I Was Suspended After Cancer Diagnosis, Says Wyckoff Tax Assessor

WYCKOFF, NJ — Wyckoff's tax assessor was on the job for 30 years, but she was suspended without pay by a vote of the Township Committee last December.

Now, she's alleging in a whistleblower lawsuit that the action only came after she told the town that her lung cancer diagnosis would make it hard for her to come into the office.

According to the suit, which Pamela Steele filed Feb. 6 against the town and its mayor, Steele asked to work from home after being diagnosed with cancer.

In the suit, Steele says that she had been diagnosed in December of 2021. At first, she was allowed to do her job remotely, she says.

But last August, she says, she was told to come back to the office. She requested to continue working remotely, she said.

She also said that over the years, she had also asked for statutory raises that were also commensurate with what other employees in her position had gotten.

In the suit, filed in Bergen County Superior Court, she says that the town "subjected plaintiff to clear retaliation" in response to both the request to work from home and the requests for a raise.

At a special meeting on Dec. 10, the Township Committee voted 3-1-1 to suspend Pamela Steele. Committeeman Tim Shanley voted no, saying he thought the vote might be illegal.

Steele's attorneys have asked for a jury trial.

A story in the Record of Hackensack said, at the time, that a letter from an attorney for the Association of Municipal Assessors of New Jersey advised that a tenured assessor could only be removed after a hearing, and for "good cause shown, not for political reasons."

See prior reporting: Wyckoff Votes To Suspend Longtime Tax Assessor