Joyce Harley allegedly overstepping her authority to find the source of complaints to the school's Board of Trustees
NEWARK — Essex County College President Gale Gibson recent suspension came after allegations she had tampered with emails to the school's Board of Trustees and attempted to block complaints about her conduct.
In a letter to the Newark-based school, Gibson's attorney Alan Zegas says he was advised that her discharge came after the school's labor counsel reported she had overstepped her authority in attempting to block other employees from corresponding with the board.
She is also accused of instructing staff to pull data from the hard drives of "suspect" colleagues, setting up college email accounts for her fiance and other non-employees, and issuing orders for underlings to find out who had passed along complaints to the board.
Gibson denies any impropriety, and claims the charges are the result of politics-entwined witch hunt that began after she began inquiring about apparent financial irregularities at the school.
"She is being retaliated against for acting diligently and independently, and for probing areas of the College's operations in a way that poses a threat to those holding the reins of power," Zegas' letter reads.
Juan Fernandez, an attorney for the board of trustees, declined to comment.
According to Gibson, she attempted to gather information about a campus print shop that she believed was performing hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid services, but was stonewalled by Vice President for Administration & Finance Joyce Harley — a former county administrator who received the backing of Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo for the president's job in 2013.
Gibson, who earns an annual salary of roughly $295,000, claims Harley has treated her with "hostility" since her arrival and regularly flouted orders, leading to the two trading a number of human resources complaints.
New Essex County College pres offers assurances, but no answers amid suspension turmoil
In March, Gibson and college General Counsel and Vice President for Human Resources Rashidah Hasan submitted to Fernandez and Board of Trustees President Bibi Taylor a recommendation that Harley and a number of other employees be disciplined after an investigation uncovered tens of thousands of dollars in unaccounted debit card spending by the school's athletic department.
Gibson says both she and Hasan were suspended indefinitely one week later, though the specific reasons for Hasan's removal remain unclear. Her attorney, Eugene Kim, could not immediately be reached for comment.
In an interview Wednesday, Harley acknowledged occasional tension between herself and Gibson, but said she had never been the subject of any disciplinary charges. She added that she had supplied Gibson with monthly reports on activity at the print shop, and that neither she nor any other employee had been advised of any recommended discipline related to the athletic spending issues.
"If there were concerns, they were never shared with me," she said. "I view this is as a desperate act of someone who is trying to save their own neck at the expense of me and everyone else at the college."
The letter on behalf of Gibson alleges that DiVincenzo and his proxies at the county had a direct hand in the recent suspensions.
A spokesman for DiVincenzo said Wednesday that he stood by previous statements in which he supported the board's decision and denied any personal involvement in the matter.
Gibson also claims she "has not been provided with even one scrap of the information the Board has stated it is relying upon for seeking her termination", and that other employees have entered her office to delete electronic files and shred paperwork that could be used to prove her innocence.
The board of trustees had been scheduled to convene Wednesday afternoon, but Zegas and school representatives confirmed the meeting had been postponed until Gibson and Hasan could be supplied with documents surrounding the charges against them. Zegas said he hoped those might lend some long-awaited clarity to a process he viewed as deeply flawed.
"The action against (Gibson) has been predetermined and tainted," he said.
Dan Ivers may be reached at divers@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanIversNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.