MEA racism claim lands in court

PALMER — An employee at the Matanuska Electric Association has filed suit in federal court alleging racism on the job.

Donte Kelly, who has been employed there since 1990, mainly as a sub-foreman and lineman, complains in the suit, filed Feb. 13, of a hostile work environment while working for the utility.

Kelly complains of other employees, some his supervisors, using racial epithets including the ones most commonly used to insult blacks but also ones like “nappy” and “boy.”

“Throughout plaintiff’s employment with MEA, he has had to endure several overt racial incidents which have included a hangman’s noose placed above his desk; a coffin-like mailbox placed above his MEA locker that was painted jet black and contained the word ‘Napville’ stenciled on one side and ‘J. Kelly’ on the other side; having his work solutions referred to as ‘[N——] rig,’ and the heads of MEA refer to him as ‘boy.’” the complaint states.

MEA has not yet filed a response to the allegations. In past interviews, Assistant General Manager Tuckerman Babcock has said that he, as head of the human resources division, has investigated all of the incidents and that the company has acted appropriately in each case.

“MEA’s responsiveness has been upheld in every forum,” Babcock said in past interviews.

Kelly’s complaints have surfaced before, most notably at MEA board meetings like the one Sept. 8, 2008, when the board debated whether Kelly would be allowed to speak at meetings.

At that meeting, Kelly’s attorney, Bill Ingaldson, said he was hoping to speak to the board to possibly forestall having to bring the matter to court. The board, Kelly and Ingaldson went into closed-door session at that meeting.

Friday, Jim Boardman, a lawyer with Ingaldson’s firm who is working closely with him on the case, said he didn’t know, when asked whether what MEA did afterward was insufficient.

“Ultimately, I’m not sure what happened at MEA’s level. I think it ended up being a political showdown,” Boardman said.

The cover sheet of Kelly’s lawsuit asks for damages “in excess of $100,000.” Asked what he wants the suit to achieve, Boardman said he hopes for changes at the utility.

“I’d like to see a system where when someone hangs a noose over your head it’s handled effectively,” he said. “If I were to hang a hangman’s noose over anybody’s desk I would expect to be immediately terminated.”

Instead, according to the affidavit, the man who hung the noose was eventually promoted to be Kelly’s supervisor.

Kelly also complains in the suit that he was passed over for promotion himself, both because of his race and because he complained.

Boardman said that the racism, as far as he could tell, started small and gradually intensified. He could only speculate as to why that was.

“I don’t know if people then around him saw this going on and then thought that, ‘Oh this is just a fun little game,’” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.