Schenectady County Legislator Angelo Santabarbara is claiming his state Assembly aspirations have led to him being fired from his job.
The Chazen Companies on Tuesday, Feb. 14, fired Santabarbara, who has worked as a senior project manager and project engineer with the company for more than five years. It was one day after he informed his superiors in a letter of his intentions to run for a seat in the state Assembly.
According to Santabarbara, the construction consulting firm told him he was let go because his department was being restructured and his position eliminated, but Santabarbara said he believes his decision to run for office played a part in his sudden termination.
“I think it is important that people are not afraid to run for public office,” Santabarbara said. “I don’t think that’s right and I don’t think that’s fair.”
Upon arriving to the office on the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 14, Santabarbara said he was called into a room with Senior Principal Daniel Stone, Senior Director of Business Development David Ardman and Vice President of Human Resources Lauren Gillett.
“I sat down, and they said that this was about me running for office and I explained to them my intentions,” Santabarbara said on Thursday, Feb. 16. “Dan Stone, the owner, immediately said, or as soon as I was done … ‘running for office and you working here is not going to work.’ That is his exact words that I remember.”
According to Santabarbara’s account, Stone said, “We are going to have to part ways.” July would have marked Santabarbara’s six-year anniversary at Chazen.
Santabarbara said Gillet then said the reason for his termination was a restructuring of his department. Santabarbara said he was unaware of any restructuring efforts before the meeting at which he was fired.
“Clearly they didn’t have their stories straight … because I heard two different things,” Santabarbara said.
Stone is on vacation until Monday, Feb. 27, according to Chazen staff, and an attempt to reach him by email was unsuccessful.
Ardman on Friday, Feb. 17, said Santabarbara’s firing “was a business decision that was made a long time ago and not just this Tuesday (Feb. 14).”
He declined to speak further.
“We are not going to comment on personnel issues,” Ardman said.
Gillet did not respond to a voicemail or email requesting comment on Stone’s alleged comment to Santabarbara, or the termination in general.
New York State is an “employment-at-will” state, so an employer generally may discharge an employee at any time for any reason. State Labor Law does prohibit an employer from firing an employee based on their political activities outside of work, which includes running for public office.
Job played a role in past bid
When Santabarbara, D-Rotterdam, ran against incumbent 105th District Assemblyman George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, in the 2010 election, he alleged Amedore threatened his job by telling his employer a political challenge would be bad for business.
Santabarbara released audio recordings mid-October of 2010 that he said proved Amedore had threatened his job at Chazen. Santabarbara said the recording was part of a conversation between him and Amedore on or around April 29 at Aperitivo Bistro in downtown Schenectady. Amedore was not aware the conversation was being recorded, and Santabarbara said he recorded the meeting to protect himself if he was fired.
In the tapes provided by Santabarbara, he discussed with Amedore what was said to Santabarbara’s boss, Joe Lanaro, vice president of engineering services for Chazen.
In 2010, Amedore vehemently denied attempting to have Santabarbara fired from his job.
Now, Santabarbara said he doesn’t know if the incident played into the company’s decision to dismiss him, but he said, “It seems like it does.”
Amedore has said he’s weighing a possible state Senate bid if a new seat is created through redistricting, or if there is a vacant Senate seat. Redistricting efforts could potentially impact Santabarbara’s Assembly bid.
A sudden sit down
Santabarbara said he has never received any negative comments during performance reviews or otherwise, so he was baffled when his position at Chazen was eliminated.
“Everything up to this point indicates I have been doing an excellent job,” Santabarbara said. “I have never had a negative comment said or recorded. … There is no document out there saying that I was doing anything wrong.”
When Santabarbara was dismissed from his position at Chazen, he was presented with an Agreement and General Release, which he provided to The Spotlight. The agreement released any claims against the employer or employee. Also, both parties would agree to not make any negative statements about each other, with a general confidentially over the agreement. Severance pay equal to four weeks of Santabarbara’s salary was attached to the agreement.
Santabarbara did not sign the agreement and said he doesn’t intend too, but he does have until March 14 to sign it.
Santabarbara also pointed to Chazen approving his presence at the Capital District Celebration of National Engineers Week conference at the Marriott in Albany, which was held Feb. 16 and 17.
“It seems like they didn’t have intentions of [firing me], or why would you have set up the conference?” he said.
Santabarbara provided The Spotlight with documentation showing Ardman approved his attendance at the conference, and an email confirming his registration at the conference. No refund for cancellations could be made after Feb. 9.
Santabarbara had also been scheduled to appear at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Exploring Engineering Day on Saturday, Feb. 18.
“Angelo L. Santabarbara, PE, affiliated with the Chazen Companies will speak to students and their parents about the role of a civil engineer, and some of the projects that the Chazen Companies has been worked on in the region,” read a press release from RPI.
Santabarbara said he hasn’t yet considered taking any legal action toward Chazen.
Plans for Assembly bid continue
Santabarbara said he’s primarily focusing on finding another job, but then he plans to seek party support for his second state Assembly bid. If Amedore takes a stab at the state Senate, it could open that seat up.
“I look forward to a great campaign, and I am thankful to have a second opportunity to run for this office,” he said. “It seems that it is an open seat at this point … but that is not why I am running.”
In the 2010 General Election, Santabarbara trailed significantly behind Amedore in Montgomery County, with Santabarbara receiving 4,319 votes compared to Amedore’s 9,269 votes. In Schenectady County, the gap was closer at 10,770 votes for Santabarbara and 12,169 votes for Amedore.
Santabarbara said he hopes to spend more time in Montgomery County “connecting with the people” this time around.
“I’d like to get my message across to the Montgomery County area as I have done here,” he said. “People can learn about some of the things I’ve been doing here and my history.”
Santabarbara was reelected to the Schenectady County Legislature in 2011 for his second four-year term. He said he was pleased to see strong support in that bid.
“I believe I could be more effective as a state legislator and get things done at a different level,” he said, “and be in a good position to continue my work that I have at the county except at the state level.”
