An independent review of a workplace complaint against Clifton Park Town Attorney Kevin Dailey has found that it did not identify sexual harassment, while a second complaint remains under review. The findings, delivered to the Town Board on Oct. 20, cap weeks of public fighting over how — and whether — the town should investigate allegations that first surfaced during a September board meeting.
The review was conducted by Latham attorney Michael Mansion, whom the Town Board voted 3-2 to hire on Oct. 6 along party lines, with Democrats in favor, according to the Times Union. Mansion was authorized to bill up to 20 hours at $315 an hour. The board also retained Capital Investigations Group LLC in a separate effort to determine whether confidential information about the complaints had been improperly disclosed, as reported by The Daily Gazette.
Mansion interviewed a redacted complainant for about an hour on Oct. 16. That complaint alleged Dailey discussed a personal medical issue by phone with someone who appeared to be a health care provider, and the complainant said she had recorded the call and had asked Dailey to close his office door while speaking to his doctor, according to The Daily Gazette's reporting on the underlying reports. Mansion's six-page report concluded Dailey briefly discussed a possible medical condition associated with aging, which the complainant described as insulting, but found the exchange did not create a hostile work environment with discriminatory intimidation or ridicule severe or pervasive enough to meet that legal standard. Mansion characterized the discussion as no more than an offensive utterance and concluded Dailey committed no ethics violation. Town officials said Mansion will review the second, still-undefined complaint in the coming weeks.
How the Allegations Became Public
The complaints were first publicly described as harassment complaints during the public-comment period of a Sept. 15 Town Board meeting, when former Deputy Supervisor Anthony Morelli said two sexual harassment complaints had been made against the town attorney. After Morelli spoke, Dailey filed a written complaint alleging that whoever disclosed information about the complaints to Morelli had violated the town's employee manual and federal confidentiality requirements, the Gazette reported.
Capital Investigations Group's work was meant to determine how Morelli obtained the information he discussed publicly, but the investigation could not conclusively determine the source. The report found Capital Investigations was unable to conduct a thorough and complete investigation into whether confidential information was released outside town procedure, according to the Gazette's review of the disclosure report.
Barrett's Role in the Disclosure Probe
Town Supervisor Phil Barrett denied Capital Investigations access to town email information through ABS Solutions LLC, the company that administers Clifton Park's email service, per the report. Barrett wrote to ABS Solutions that he would not authorize an open-ended investigation against town employees, and he said the disclosure investigation could be viewed as bordering on retaliation. Barrett did not respond to questions about his role in stopping the board-approved investigation or whether Capital Investigations was paid for its work, according to the Daily Gazette's reporting.
Barrett had initially expressed concerns about hiring outside counsel at all and ultimately voted against retaining Mansion. He has also called the investigation a witch hunt. Both Barrett and Deputy Supervisor Agatha Reid challenged the validity of the independent review once its findings were delivered on Oct. 20.
A Board Divided Over Process
The disagreements over how to handle the complaints stretch back weeks. At a Sept. 1 meeting, the board denied a motion from Barrett to enter executive session to discuss the personnel matter. Board members had repeatedly clashed over whether executive session or outside counsel was the right path, with some noting that going into executive session — where a town attorney normally would be present — doesn't work if the town attorney is the one being accused, per the Times Union's reporting.
Barrett and Reid later voted for a resolution to hire a private law firm, while board members Nancy Bellamy, Mario Fantini and Zabed Manir voted against it, the Daily Gazette reported. The town also denied a Times Union Freedom of Information Law request for copies of the complaints, citing confidentiality, leaving many underlying details — including the subject of the second complaint and its filing date — impossible to independently verify.
Dailey Calls It a Political Attack
Dailey has pushed back forcefully on the allegations. He told the Gazette the complaints were never about sexual harassment and amounted to a political attack, and in comments to the paper on Oct. 21 he characterized them as a coordinated effort against him by Barrett that were fabricated by Morelli. Separately, per Yahoo News, Dailey said one complaint may have involved an employee who overheard a private call he had in his office with a doctor, while he said he did not know the subject of the other complaint.
Dailey has questioned why people were pursuing what he calls baseless complaints at taxpayer expense, and said he wrote a letter urging the town board to release both complaints publicly for press and public review. Barrett and Morelli did not immediately provide comments or responses to Dailey's accusations, according to the Gazette.
Echoes of a 2022 Dispute
This isn't the first time Clifton Park's board has turned to outside investigators over workplace complaints involving Town Hall leadership. In 2022, three of the five board members voted to hire a law firm to investigate allegations of a toxic work environment at Town Hall after an employee accused Barrett of pushing him, according to Yahoo News. Morelli has also previously clashed with the board in court, having filed a Saratoga County Supreme Court petition seeking to reinstate former Town Attorney Paul Pelagalli and block the board from hiring Dailey — a lawsuit that was later dropped after the board appointed Dailey anyway, the Gazette reported.
