Great.... More money the tax payers of Howell will have to absorb. I hope these women get everything they deserve. Why is this guy back on the job???!

How sad that their complaints were not handled correctly and because of that the taxpayers will ultimately pay the price.

Wow did you read the complaint? How can that guy get away with talking to people like that?

This absolutely makes me sick. How does a department head get away with treating his employees this way???? And back to work???? Are you serious… How does a township manger and the township allow him back to work? These poor women, I just don’t understand.

As happens with most of these type of suits, tHowell will settle it, and try to hide the settlement terms. The settlement agreement, of course, will be available through an OPRA/Common Law request. This will probably settle for hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars if the alligations stated are accurate. Probably most if not all will be covered by insurance.
The town has already admitted guilt in that they suspended .Pondaco over this. The strange thing is that he was suspended with pay.....
If all the allegations are accurate people that were involved with this , in addition to Pondaco , need to be fired. This happened on Deputy Mayor Gotto's watch. How can he expect to be elected Mayor under these circumstances??
The rule by intimidation, it appears....

Ok Howell Taxpayers, can you say "Send them the Money", and LOTS OF IT
1-Let's look at the PDFS-1 Document above, Municipal Court Judge Kaplan is named as involved. Judge Kaplans re-appointment is usually a "Rubber Stamp" by the Council. Co incidently his appointment was up fro renewal on or about July 1, 2012. The township posted a "Job Opening" for Municipal Court Judge. Kaplan was "interviewed" with a few other applicants for the Municipal Judge position BUT was NOT selected. Essentially he was terminated, and a new Municipal Court Judge for Howell was appointed. Was determined to be at fault by the township and burned?

2-Pondoco was Suspended, with pay, for who know how many days. 30, 60, 90??.
He was reinstated to his previous supervisory position. Who Suspended Him? (Kaplan or the Manager), Why was he suspended?. Who re-instated him? (Kaplan or the Manager)
Public Records show that in 2011 he was paid $74,736.00. That's over $6,000.00 per month for not working?? And Deputy Mayor Gotto says "We don't have a spending problem"
If you look at the last page in the PDFS-1 (Exhibit A) This issue was on going well prior to June 8, 2012.

So looks to me like Howell has a lot of damage control to deal with.....

If it is as stipulated as is in the complaint, it sounds like it could be a civil rights case and perhaps something that the Monmouth County Prosocuter needs to get involved with at some point...

One of their Attorney's (Rosemarie Arnold) prior settlement:
Bergen settles lawsuit with employee abused by boss NorthJersey.com - 1/23/09
Bergen County will pay $2.75 million to a former parks employee who alleged in a lawsuit that top county executives failed to protect her from a sexually abusive boss.

AND there are 3 or perhaps 4 plaintiff(s) suing Howell for similar abuses

Wow $11,000,000.00..I sure hope they have insurance
Looks like their Attorney is aggressive.....

Disturbed are you serious 6 months. That's a lot of taxs payers money wouldn't you say to sit home and do absolutely nothing

I heard that the matter was referred to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's bias crime unit!

This is all very sad. These three women shouldn't have to endure such abuse. I am confident they will stand on top in the end. Having to constantly bring this to the townships attention without follow through is disgusting and quite frankly, embarrassing. To the three women involved, stay strong, be consistent and stay true to yourselves.

6 Months???
I only picked some numbers to come up with a potential cost to us, the Taxpayers..If it was 6 months that's $37,366.00 PLUS Benefits so maybe over $50,000.00 that we paid for no work..How does the town justify that???
WHO WAS WATCHING THE STORE???????
Someone needs to be held accountable..and not only Pondoco

OMG.....

Ladies I wish you all the best. Hang them and enjoy all the money you deserve. As for Pondoco why the hell is he still employed. As for Township Manager Helene Schlegel I wonder what Pondoco calls her sorry self.

More money for attorneys to "vigorously"defend this outrageous behavior condoned by the township: Apparently a 4th Woman has come forward. SPEND, SPEND, SPEND..

Township Manager Helene Schlegel who said, "The Township has taken all appropriate and necessary actions in this matter." She added, "Our lawyers will vigorously defend these unfounded allegations."

The complaint (prepared by a money hungry attorney who doesn’t get paid if he/she doesn’t win the suit) gives some examples of what the co-workers allege happened. Was anyone there or see this take place to verify it really happened or did we give up the right to be innocent until proven guilty and have his or her day in court? Why is it all to common people will make ignorant comments without the facts on these websites? I must confess the article reads more like a bunch of disgruntle employees with gripes to settle looking to cash in. They only worked with this man for how many years and now publicly complain? Don’t believe everything you read in the papers. Maybe it's Obama or Bush's fault. (Sarcasm on)

More details http://www.app.com/article/20120911/NJNEWS/309110160&source=rss

It is standard procedure anywhere to suspend with pay until person is found guilty/not guilty.... innocent until proven guilty....

An alleged offender must be removed from work environment until matter is settled whether its a government or private company employee....standard procedures.

BG...What you are saying makes sense...However if he was, indeed, suspended for 6 months, sounds like someone at town hall was sitting their hands on this ..Do you know how long the suspension was? .According to attorney Arnolds June 8 2012, (Exhibit A in the PDFS above) letter to Attorney Padula (Townships Attorney) looks like they were really not interested to hear what these woman had to say back inJune......

BG & NewsLover---Seems like the town "stuck it's head in the sand" on this and did everything to position itself so as not to indicate any fault in this..If they terminated Pondaco after both a police investigation as well as an HR investigation, the town would have admitted that they did nothing to protect those woman from an abusive supervisor, as they are claiming...So they did a Sgt. Schultz on this (Isee nothing, I hear nothing)..This way the manager can say "Our lawyers will vigorously defend these unfounded allegations."
Unfounded being the key word
An important question in this is that I am sure Attorney Arnold will look into is Why did they NOT re-appoint [Judge] Kaplan? Story indicates that they went to him as the head of the court and apperently he did not address the problem..
Lots of unknows..Why would 4 mature woman all come up with the same complaint? Once they talk to others that were working in the court we may know more of what happened.....I will be shocked if the town spends taxpayers money to litigate this.......or the towns attorney allows Kaplan, and the Manager, to testify in open court and perhaps even individuals from the police that did any investigation.. to testify in open court.....
It will never happen I predict....

Someone at the township tried to hide this an then subsiquently try to put the kibosh on this, through intimidation by A- Threatining these woman with termination, and B- by transferring them to ostensibly lower paying positions.
If this is proven, or the town settles this ,Whoever was involved with this at the township, needs to be fired..Period..Seems like there are 2 different issues. What we see in the complaint is a "Civil" Complaint..If all this indees happened there is also a "Criminal" offense that needs to be explored by the appropriate authorities..
Look at the OJ case. He was found not guilty at the criminal trial, BUT found guilty at the Civil Trial.
These woman sure deserve a lot of money from the township from what they have been put through for 3 or 4 years.....

?

.

What a hostile environment in Howell to say the least.
I don't see how they let it get this far, especially when apparently they brought this issue to the attention of the administration in 2008 or 2009.
Just something to ponder:
Workplace Bullying
Bullying in the workplace can involve more than physical harassment. Verbal taunting such as sexual harassment, gossip, false accusations, constant criticism or being harshly reprimanded in front of co-workers also characterize bullying behavior

WORKPLACE RETALIATION
Employment and labor laws were put in place to protect employees from mistreatment in the workplace. Sometimes when employees stand up for the rights guaranteed by these laws, they become victims of workplace retaliation.
Workplace retaliation is an action taken by your employer to punish you for asserting your employee rights or reporting illegal conduct. Whether the retaliatory actions involve demotion, harassment or termination, they are illegal.

Know the Facts:
No, We did not know this:
(especially those that don't even realize the Court Administrator is under purview of the Superior Court presiding judge, not just the Township Manager.
And yes we know anybody can file a complaint about anything BUT an experienced attorney like Ms Arnold probably would not bring this case, on contingency, if she thought the allegations were not true? I'm sure she checked the facts before proceeding.

So the question then becomes, did the township manager notify the presiding judge that Mr. Pondaco was suspended and being investigated for in appropriate behavior? Did the judge sign off on the findings of the townships 6 month investigation??
Are there any performance appraisals on file for the 4 woman or their supervisor??

An amended complaint was filed including a fourth woman and allegations of constructive termination!

Today I had a conversation with Dominic. I was looking for some direction about my case. I was screamed at on the phone and honestly treated like garbage. After reading all the above now I know that this man certainly has a problem with anger management. Can someone please call me, I need direction as to whom I can address a complaint to. My number is 732-804-7260.

how much for their pain and suffering? Does lawyer get a third or what? With all the real truly painful and costly injustice going on in this country and world, we are worried so much about words "hurting" our feelings? If this was on going why didn't they secretly record it? Even if it wasn't admissable in court it could have been brought up to management and would have ended this guys carreer. It is getting very easy to make these claims and quite lucrative too. Especially if all the girls in the office go along with it. Just saying that the money made on these suits makes it awful tempting to cry wolf.

Just heard that TODAY Podanco was escourted out via the police and suspended without pay pursuant to an Order of a Judge in Monmouth County....could it be related?

Well this is very interesting if in fact this is the case..Someone from the Howell Council or Administration needs to respond to this if it happened as Johnny Boyhas reported???

Maybe the Patch People will follow-up and publish something about the status of the lawsuit and this latest speculation

Good possibility it's related, OR the new Municipal Judge has figured it out and reported to the County what is going on in Howell ??? Apparently the County Court has some administrative responsibility over Pondaco so it makes sense that they wold be the authority to suspend him ...

It looks like the original employee lawsuit has been transferred? Maybe to another Court??
http://njcourts.judiciary.state.nj.us/web1/ACMSPA/entry
It's Docket # 3704, Year 12, Monmouth County, Law

This case has been transferred out of Monmouth County Courts, to Middlesex County.
The new docket # is L-001091-13

Johnny Boy--Seems like you're on top of this: You were correct
http://www.app.com/article/20130418/NJNEWS/304180190/Howell-court-official-relieved-of-duties?nclick_check=1

What is interesting, while the Township was conducting it's investigation Pondaco was placed on PAID suspension. This time it's UNPAID suspension, although the town is saying this suspension is none of their doing..Something sure is fishy..
It will be interesting to see what happens, or is said next.......

Cut from "Know the Facts" comment 9/13/12 above:
(especially those that don't even realize the Court Administrator is under purview of the Superior Court presiding judge, not just the Township Manager... or that THE LAW requires employees be placed on administrative leave with pay pending an investigation...

Interesting to see how this relates to Pondaco's latest suspension..suspended WITH OUT pay by Monmouth County Superior Court Assignment Judge Lawson.
"Assignment judges may immediately suspend a certification when an employee has been charged with misconduct or there are credible allegations that he or she has committed a serious offense or has engaged in serious misconduct, according to Municipal Court Administrator Certification Board Law"

There appears to be a hearing set for May 17 - can't the patch get the details via freedom of information or open records ???