Whitman Council sued

Next month will mark Janet DeGiovanni-Sharp’s 14th anniversary as executive director for Whitman Council. But there is no celebration in the works.

DeGiovanni-Sharp filed a lawsuit Aug. 11 against the neighborhood group, claiming a friendship and subsequent marriage with an ex-priest led to age, religious and sex bias by members of the group.

Now living in Delaware, DeGiovanni-Sharp is married to Kenneth Sharp, a former priest of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 2319 S. Third St., and a former member of Whitman’s board of directors. Their wedding was in June.

The Whitman Council, which handles quality-of-life issues in the Whitman neighborhood, receives funds through the city’s Office of Housing and Community Development (OHCD). DeGiovanni-Sharp’s lawsuit claims Robert Blackburn, Whitman’s president, contacted OHCD in August 2004 and informed the office she was "having an affair with a priest and the group wanted grounds to terminate her."

While the executive director received a raise last September, her 2004 evaluation – received this month – contained a number of negative comments, stated the lawsuit.

DeGiovanni-Sharp met with Henry Lewandowski, a board member and the group’s vice president, and Blackburn in October and said the two began asking "inappropriate questions" about her personal life, the lawsuit claimed. Blackburn told DeGiovanni-Sharp declining to answer violated Whitman employment policies and gave her "24 hours to resign or he would go public with some unspecified information," stated the lawsuit.

After she declined to resign, the lawsuit claims the board of directors appointed one of its members, Michael Sullivan, chairman of a new committee to investigate DeGiovanni-Sharp. Sullivan produced a list of questions for DeGiovanni-Sharp and wanted immediate answers, the lawsuit said. The committee also was funded with $7,000 of the council’s money, maintained the lawsuit.

"That money is for the good of the community … and that’s the best way the money should have been spent," DeGiovanni-Sharp said in an interview this week.

DeGiovanni-Sharp said she injured her back while distributing food and goods last December for the council, keeping her out of the office until June. She returned to find the same list of questions on her desk and a "demand for answers or she would be terminated," stated the lawsuit.

DeGiovanni-Sharp answered them, but said her answers were worded in a way that made the council aware "they were inappropriate questions and they are against my civil rights."

"I needed my job. I was out of work for six months because I was hurt," she said. "Once I was capable of going back to work, this is what I was faced with all over again."

Speaking on behalf of himself, Lewandowski and Sullivan, Blackburn declined to comment for this article.

While upset by the lawsuit, DeGiovanni-Sharp said it was necessary due to the harassment, intimidation and discrimination she was subject to.

"I wouldn’t want this to happen to anyone else," she said.

The events that have unfolded have taken a toll on her well-being, she said.

"I get up physically ill and I go to sleep physically ill because of the injustices that Whitman Council has bestowed upon me," she said.