Gronowski v. Spencer

• Decision Date: 20 September 2005
• Docket Number: Docket No. 04-2605-CV.
• Citation: 424 F.3d 285
• Parties: Joan GRONOWSKI, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John D. SPENCER, Mayor of the City of Yonkers, sued in his individual capacity, and City of Yonkers, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

424 F.3d 285

Joan GRONOWSKI, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John D. SPENCER, Mayor of the City of Yonkers, sued in his individual capacity, and City of Yonkers, Defendants-Appellants.

Docket No. 04-2605-CV.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued February 1, 2005.

Decided September 20, 2005.

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Kevin J. Plunkett, White Plains, New York (Kerry Ford Cunningham, Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP, White Plains, New York, of counsel), for Defendants-Appellants.

Stephen Bergstein, Chester, New York (Christopher D. Watkins, Thornton, Bergstein & Ullrich, LLP, Chester, New York, of counsel), for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before: WALKER, Chief Judge, CARDAMONE, Circuit Judge, and OWEN^*, District Judge.

Judge OWEN dissents in a separate opinion.

CARDAMONE, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Mayor John D. Spencer of the City of Yonkers, New York (Mayor Spencer or Mayor), in his individual capacity, and defendant the City of Yonkers (City) (collectively, defendants or appellants) appeal from a judgment entered on April 6, 2004 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (McMahon, J.), following a jury verdict for plaintiff Joan Gronowski in her action brought against defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The jury found Mayor Spencer violated Gronowski's First Amendment rights by terminating her position in city government in retaliation for her political support of Sam Borrelli, a rival to the Mayor, and imposed liability on the City as well. The jury awarded plaintiff $75,000 in compensatory damages. Defendants also appeal from an order entered April 5, 2004 awarding plaintiff attorneys' fees in the sum of $54,383.75 and costs of $2,189.00.

Defendants' principal argument is that the jury's verdict is unsupported by sufficient evidence. They ask us to reverse the verdict and the judgment entered upon it and to grant judgment as a matter of law in defendants' favor. An elected chief executive of a municipality may think that city employees owe him a measure of personal loyalty above and beyond their obligation to perform their municipal assignments in a diligent, timely, and careful manner. We do not think, however, that a person accepting a civil service appointment in local government thereby checks her constitutional rights at the door and foregoes her right to speak out on matters of public concern. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the verdict and judgment of the district court.

BACKGROUND

A. Gronowski's Employment and Political Activities

Joan Gronowski worked for the City of Yonkers in various positions for nearly 30 years. She began employment with the City at an entry level job in the former mayor's office, working there from 1968 until 1976 and returning briefly in 1979. In 1984 plaintiff began a new position in city government as a secretarial assistant in the same office. Three years later, she was promoted to the Chief Clerk position in the Office of Consumer Protection (Consumer Protection) where she remained until she was laid off on June 30, 2000. Consumer Protection was part of a department managed by Frank McGovern during the latter portion of Gronowski's employment there.

As a Chief Clerk, Gronowski's duties included administering the City's licensing function, resolving citizen complaints regarding licensed businesses, and implementing the City's weights-and-measures program. As Consumer Protection grew, so did plaintiff's responsibilities. For example, at the beginning of her tenure, Gronowski was responsible for coordinating the issuance and monitoring of nine City licenses. These tasks largely involved assessing a business's eligibility for a particular license. Over the years the City increased the number of available licenses to 24 without adding staff to assist plaintiff with the expanded workload.

In September 1995, several years after her promotion to Chief Clerk, Gronowski began campaigning with City Council candidate Borrelli, a Democrat seeking the City Council seat once held by Mayor Spencer. At the time, Spencer was running for mayor, a position to which he was elected that fall. By 1997 Gronowski served as third vice chair of the Yonkers Democratic Party and also as Borrelli's campaign treasurer. Although Gronowski advised Mayor Spencer of her political involvement to ensure compliance with the City's prohibition against employees having a policy-making role in a political party, she never received a response. She testified that during this time, McGovern called her to his office and warned her about her involvement with the Democratic Party: "He strongly advised me against being as visible as I was becoming" and told her that she "was asking for trouble." At these encounters Gronowski responded by asserting her right to campaign. She had no direct confrontation with Mayor Spencer, although she testified that, beginning in 1997, he acted more aloof towards her than he had previously.

In 1999 Gronowski campaigned for Borrelli's unsuccessful attempt to win the Democratic nomination for mayor. His sole opponent in the primary, Margaret Mary Mulrooney, later lost to Mayor Spencer, the incumbent in the general election. During the primary McGovern again called Gronowski to his office and issued several warnings regarding her campaign activities. Gronowski testified that McGovern told her that he spent time with the Mayor and that the Mayor was "furious" with her activities. A union official, Angelo Arena, testified that Gronowski complained to him that McGovern told her to cease her political activities "because it was going to come back and hurt her." Additionally, Gronowski's co-worker in Consumer Protection, Michael Paulercio, testified that plaintiff told him about McGovern's warnings sometime after her involvement with Borrelli's 1999 campaign. Although McGovern denied having said to Gronowski that the Mayor was furious, he admitted he told her to "stay out" of politics, and that her political involvement was "not a smart thing to do."

B. The Layoff Process

Because the City of Yonkers faced budgetary concerns, in 2000 the Mayor instructed Ernest Hart, the City's commissioner of personnel, and James LaPerche, the City's commissioner of finance (collectively, commissioners), to discuss ways to eliminate positions in the City government. Hart testified that, in their decision-making, the two were guided by a study that concluded Yonkers had too many provisional workers. Nonetheless, the commissioners chose not to follow the recommendations of the study, which suggested reclassification and consolidation of titles rather than layoffs. Instead, the commissioners planned to eliminate all four Chief Clerks, along with 29 other City positions. During their discussions, Gronowski's name was mentioned, along with the other employees who would be laid off. Hart further testified that he wanted to eliminate the Chief Clerk positions because their job duties were redundant, but he admitted that he did not know the extent of Gronowski's day-to-day responsibilities. He was unaware, in addition, of plaintiff's civil service rights and thus did not know whether she would be retained by the City following the layoffs.

Commissioner Hart testified that he did not know who Gronowski was at the time he recommended the elimination of her Chief Clerk title. Commissioner LaPerche, however, knew Gronowski and of her support for Borrelli. Indeed, LaPerche testified that it was general knowledge at City Hall that Gronowski was actively involved in Borrelli's campaign for mayor in the 1999 Democratic primary. Nonetheless, LaPerche testified that Mayor Spencer did not tell him or Commissioner Hart to consider political affiliations of the employees, and no one personally directed them to fire Gronowski. The Mayor did, however, convey his unhappiness with Consumer Protection in his discussions with Commissioner Hart.

At a meeting with the Mayor prior to the layoffs, the commissioners proposed eliminating the Chief Clerk positions, along with several other managerial positions. Because the mayor has the ultimate authority over municipal employment decisions in the City of Yonkers, it was the Mayor who, after receiving the commissioners' proposed layoffs, sanctioned the layoffs by approving the list of individuals who would lose their positions.

On June 27, 2000 Gronowski was informed by letter that her position was to be eliminated effective as of July 1, 2000. She testified that McGovern called her into his office on her last day of work and said: "I'm so sorry that this happened to you. If I could have I would have blindfolded you and tied your hands behind your back so you wouldn't have worked for Sam Borrelli and this wouldn't have happened to you."

C. The Reversal of the Layoffs

Despite a contract requiring the City to confer with the union regarding layoffs, no negotiations between the two entities ever took place. Gronowski, as well as other union members, shared with Arena their opinions that the Mayor was targeting people to be laid off for political reasons under the guise of fiscally motivated retrenchment. Arena expressed outrage to Commissioner Hart that permanent employees had been laid off while provisional employees were retained. Arena then met with the Mayor and discussed the reinstatement of 15 employees, including Gronowski. Under union pressure, the Mayor issued a directive in the summer of 2000 to find "vacant positions" for laid-off employees.

Through several discussions with his advisors, the Mayor was involved in reversing the layoffs and had responsibility for where employees were placed. Most of the employees, including two Chief Clerks, returned to their original positions, but Gronowski and at least two others actively involved in politics in opposition to Mayor Spencer were not offered positions in their original departments. Aside from Gronowski, only three other permanent employees did not return to work in any capacity...