Betsy Bambrick, a Conservative and Libertarian candidate for East Hampton Town Board in the forthcoming election, has an active complaint with the New York State Commission on Human Rights alleging mistreatment, age discrimination, and a hostile work environment during her final years as head of the town’s Ordinance Enforcement Division.
Ms. Bambrick, 58, retired at the end of 2017 and filed papers with the commission the following March, just under the deadline. Town officials have rejected her account, saying she was not the victim of discrimination or anything else.
The two narratives of Ms. Bambrick’s final years as a town employee could not be more different. Her complaint describes a culture of harassment, favoritism, and inappropriate sexual remarks. From the town’s perspective, Ms. Bambrick was a troublemaker who began to complain more loudly when she was passed over for promotion.
After an investigation, the Human Rights Division cast doubt on several of Ms. Bambrick’s claims but found sufficient cause that the age discrimination question be subject to public hearing. A conference between her and the town on a potential pre-hearing settlement has been scheduled for Dec. 2 and 3, though Ms. Bambrick’s New York attorney, Chris Albanse, said that would likely be rescheduled.
In an interview this week, Ms. Bambrick had little to say about the possibility of winning a town board seat while the matter is pending. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” she said. She added that she had chosen not to make an issue of her final years with the town during the campaign because she considered it a private matter.
Ms. Bambrick joined the town work force as an animal shelter supervisor in 1989. She was made director of ordinance enforcement in 2011, answering directly to the East Hampton Town Board. In 2014, during restructuring led by Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, David Betts was hired for a new position as public safety director. This made Mr. Betts suddenly her supervisor.
According to Ms. Bambrick, Mr. Betts demanded changes in the town’s ordinance enforcement practices, including more aggressive tactics and threats to Latinos without a warrant. He also told Ms. Bambrick and her staff to issue more tickets, regardless of evidence, to inflate the department’s numbers, she said.
When two new inspectors, Arthur Bloom and Kelly Kampf, were hired in 2015, Ms. Bambrick alleged, Mr. Betts “showed preference” for Ms. Kampf. At about the same time, she said, Mr. Betts began rolling his eyes and making faces at Ms. Bambrick and spent time texting or watching videos during staff meetings she conducted. Ms. Kampf, she claimed, “exhibited inappropriate workplace behaviors” and falsified time sheets.
At about the same time, Ms. Bambrick said, Mr. Betts told her he was going to replace the “old with the new,” which she took as a comment on her age. Mr. Betts also forced her to watch a video titled “Hot vs. Crazy Matrix,” which she saw as derogatory toward women, she said.
Ms. Bambrick took her complaints to town officials, including Alex Walter, the assistant to Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, and two town attorneys, each of whom ignored her, she said. Mr. Walter has denied that any such conversations took place.
In the spring of 2016 things got worse, Ms. Bambrick’s complaint states. Mr. Betts stopped talking to her and began “badmouthing her and directing other employees not to talk to her or assist her in any way.” He also shut her out of meetings and “cut her out” of the chain of command.
That fall, Ms. Kampf became assistant director of public safety with a $75,000 annual salary. This made Ms. Kampf Ms. Bambrick’s direct supervisor.
According to Ms. Bambrick the promotion came without Ms. Kampf’s having obtained correct Civil Service status.
In a text message to Ms. Kampf on Sept. 20, 2016, Ms. Bambrick wrote, “Congratulations Boss. By the way, I’m taking a sick day tomorrow for a doctor’s appointment.”
Ms. Kampf replied, “It wasn’t my place to tell you. I am sorry but I was approached about it, and I couldn’t turn it down. Feel better.”
Ms. Bambrick texted back, “I’ve been very good to you. I hope no one betrays you in a similar fashion. Remember the worm turns.”
Subsequently, Ms. Kampf filed her own complaint with the town ethics board about what she saw as Ms. Bambrick’s efforts to undermine her authority.
Ms. Bambrick characterized Ms. Kampf’s promotion as an intentional move by Mr. Betts to perturb her by forcing her to report to a supervisor with 20 years less experience
Six months later, Ms. Bambrick interviewed for an open Southampton Town position and said she was told she was a top candidate. About two weeks later, her complaint states, she learned Mr. Betts had asked a town employee to phone Southampton officials to accuse her of “wrongdoing.” She did not get the job.
An attorney hired by East Hampton Town described her “worm turns” text message as “a serious threat to a colleague,” which demonstrated her demeanor and hostility toward co-workers. After the town hired Mr. Betts, Ms. Bambrick challenged his authority routinely and became difficult to work with, the town’s response said.
“Bambrick was known as hostile and explosive, and often acting as an instigator, rather than a problem-solver,” the town claimed.
The town response also said that in her final year, Ms. Bambrick “received the lowest performance evaluation of all department heads, with a score of 1.42 out of a 5.0. . . .” Ms. Bambrick’s attorney, in a rebuttal, wrote that the low score was intentional retribution on the town’s part.
Ms. Bambrick also said Ms. Kampf grabbed her arm in November 2017, damaging the ulnar nerve. That year, too, the town cut Ms. Bambrick’s salary by $18,000.
In a strongly worded passage, the town’s lawyer spared little invective, quoting from Shakespeare’s “Henry VI, Part 3” and writing, “In Bambrick’s telling, she is the trodden upon worm. However the treatment about which she complains is nothing more than a laundry list of time-barred petty grievances, fabrications, and salacious rumors about former colleagues, none of which rise to the level of unlawful harassment, discrimination, or retaliation.”
In addition, the human rights investigation found no evidence of sexual harassment directed at Ms. Bambrick by co-workers. In a report, the investigator said that racy comments in the Ordinance Enforcement Department, which Ms. Bambrick believed to be gender-based harassment, “were neither severe and/or pervasive enough to rise to a violation of law.” It also noted that her problems with Mr. Betts began well before the town brought in Ms. Kampf.
Separately, Mr. Bloom, who was fired for allegedly destroying official documents, has an age discrimination case pending against the town, which is on track for public hearing. Citing that case, the human rights investigator concluded that there was sufficient cause for Ms. Bambrick’s own age discrimination claim to move forward.
Ms. Kampf resigned in June 2018. Mr. Betts remains the town Public Safety Division director.