Ex-work force board head sues The County
The former executive director of a work force investment board is suing Aroostook County and the Northern Maine Development Commission for disability discrimination and violating the whistleblower law.
Dena Winslow of Presque Isle filed the suit last month in U.S. District Court in Bangor over her dismissal as head of the Local Workforce Investment Board for Aroostook and Washington counties, according to the Bangor Daily News. Winslow served as executive director of the LWIB from April 2008 to February 2010 and underwent several orthopedic surgeries that qualified her as disabled under the Maine Human Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit alleges that Aroostook County Administrator Doug Beaulieu made disparaging remarks about and refused to accommodate her disability, and that her termination violated discrimination laws. The suit also alleges that Beaulieu unfairly targeted her position after Winslow disseminated a federal audit of the LWIB that stated Beaulieu did not have the authority to act as her supervisor.
An attorney for the county said it was not responsible for Winslow's firing, since in February 2010 the county transferred fiscal direction of the LWIB to the Northern Maine Development Commission. A lawyer for NMDC did not comment on the lawsuit.
Winslow is seeking unspecified compensatory damages, back pay, reinstatement or front pay and attorneys' fees, according to the paper.
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