A female supervisor in Chicago’s Fleet Management Department sought help from the federal courts Tuesday for what she alleged is repeated sexual harassment and mistreatment by her bosses.
Ruth Figueroa, 33, who has been the supervisor of data processors since 1992, alleged in a complaint that her boss repeatedly made sexual advances toward her and that co-workers scribbled vulgar graffiti about her in the washrooms at Fleet Management’s main office, 1685 N. Throop St.
Figueroa also said that she was discouraged from filing a grievance by Fleet officials and that she was subjected to retaliation after she did so, including a threatened reassignment.
She alleged that the city’s Office on Sexual Harassment did nothing to resolve her complaint.
Edward Stein, Figueroa’s attorney, said the city “sets up all these procedures (to file sexual harassment grievances), and when somebody gets the courage to do something, they don’t do anything.”
On Tuesday, Stein asked a federal judge for a temporary restraining order to prevent Figueroa’s superiors from continuing alleged retaliation, and he argued that Figueroa should be awarded $1 million in damages because her civil rights were violated.
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But Nancy Van Allen, city attorney, argued that a temporary restraining order would be inappropriate. She said that the alleged offensive conduct is not ongoing and that there is no danger of irreparable harm.
Fleet officials, who manage the city’s cars and trucks, denied Figueroa’s allegations.
Eileen Joyce, assistant to Commissioner Rick Santella, said she was hampered from investigating Figueroa’s allegations because Figueroa refused to name her harassers. Joyce said she referred Figueroa to the city’s Office on Sexual Harassment and since has cooperated with the investigation.
Joyce also denied that she had attempted to transfer Figueroa to a less desirable locale. Joyce said Figueroa had requested a transfer because of the alleged abuse at Fleet’s main office.
Joyce said her office tried to investigate the graffiti on the restroom walls but was unable to find the culprit. She also denied retaliation against Figueroa or her husband, Luis Figueroa, who also works in the department.
Figueroa’s boss, Deputy Commissioner Rudyard Urian, denied the allegations made against him in the complaint.
“I don’t know why she’s doing this,” said Urian, who added he is the godfather of Figueroa’s youngest daughter.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel continued the hearing until Dec. 31, giving both sides a chance to gather witnesses, Stein said.
Andra Gomberg, the city’s officer on sexual harassment, said the investigation into Figueroa’s complaint started in May and is ongoing. She said the inquiry has been slowed because several witnesses are on disability leave.
She said the city receives about 30 complaints a year, of which about 70 percent are founded in part or in whole.
Stein said in federal court a restraining order was needed because the city was stripping Figueroa of her responsibilities, threatening to relocate her to a less desirable job site and causing co-workers to shun her, “which creates new problems.”
“She can’t supervise when no one is talking to her,” he said.
Figueroa, who lives on the Northwest Side with her husband and young children, alleges in the suit that Urian sexually harassed her for more than five years, until October of this year. She alleged he made verbal and physical sexual advances and suggestive comments. She alleged he persisted after she had explicitly rejected his advances and asked him to stop.
According to the suit starting in May 1996, she was subjected to graffiti in the restrooms that consisted of offensive comments about her and parts of her body, as well as vulgar and graphic depictions of sexual acts.
Figueroa alleged Urian scoffed at her complaints about the graffiti and failed to take action. She said in the suit she also complained to a Chicago police officer responsible for security at the Fleet facility, who told her she should “expect things like this.”
Figueroa said that in May she tried to report the sexual graffiti to Joyce but that Joyce refused to hear her complaint and instructed her not to report the harassment to the city’s Office on Sexual Harassment.
She filed a grievance and, afterward, allegedly was subjected to a campaign of retaliation, which included threats and intimidation by Urian, harassing phone calls and vandalism to her car by unidentified attackers, the transferring of some of her assignments to a male counterpart, and reassignment of her husband to the midnight shift.
According to the suit, Urian told Figueroa her husband was being punished because she had angered Santella by going to the Office on Sexual Harassment. He also told her she was an “embarrassment” to Santella, to an unidentified alderman and to an unidentified official with the mayor’s office, the suit alleges.
According to the complaint, the alleged retaliation has escalated in the last month, since Figueroa filed complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Illinois Department of Human Rights.
Figueroa is the only female supervisor assigned to Fleet Management’s main garage and one of two or three women working there alongside several hundred men, Stein said after Tuesday’s hearing.