|
|
He seeks to protect civil rightsSince taking the helm of the state's Division on Civil Rights just more than a year ago, J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo has pursued violators of the state's antidiscrimination laws with the zeal of Eliot Ness. The quiet, Venezuelan-born lawyer has earned the praise of civil-rights leaders and veterans of the division who credit him with energizing a sluggish agency plagued by backlogs. "He personifies the saying, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick,' " said Olga Vazquez-Clough, a member of the state Commission on Civil Rights, which advises the division. "He has reached beyond what is the description of his job. I couldn't be more surprised or more pleased." During his 15 months in office, Vespa-Papaleo, 33, has focused on high-profile cases affecting large numbers of people - taking action against a range of private companies and public agencies while simultaneously slashing the agency's backlog by 87 percent. Yesterday, he targeted a Cape May County hotel accused of turning away a blind man accompanied by a guide dog. He also has launched a wide-ranging community-outreach initiative; created two special units to investigate disability, housing and public accommodation cases; and compiled a list of discrimination complaints filed against companies and government agencies throughout the state in the last 10 years. He has found, he said, alleged instances of discrimination in South Jersey to be "more overt" than in the other parts of the state. "In the north, it's a more subtle, sophisticated type of discrimination," he said. Vespa-Papaleo's ultimate goal is a noble, if not idealistic, one. "My main purpose here is not to get money for people who are wronged but to stop discrimination in the first place," he said. Vespa-Papaleo, who became a naturalized citizen in 1988, graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1996 and practiced employment law in the late 1990s at firms in Essex County. In July 2002, he was tapped by then-Attorney General David Samson to run a division with which he had once sparred while defending public entities accused of discrimination. The Division on Civil Rights, part of the Attorney General's Office, is responsible for enforcing the state's antidiscrimination laws. With 80 staff members and five offices around the state, the division handles an average of 2,000 cases a year. Complaints, which can be filed by individuals or the director himself as administrative actions, are investigated through witness interviews and document reviews. If evidence of discrimination is found, the division will issue a finding of probable cause. The division tries to resolve the case with the two parties. If that fails, the case is sent to an administrative law judge, who will issue a final decision. Violators can be fined $10,000 for a first offense, $25,000 for a second, and $50,000 for a third, as well as be forced to pay attorney fees. Vespa-Papaleo issued a finding of probable cause yesterday against the Off Shore Motel in Rio Grande and its owner, Susan Lin, for refusing to rent rooms in April to Leonard McHugh, a blind man from Pottsville, who has a guide dog. McHugh had reserved the rooms with the prior understanding that he would be bringing the dog, Vespa-Papaleo said. "These aren't pets," he said of guide dogs. "You have to consider them to be no different from wheelchairs." Lin denied discriminating against McHugh. She said that after an initial misunderstanding, she offered two rooms to McHugh and his wife, and the dog, if they returned later, because the rooms were not ready, but that the couple never did. Earlier this year, the division reached a $25,000 settlement with a Nutley swim club that it had charged in August 2002 with barring minority children from using its facilities. In August, the division announced that it found "sufficient evidence" to support a claim of racial discrimination against a popular Woodbury restaurant, Café Neena, filed by a former employee who is African American. The case was sent to an administrative law judge last month. Based on the reports of undercover "testers," Vespa-Papaleo also has filed discrimination complaints in Superior Court in four counties against landlords throughout the state, including one in Woodbury Heights last month, for allegedly refusing to rent to recipients of Section 8 federal housing vouchers. The cases are pending. Last year, shortly after taking office, he issued a finding of probable cause against Weight Watchers of North Jersey after the company fired an employee for gaining 20 pounds during chemotherapy treatment for colon cancer. The woman withdrew her case after the division's finding and hired her own attorney. Part of Vespa-Papaleo's strategy is aggressive publicity: "It's my responsibility to press these issues in a public way, because there's no stronger message against bad actors than to see their name in the newspaper." On the list of unsubstantiated discrimination complaints spanning 10 years, 2,150 were generated from Camden County - the highest amount in the state. Among the top 10 entities on the statewide list were a public transportation company, an electric company, a casino, and a department store. "I've reached out to people on the list and asked, 'Why are you on here?' " Vespa-Papaleo said. " 'Are there some things we can do to prevent discrimination in the first place?' " John Crowell Campbell, cofounder of Gay and Lesbian Political Action and Support and a member of the state Civil Rights Commission, said that Vespa-Papaleo, more than his predecessors, had demonstrated a willingness to work with groups covered by the state's Law Against Discrimination. "I have some faith, finally, in something being done in basic civil and human rights areas since we have him there," Campbell said. "He's not the typical person you run into in the system... . He doesn't just talk this stuff. He acts it. He believes it." Vespa-Papaleo, who immigrated to Essex County when he was 5 and whose first language was Spanish, remembered his mother being called names because of her accent. The McGreevey administration has made civil rights a priority, Vespa-Papaleo said. "They have provided me resources at a time when a lot of agencies had to be cut," he said. Though many praise the director, some in legal circles question the division's effectiveness, citing the relatively small penalties. Neil Mullin, a civil-rights lawyer from Montclair, who acknowledged that he was not familiar with Vespa-Papaleo's tenure, said the Division on Civil Rights had "been irrelevant to me for the last 24 years I've been doing employment law. I view the agency as having a systemic problem. The agency has done little to break the glass ceiling that women and minorities face." Vespa-Papaleo disputed that. "I would say on the issue of whether we're relevant, ask the thousands of people who file complaints that can't afford expensive plaintiffs' attorneys - to them we're relevant.
|
Send mail to
email@gaypasg.org with questions or comments about this web site.
|