MORGANTOWN — The city of Morgantown is facing a second lawsuit claiming it failed to take appropriate corrective action in response to harassment alleged against its former deputy director of engineering & public works.
Dan Fluharty, whose tenure with the city lasted about six months — from October 2022 to April 2023 — is identified as the perpetrator of the harassment in both civil suits currently before the Monongalia County Circuit Court.
On Jan. 30, attorneys representing Sarahlin Duley filed suit, naming the city, Fluharty, Engineering and Public Works Director Damien Davis and Public Works Supervisor David Shrout as defendants.
Davis and Shrout, the suit claims, knew of the behavior but were complicit by not taking appropriate steps to remedy the situation.
According to the suit, Duley and another female employee, Erin Fullmer, worked in close proximity to Fluharty and Shrout out of office space at the Morgantown Municipal Airport. Duley worked as an engineering technician; Fullmer as an executive assistant within engineering and public works.
The lawsuit states Fluherty made Duley clean up after him, prepare him food and coffee, talked openly about his sex life, made repeated comments about the women’ s bodies and attire, touched both women unnecessarily and inappropriately, displayed a nude photo of a woman he claimed was his wife and routinely lingered over the work stations of both women.
Three months later, on March 28, Fullmer filed suit, naming the city as the lone defendant and describing similar behavior by Fluharty — inappropriate touching, sexually-charged behavior and commentary and discriminatory statements including, “the girls were there to serve sandwiches and coffee.”
As in the Duley suit, Fullmer claims supervisors within the department “ratified the harassment” by failing to take effective measures.
“The Defendant knew or should have known about the offending conduct of each of its employees as described throughout this complaint, yet the defendant failed to take swift and effective measures reasonably calculated to end the harassment,” attorney Bader Giggenbach wrote on behalf of Fullmer.
The city denied the allegations brought against itself in both suits – and against Davis and Shrout in the Duley suit – and requested the complaints be dismissed or, barring that, proven in a jury trial.
Legal counsel for the city points out that the city has a well-established anti-harassment policy and that it undertook a good faith effort to implement that policy in both instances. Further, the city claims both women not only failed to follow the policy by not immediately reporting the behavior, but violated the policy by their own conduct, “as well as participated in and encouraged the conduct alleged in the complaint.”
According to information included in the Duley suit, Duley and Fullmer requested a meeting with the city’s human resources department on March 30, 2023. That meeting was held the same day. Fluharty was placed on administrative leave on April 3 and subsequently terminated on April 17.
In February, Morgantown Communications Director Brad Riffee said the city took “prompt and appropriate action” when learning of the conduct.
“The safety of our employees and community is our highest priority. Our city staff have taken the necessary steps to address this matter and will continue to promote an equitable working environment for all of our employees,” Riffee said. “While we attempted to resolve this issue with Ms. Duley, the City is confident that the judicial process will lead to an appropriate resolution.”
Asked Thursday about the Fullmer claims, Riffee said, “We are aware of the situation, it has been addressed and the matter will be reviewed through the appropriate legal process.”
