Former Bayonne Business Administrator Melissa Mathews, who is embroiled in a gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit with the city, blew the whistle on an employee using heroin while at work a few months prior to leaving City Hall, a confidential memo shows.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“A situation has been brought to my attention recently which I find incredibly concerning. Donna Russo’s failure to perform job duties required of her position has led to an employee receiving medical benefits for 17 months past the date she was entitled to,” the February 18th, 2022 memo from Mathews to Mayor Jimmy Davis says.
“She made countless statements that contradicts the facts of the situation in writing and when questioned claimed her errors were ‘inadvertent.’
Mathews, who was not reappointed and was replaced by Russo on July 1st, 2022, shortly Davis won a third term in May of that year, added that she believed Russo exhibited incompetence inefficiency, neglect of duty, falsification of records, and lying under oath.
Just days after this memo was sent, former City Hall employee Stacie Percella, who received a $450,000 settlement for two cases including one that accused Davis of sending her sexually explicit messages, brought the matter up at a city council meeting.
“She still received benefits for two years: Can you answer me that?,” she asked at the time.
“Nothing to answer here, no,” Law Director Jay Coffey replied.
“Why not? We’re residents of this city. We pay your salary, we paid benefits. Why did I waste my pennies on her benefits for two years, Jay, when she did not work here,” Percella shot back.
“There may be extenuating circumstances,” said Coffey.
A copy of a disciplinary sheet sent to the employee in question, sent by Russo on February 9th – then an assistant city attorney – obtained by HCV said the worker was fired after a drug test proved she was under the influence at work.
Further details of the situation were never uncovered until now.
Mathews said in the memo that a disciplinary hearing for City Hall employee, whose name is being withheld by HCV due to the confidentiality of the matter, was organized and run by Russo on August 31st, 2020.
At that time, Mathews issued a Preliminary Notice of Disciplinary Action (PNDA) with an expectation of the employee completing rehab.
The employee also admitted to possessing and using heroin while at City Hall and wanted to resign instead of being terminated, according to the memo. She was also allegedly under the influence during the said meeting.
However, a separation agreement from Russo written three days later said the result was inconclusive since a “hearing officer had not been rendered.”
Russo doubled down when communicating with the Department of Labor Unemployment Office on September 24th, 2020, claiming the employee had been suspended without pay – not fired.
Russo asked another city worker to schedule an appeal for the employee in question on March 12th 2021, which she skipped. Despite “going MIA after she had dropped out of rehab,” she continued to receive benefits until early 2022.
In March of this year, Russo returned to her assistant city attorney roll as former Board of Education Trustee Mary Jane Desmond was named business administrator.
When reached by phone, Mathews denied having any involvement with the memo coming out and declined to comment further, citing pending litigation. She is set to go to trial on September 15th, public records show.
On Friday, city spokesman Joe Ryan said they “do not comment on pending legal matters and personnel issues.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Friday morning with a comment from Bayonne spokesman Joe Ryan.
