City: Managers in Sexual Harassment Suit Attended Training Six Months Earlier

WARWICK, RI — When City Controller Jason Parmelee’s inappropriate email to a Water Division employee allegedly sparked an 18-month sexual harassment campaign against her, the crux of her sexual harassment suit, he had attended training to avoid harassment six months earlier.

City records show his attendance at an RI Commission on Human Rights training on harassment for all supervisors on Aug. 31, 2021, along with Water Division Director Terry DiPetrillo, Human Resources Director Steven Rotondo, and DPW Director Eric Earls.

All had also received copies of the city’s sexual harassment policy years earlier, according to city records. Rotondo had first received a copy of the policy July 22, 2021. Earls had first received a copy of the policy on Nov. 4, 2013. Parmelee orginally received a copy of the policy March 30, 2020.

A sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Water Project Supervisor Bree Boulais details a year and seven months of harassment, starting with Parmelee, then multiple members of and supervisors in the Water Division, including Terry DiPetrillo, and apathy toward the victim’s reports from Earls and Rotondo, beginning less than a year after all had attended the in-person training on workplace harassment.

There was no available record showing that Parmelee’s supervisor, Finance Director Peder Schaefer, hired at the start Mayor Frank Picozzi’s administration, has received a copy of the policy, a memo, or attended the training, according to City records.

The formal public records request followed an email question to Liz Tufts, Mayor Frank Picozzi’s media coordinator, seeking to clarify the city’s sexual harassment policy and training, to which Picozzi’s office did not respond. The public records request also sought the city’s sexual harassment policy, which the City Clerk’s office provided, attached to the end of this article.

The policy provides no requirement for ensuring employees or supervisors receive or read the document, and no requirement for reminders about the policy. At the time of the in-person training, Terry DiPetrillo had last received a copy of the policy in 1998, though he signed receipt of a memo about the policy Feb. 5, 2010 and attended  a webinar hosted by the City EAP provider, titled “Sexual Harassment: Prevention & Response” held on two days July 13 and July 15, in 2020.

Water Division Business Manager Michael St. Pierre, who, according to the suit, both ignored Boulais’ complaints and later sexually harassed her himself on Feb. 9, 2023, had received a copy of the policy on May 20, 2004, with no further record of a reminder memo or attendance at sexual harassment training.

Michael DiPetrillo, described in the lawsuit as a frequent harasser of Boulais during the period, including verbal harassment and a threat of physical violence, first received a copy of the policy on Nov. 28, 2000, then received the 2010 memo and attended the 2020 training.

Water Division employee Norman Metz, also documented in the suit as sexually harassing Boulais in 2023, received a copy of the policy Dec. 13, 2021, with no further record of a memo or training.

What Warwick’s Sexual Harassment Policy Says

While the policy does not provide for verification of receipt of the policy or routine reminders for city personnel, it devotes two paragraphs at the end about “frivolous” and “vindictive” complaints, warranting a verbal or written reprimand or suspension or termination, respectively.

The policy only provides for termination following sexual harassment involving, “Overt, forced physical actions, such as grabbing, kissing, hugging, physically restricting sexual assault or rape.”

The policy requires, “All employees, Officers, and Supervisors are expected to treat any complaint immedIately, seriously, and confidentially and to give an investigation top priority,” which the lawsuit alleges several city supervisors failed to do.

For discipline following an investigation of sexual harassment, the policy establishes:

Warwick-Sexual-Harassment-Policy