The first Black member of the Irondequoit Town Board has sued the town, claiming racial and gender discrimination.
Patrina Freeman, a Democrat elected to the board in 2019, alleges in a federal lawsuit filed last week that two town officials engaged in a consistent pattern of discrimination against her.
Specifically, she claims that the former acting town supervisor, John Perticone, and a current Town Board member, Kimmie Romeo, stifled her efforts to spearhead a racial equity program, intimidated her by encouraging the presence of armed, white off-duty police officers at town meetings, and required her to pay out of pocket for materials related to her work.
Freeman is seeking $1 million in damages.
Phone messages left Thursday for Romeo and an attorney representing the town were not immediately returned. Attempts to reach Perticone were unsuccessful.
Freeman is represented by lawyer Nate McMurray, who previously ran as a Democrat against Chris Collins for Congress in 2018 and Chris Jacobs in 2020, and Brooklyn-based labor attorney Arthur Schwartz.
A message left for Freeman was not immediately returned. McMurray returned an email but deferred questions to Schwartz, who was not immediately available.
The legal action was not entirely unexpected. It was previously reported that Freeman filed a notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, against the town in December.
The lawsuit alleges Freeman was treated unfairly from the outset of her time on the board. Among her complaints are her being made to wear her official badge to enter town buildings, despite no other board members having the same requirement, and her frequently not being given access to all the necessary paperwork for town meetings.
“Ms. Freeman tried on several occasions to address these concerns. Unable to find any resolution, in March 2020, Ms. Freeman requested a formal meeting with her Town Board colleagues,” the lawsuit reads. “Their response was to tell her to, ‘Get over it’ and that, ‘It happens to everyone.’”
Amid protests over police brutality and the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, former Irondequoit Supervisor David Seeley had organized the Irondequoit Commission on Advance Racial Equity (ICARE). The commission’s goal was to focus on issues related to racial equity in Irondequoit and offer solutions. Seeley tapped Freeman to lead the initiative.
Freeman alleges she was thwarted at every turn. Her attempt to duplicate binders of orientation materials for the commission, for instance, was denied by the town, according to the lawsuit. Freeman claims she paid for the copying costs herself and was later reimbursed after the matter was brought to the attention of Seeley. The town also declined to pay for lunch for ICARE meetings, build a website for ICARE, or allow use of town rooms without paying a fee, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that after the Town Board voted to tap the Urban League to facilitate a first-time homeowners program through ICARE, Perticone, who was then the deputy town supervisor, and Romeo attempted to reverse the decision.
“In June 2021, defendant Councilwoman Kimmie Romeo and defendant John Perticone suddenly changed course, opposing the selection of the Urban League because they said the program was, ‘solely targeting Black people,’” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit alleges the situation intensified after Seeley left the town supervisor position to serve as executive director of Rochester Works! in August 2021. Seeley was replaced by Perticone in an acting capacity.
Romeo, after attempting to seek a full accounting of ICARE’s activities, falsely accused Freeman of threatening her life and filing a police report against her, according to the lawsuit. Romeo is the mother of Monroe County Clerk Jamie Romeo.
Later, during budget negotiations, Perticone and Freeman bickered over creating an administrative assistant position that paid $18,000, according to the lawsuit.
Freeman alleges the situation has not improved, and that all of her complaints to human resources have been dismissed as personal disputes.
“The treatment of plaintiff Freeman has occurred because of her race," the lawsuit reads, "and because her work involves associating with and giving aid to people who are non-white."
Gino Fanelli a CITY staff writer.