January 22, 2010 Baile Glauber had been Ramapo’s first Orthodox Jewish Policewoman until yesterday. Actually, she was a probationary officer, and despite the strong personal support of Christopher St. Lawrence, when Glauber’s probationary period was to end in February, Police Chief Peter Brower planned to recommend that she not be hired on as a regular on the force.

According to today’s Journal News, "Glauber’s nomination as a police officer in January 2008 was strongly supported by St. Lawrence and the Town Board as a means to break barriers for the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish Community."

The probationary officer who was raised in Ramapo’s Satmar community had a brief but problematic career on the force. Her training at the Rockland Police Academy was not completed because of an ankle injury, and when she joined the patrol officers in June, she had to be relieved and was given desk duty because of that injury. Her insistence on a schedule that guaranteed that she would not work on the Sabbath or religious holidays resulted in an unusual arrangement wherein "the Town established a protocol for her and other officers to take their Sabbath and religious holidays off."

She complained of discrimination from fellow officers, but when she asked the U. S. EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) to accept her complaint, they declined, recommending instead that she sue the Town. The Ramapo police officials said they had interviewed a number of officers regarding her complaints and found no evidence of discrimination.

In December, her gun and badge were taken by her superiors, and she was placed on administrative leave with pay.

The short, one-year career of Officer Glauber ended this week as she and her lawyer decided to accept a legal buy-out offer from the town. Glauber agreed to end all legal actions against the Town of Ramapo and the Town would "release her from any claims and liabilities." The compensation paid by the Town includes the following:

$47,475.00 Salary paid Police Officer Grade 5 Exist

$190,000.00 Personal compensation to Baile Glauber

$285,000.00 Compensation to Baile Glauber for legal expenses.

___________

$522,474.00 Total for slightly less than one year service and personal compensation.

For about 6 months of training and 6 months of desk duty, more than half a million dollars. If you were to add the salaries of the Supervisor ($129,451), the 4 Board Members ($31,863 each), and the Chief of Police ($221,183), the trainee with the bad ankle and her lawyer got more than all of those officials taken together ($478,086.00). Actually, she made more last year than the President of the United States—annual salary for that position is $400,000.00--not bad for a cop-in-training.

Town Attorney Michael Klein told the Journal News, "The Town Board decided it would be more cost-effective and would certainly avoid a protracted litigation and what could result from that litigation. This settlement guarantees she will not come back to Ramapo as a police officer."

Sounds like it was money paid to get Ms. Glauber to go away. The "cost effective" part of the arrangement might benefit from a little more analysis. The political cost to St. Lawrence and the Board, who had so enthusiastically pushed this candidacy, would have been estimable if the Town had decided to fight the claims of discrimination and unfair practices.

There is a veritable stable of attorneys at Town Hall who could have squeezed this action onto their schedules. The Ramapo Police had had their own internal investigation, they had created a policy about religious holidays that you will find in very few, if any precincts in the State, and the EEOC had refused to investigate Glauber’s claims, assumedly for reasons they could legally justify.

But imagine St. Lawrence’s administration in court, facing an opponent who was once a member of the Hasidic community, the voting base that keeps him in office, and a distaff member of the community at that—demure, attractive. And then there’s that curious phrasing at the end of Klein’s remark: "to avoid a protracted litigation and what could result from that litigation." What indeed! What if an extended discovery period began to turn up subplots or subtexts to the story that might damage the Supervisor or the plaintiff even more than the facts published so far?

Better to make it just go away today. Again, from The Journal, "Klein said the Town Board decided it would likely cost taxpayers less money to buy out Glauber and pay her legal bills than to defend a federal lawsuit."

But to pay a half-million for some kind of political insurance for the current administration? I don’t think so. Those are tax dollars.

Michael Castelluccio
www.PreserveRamapo.org
[If you would like to be put on our list of those who receive regular news updates, please send your email address to pr.webmaster@gmail.com]