WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio — The City of Washington Court House has hired back a former longtime employee with whom they settled litigation.
Teena Keaton was hired back by the city earlier this month after she settled a harassment and hostile work environment claims in 2020 against the municipality. Keaton, 62, was the assistant director of finance overseeing the city’s budget before her ouster in 2018.
In the documents exclusively obtained by the Guardian, a lawyer representing Keaton brokered a settlement for more than $70,000 after Keaton raised allegations of harassment. The allegations were primarily centered around Keaton’s direct supervisor and Director of Finance Tom Riley. Riley, who recently retired, was named as the “aggressor” in Keaton’s claims. Now, Keaton is back in her old job working with the city’s purse strings.
The Guardian left numerous messages with City Manager Joe Denen seeking comment for this story, but the messages went unreturned.
Keaton’s Current Position
Despite leaving a few years ago — citing harassment from her former supervisor who has now since parted ways with the city, himself — Keaton returned to work late last month in the finance department; the very chair she once occupied. Keaton now reports to a female, Christina Collins, who was hired to replace Riley.
While Denen would not return calls, a sole-council member responded back to the Guardian’s request for comment. Specifically, why the city would hire back a former employee they settled litigation with.
“To my knowledge, Teena Keaton was re-hired to a full-time position within the city by our new Finance Director, Christina Collins, to help get the department back on track following the untimely departure of the previous Finance Director,” said council member Caleb Johnson. “City Council did not vote on hiring Ms. Keaton, and cannot vote on that subject due to strict limitations set by the City Charter. Regardless, I have full confidence in our new Finance Director to make the decisions necessary to get the Finance Department back on track. Ms. Collins has been working closely with the City’s new Human Resources consultant to ensure a smooth transition during this time.”
The Previous Case
The Guardian obtained public records from the settlement Keaton had with the city a couple of years ago.
“Ms. Keaton has shared with me the relentless bullying and harassment that she received from Director of Finance, Tom L. Riley for at least the past 20 years,” Keaton’s lawyer, Jeffrey Silverstein wrote to the city manager, Joe Denen in 2019. “She has described the history of his use of vulgar language, and physical and verbal threats and intimidation.” The lawyer did not list specific incidents or allegations in his letter.
Silverstein wrote in his letter that Keaton was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and that she was “less able to endure or confront the harassment by Mr. Riley,” and that “[i]t was common knowledge that Mr. Riley would regularly come to work under the influence of alcohol, and by 2017, the stress of working in this toxic environment became untenable.” Keaton’s lawyer said that as a direct result of the alleged harassment by Riley, the female employee was forced into early retirement in December 2018.
In April 2019, Silverstein wrote the city a letter outlining Keaton’s allegations of harassment and requesting a meeting to discuss a financial settlement. Silverstein wrote that if the city refused to entertain such a meeting, Keaton intended to file a lawsuit for discrimination based on age and disability, and presumably the alleged harassment.
“As I understand, the manner in which Mr. Riley treated Ms. Keaton was not unique to her; rather, he has displayed his hostility toward city employees and management at all levels.”
Less than a week later, Denen wrote back to the attorney agreeing to meet to discuss a possible settlement.
“If a meeting is desired, I suggest that your client may find your office more agreeable location [sic] for a talk….[a]fter Teena retired, Teena expressed a desire for part-time employment with the city. Teena also expressed a desire that said employment not be in the city building. Therefore, I make the assumption that your office may be more amendable than other possible locations.”
While the public records do not show when the city and Keaton’s lawyer met, a settlement and non-disclosure outlines an extensive agreement that the two did, indeed, agree to a financial settlement.
Settlement with tax dollars.
According to a settlement agreement dated in June 2019, the city paid a total of $70,722 to keep Keaton from suing them and to prevent her from talking publicly about her allegations of harassment.
The city made two separate payments: one for $48,272 directly to Keaton, and another for $22,450 to the law firm representing her. The city also agreed to write Keaton a “neutral reference letter” from the city manager for her personnel file.
The checks, which came out of the city’s general fund that is funded by tax dollars, and were listed in the city’s ledger as “professional fees.”
As part of the settlement agreement, Keaton had to agree that she would “not disclose the existence of” the agreement or “its terms to any person other than her spouse, her attorney, a financial advisor, and/or accountant….” She also had to agree to not sue the city for her allegations and release all claims pertaining to her alleged harassment. On the city’s part of the agreement, they refused to admit liability or sustain Keaton’s claims that she was harassed, or that Riley would come to work drunk.
Allegations circulated in the community that he entered into a personal financial settlement with Keaton in addition to the city’s settlement could not be independently verified by the Guardian. Riley, as previously mentioned, has since retired.
A lawyer representing the city did not immediately return a request for comment.
Click here to read the demand letter and settlement between Keaton and the city.
In her new job, Keaton takes the reins of her old position, assisting the newly-hired Director of Finance. This time, a female.