NORTHAMPTON — A former Northampton Housing Authority maintenance director who filed a lawsuit appealing the state Civil Service Commission’s ruling that his firing in 2015 was justified has reached a settlement with the state agency.
David Adamson and the Civil Service Commission agreed last month to dismiss, with prejudice, a Hampshire Superior Court case that had been active since December 2016.
“(The) parties have fully and finally resolved their dispute,” reads the brief statement in the dismissal, which was filed in court May 21.
The documents do not elaborate on how the matter was settled and whether there was any monetary compensation from the state or the Northampton Housing Authority.
It does show, though, that a mediation session with Boston attorney and arbitrator James Litton was held April 17 that led to the lawsuit’s withdrawal the following day, bringing to a close the case in which Adamson, a 32-year employee of the housing authority, argued that he had a contractual right to not be fired without cause and that the housing authority committed a violation of contractual seniority rights.
Adamson said in an email to the Gazette Saturday that he is required to keep terms and conditions confidential.
“I am glad that this is finally over and I can move forward,” Adamson said.
Attempts to reach Cahillane of Egan, Flanagan and Cohen of Springfield, who represented Adamson, was unsuccessful last Thursday and Friday.
In the initial lawsuit, Adamson, who was fired four years ago, claimed he was entitled to be given another position under the civil service law known as “bumping rights.”
In December 2016, though, the commission ruled that Northampton Housing Authority Executive Director Cara Clifford “had just cause to eliminate the position of maintenance director as part of a bona fide reorganization plan that was designed to increase the efficiency of the NHA.”
Clifford reorganized the housing authority in the summer of 2015. Adamson and Michael Owens, the former director of administration and finance, were two of five administrators who were let go in the reorganization.
Clifford had testified that Adamson was removed in part because of poor performance and that she assumed his duties. Among the issues she cited were hundreds of back work orders that had not been completed.
Unlike in Owens’ case, where the state agency found that he should be reinstated with full back pay and benefits, the commission determined that Clifford’s actions were not a purging of long-time employees at will.
James Pender of the Boston firm Morgan, Brown & Joy represented the Northampton Housing Authority. Efforts to reach Pender by phone and email were unsuccessful.
Robert Quinan, the attorney representing the Civil Service Commission, referred questions about the case to the state’s Attorney General’s office, which didn’t immediately respond to an email inquiry.
The housing authority oversees more than 600 federally subsidized housing units at the McDonald House on Old South Street, Forsander and Cahill apartments, Tobin Manor, the Walter Salvo House, Hampshire Heights and Florence Heights. It also administers a Section 8 housing voucher program for more than 1,200 area residents and works with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to administer HUD-VASH, or housing vouchers, for homeless veterans.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
