City Councilwoman Corazon Pineda-Isaac, left, is accused of getting involved in the firing of South Broadway BID Executive Director Jessica Gordon, right
Yonkers City Councilwoman Tasha Diaz says that a recent firing of a South Broadway Business Improvement District employee was done for political reasons. Diaz, says that SBBID Executive Director Jessica Gordon was fired because she was collecting petition signatures for the opponent of Councilwoman Corazon Pineda-Isaac, and that it was Pineda-Isaac who called for Gordon’s termination.
Diaz shared an email exchange between South Broadway BID Chairman Dennis Monasebin and Gordon in which Monasebin writes, “I got a call from Corazon, she said that several people told her that you were helping her opponent in the upcoming election; that she and they found it odd that you, as the face of the BID, were working for her opponent; and that she was upset that this was happening.”
“I told her that the BID does not take any positions on any election…We can only deal with those people who are already in office…we have to stay out of any campaign.”
Gordon served as the Executive Director of the South Broadway BID for five years. She now claims that she was fired for exercising her First Amendment Rights.
Diaz said, “This is disturbing and unethical. I will leave it up to the District Attorney and New York State Attorney General, who have both received my complaint in this matter, to determine if Councilwoman Pineda-Isaac’s actions rise to criminal conduct.”
“At a time when political retribution and retaliatory firings are being condemned at the national level under #DonaldTrump, Corazon Pineda Isaac should be ashamed of engaging in similar tactics,” said Diaz, who added that because politics has damaged the South Broadway BID’s mission to carry out its nonpartisan mission of delivering essential services to the South Broadway area, she will not be supporting the upcoming budget proposals for the SBBID, pending an investigation.
“Councilwoman Corazon Pineda Isaac strong-armed and pressured the Chairman of a Business Improvement District to fire someone for exercising their First Amendment rights. Jessica Guisto-gordon did nothing other than exercise her constitutional right to free speech. Therefore, I will be voting no on any budget or agenda items before the City Council that allocate funding to the #SouthBroadwayBID until a full and thorough investigation is conducted,” said Diaz.
Several facts will have to be determined to see if Gordon has a lawsuit. Was Gordon collecting petition signatures on her own time, or while she was working for the SBBID?
If she was not working for the SBBID at the time of collecting signatures, then she does appear to be within her rights to support any candidate for office on her own time.
But if there is proof that Gordon was collecting signatures while on the clock for the BID, then she is in the wrong and her termination was warranted. We have heard about someone following Gordon around South Yonkers while she was collecting signatures.
The political dynamic between Diaz and Pineda-Isaac is beyond repair.
A spokesperson for Pineda-Isaac’s campaign said, “There is no merit to this, and so it’s not worthy of a comment.”
