NORTHAMPTON – The Northampton Housing Authority has filed an appeal in Suffolk Superior Court seeking to overturn the reinstatement of a top employee after the Civil Service Commission determined he was wrongfully fired last year. 

Meantime, the commission held a day-long hearing last week in a related case involving the housing authority’s former maintenance director, who also alleges wrongful termination.  

The five-page appeal filed by Boston attorney James M. Pender seeks a judicial review of the commission’s April 28 order for the housing authority to reinstate  Michael T. Owens, the former director of administration and finance, who was fired as part of a controversial reorganization of the quasi-public agency in September 2015. The commission also ruled that Owens was entitled to back pay and benefits to last September when he was let go. 

The appeal alleges among other things that the commission’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious” and an abuse of discretion, unsupported by evidence, based on unlawful procedures, and beyond its jurisdiction.  

The housing authority is asking the court to uphold its decision to eliminate Owens’ position and that it be awarded costs and other relief, according to its filing. 

The housing authority’s board of commissioners last month voted to move forward with the appeal. Chairman Jeffrey Jones said at the time he believed the agency had “an extremely strong” case.  

Last week’s hearing involved David Adamson, the housing authority’s former maintenance supervisor, who worked at the housing authority for 32 years before being let go during last year’s reorganization. The commission has not yet ruled on Adamson’s case. 

“You don’t know how much time is going to pass until it’s all over,” said Springfield attorney Maurice Cahillane, who is representing Owens and Adamson in their employment actions. 

Owens earned earned $71,000 annually. He and four other longtime employees were let go as part of a reorganization led by executive director Cara Clifford one month after she was hired in June 2015. 

In its April 2016 decision, the Civil Service Commission ordered that Owens be reinstated with full back pay and benefits. The commission determined that Clifford and the board violated employment rights and failed to meet their responsibilities under the law.

“If he continues to have lost wages, they keep accruing until there’s resolution,” Cahillane said. 

The ruling, written by commission chairman Christopher Bowman, stated that the employment actions were “more akin to a purge of certain long-time employees,” and that the firing of Owens was “nothing more than a bad faith effort to discharge a faithful employee.”

Staff Writer Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.