlon and Police Chief Jack Buckley over the course of her investigation. She said she twice requested an interview with Durham, who declined to participate through his attorney, Mark Rumley.

Greene's report found that Durham was initially not compensated for his work as the city's appeals officer, a role he assumed in July 2020, but was paid in January after he brought it to the city solicitor's attention.

But Durham argued he was entitled to payment dating back to March 2020, the last time Osborne, who previously handled parking appeals for the city, performed those duties. Greene found that due to the pandemic, the government was largely shut down from March to June 2020.

"There is no evidence that Mr. Durham conducted work during that Shutdown Period that would warrant him receiving compensation, and the failure to pay this compensation cannot form the basis of a complaint for retaliation," Greene wrote.

The investigation further found that five veterans living in Medford were told of openings on the police force in January. Of those, two expressed interest; one ultimately withdrew from the hiring process and the other was given a conditional offer.

"Police Chief Buckley shared with Mayor Lungo-Koehn that the city needs bilingual officers based on the diverse population in Medford," Greene wrote. "Because the veteran residents had recently been exhausted from the Eligibility List, Chief Buckley determined it was an opportune time to request a selective certification to recruit bilingual officers."

Durham was concerned the language qualification in the proposal, which was submitted to the state, would disqualify eligible veterans. Buckley told Durham that all resident veterans had been exhausted from the Eligibility List, and he could not give preferential treatment to non-resident veterans under state civil service law.

The proposal was ultimately scrapped, as the state requested a "significant amount of data," and Buckley feared the selective certification could potentially exclude veteran residents on the new Eligibility List in September.

Osborne, against whom the discrimination complaint was primarily filed, had "minimal involvement in the proposal and no authority to influence the Eligibility List," Greene found.

"There is no evidence that the proposal, even if approved, would have had a negative impact on veterans," Greene wrote. "To the contrary, the proposal was withdrawn by the chief for concern that it might."

Retaliation claims unfounded

In Durham's final complaint, a hostile work environment claim filed in August, he alleged multiple instances of retaliation, including a rejected step pay increase.

"In April 2020, prior to Mr. Durham submitting his PAF requesting the increase, the mayor’s office communicated to department heads, including Mr. Durham, that the city had instituted a non-emergency spending freeze and also that budget concerns brought on by the pandemic were causing the city to consider budget changes including a freeze on non-union step increases," Greene found.

Greene cited one example of an unnamed employee who was disciplined after going against the mayor's directive to halt non-union pay increases, and those raises were rescinded. Greene could not find other instances of raises being approved, while Durham's was denied.

Other examples of retaliation claimed by Durham included Osborne ignoring his requests for planned remarks to the civil service commission and Lungo-Koehn failing to acknowledge him when he waved at her in the parking lot and slandering him in a video on Facebook.

Greene concluded that since Osborne will be acting outside his capacity as a city employee during the commission meeting, he is not obligated to share his comments with Durham. During Greene's interviews with Lungo-Koehn, the mayor told her she was rushing to a meeting at the time of the interaction in the parking lot and believed the greeting to be "intimidating," rather than genuine.

Further, the Facebook video did not constitute slander, as Lungo-Koehn did not refer to Durham by name or description and sought to "clarify the details of the proposal and eliminate any misinformation," Greene found.

Read the full report below: