PRC slapped with another suit [The Santa Fe New Mexican]

Aug. 03--Yet another woman has accused her supervisors at the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission of discrimination and harassment, then firing her when she complained.

Elaine C. Aragon of Albuquerque says in a federal lawsuit that she was paid less than younger male employees when she worked as an ambulance inspector for the PRC's Transportation Division from May 2010 until she was fired on Feb. 18, 2011.

Aragon said in a telephone interview that her case and others demonstrates a pattern of abuse against women and whistleblowers in the state commission that regulates transportation, pipelines, insurance and utilities.

Her complaint filed May 21 in U.S. District Court by Albuquerque lawyer Paul Kennedy, who is seeking a seat on the state Supreme Court, seeks damages from the state commission as well as from the division director, Larry Lujan, and the division's compliance bureau chief, Fidel Archuleta.

Last month, former Insurance Division employee Darlene Gomez filed a pro-se complaint in state District Court against the former division superintendent, Morris "Mo" Chavez, claiming she was fired because she spurned Chavez's sexual advances.

Another former Transportation Division employee, Cindy A. Romero, and a supervisor who supported her, Abe Tapia, recently settled their complaints against the Lujan and the PRC.

Former Insurance Division compliance director Aaron L. Feliciano was to begin a trial Wednesday in his state District Court case against the commission, Chavez and its former chief of staff Danny Mayfield for firing him in August 2009 after he spoke up about improper and unlawful acts within the agency, but the trial was postponed until Sept. 10.

None of the men accused in these lawsuits have returned messages seeking comment. Public Regulation Commission spokesman Arthur Bishop said he could not comment on pending litigation.

According to Aragon's complaint, when she was hired two years ago at an hourly rate of $16.32, she was 59 years old and was licensed as an emergency medical technician, yet two younger male employees hired in similar positions about the same time ? Chris Ybarra, then 39, and Billy Merrifield, who is in his mid-30s ? were paid, respectively, $17 and $18 an hour, even though they did not have EMT licenses as required for the jobs.

The younger male inspectors also were provided new four-wheel-drive vehicles from the motor pool, while Aragon had to use a 1998 Crown Victoria with more than 170,000 miles on its odometer, nonfunctioning windshield wipers and other mechanical problems for her trips to rural, mountainous parts of New Mexico, the complaint says.

Even before she began working for the commission, the complaint alleges, Lujan told Aragon to come to a conference in Ruidoso so she could meet people she would be regulating. She did so, even though she had to pay her own expenses, but once there, Lujan took her to lunch away from the conference center where he questioned her about her age, making her feel uncomfortable, the complaint says. It says that instead of taking her to her car after lunch, he took her to his hotel, claiming he needed to check in, making her feel "intimidated and awkward."

Soon after she began working, Lujan approached her "from behind, placed his hand under her shirt, pushed her sleeve and bra strap aside and commented on her tattoo," making her feel "shocked and embarrassed," says the complaint. It says that when she reported this incident to another supervisor, he told Archuleta, who called Aragon to his office where he "intimidated her until she withdrew the complaint."

The complaint says that when Aragon declined to accompany Lujan to get a haircut, he and Archuleta "began a pattern of steadily increasing retaliation, discrimination and harassment," creating a "hostile work environment."

Archuleta, for example, allowed Aragon only 16 hours of compensation time for 33 hours for overtime, criticized and edited her written reports when he did not review the reports from younger male investigators, told her to take ambulances out of service in Magdalena and Red River even though she lacked the authority to do so, told her to disregard certain state regulations and criticized her for not answering her cellphone while driving even though that was against state law and PRC policy.

In December 2010, according to the lawsuit, Archuleta ordered Aragon not to attend a conference in Eddy and Lea counties that all the younger male investigators attended. When an ambulance was involved in a fatal accident on Dec. 14, 2010, Archuleta initially forbade Aragon from investigating even though she was the only investigator in the office, then changed his mind and ordered her to start an investigation, then changed his mind again and pulled her off the investigation, the complaint says.

Aragon says she was finally fired for alleged unprofessional behavior, even though she said she had never been reprimanded and her four-month review had not found any flaws in her behavior.

Aragon said that addition to the cases brought by Gomez, Romero, Tapia, Feliciano and herself, at least two other PRC employees who recently were fired also could be filing lawsuits if they are not reinstated in grievance hearings.

In 2007, a Santa Fe jury awarded $840,000 in damages to Wyla Green, a former executive assistant to then-Commissioner David King who Green accused of sexual harassment. King, nephew of the late former governor Bruce King and a former state treasurer, did not seek re-election to his position.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or [email protected].

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