Major lawsuit dealt a blow

Steve Shaya

By Charles Sercombe
A former city department head was dealt a potentially fatal setback in his Whistle Blower Protection Act lawsuit against the city.
A magistrate judge recently submitted a recommendation to a federal district court judge hearing the case to have the lawsuit dismissed.
Former Public Works Department Director Steve Shaya accused several city employees and department heads of using ethnic slurs regarding his Chaldean heritage and retaliating against him after he made several accusations of wrongdoing.
Shaya was fired two years ago by former Emergency Manager Cathy Square after Shaya admitted he was the uncle of a contractor who did work for the city and whom he supervised and authorized billings to the city.
His relationship with the contractor had not been known.
At the time of Shaya’s firing Square declined to reveal her reason for taking that action.
The contractor related to Shaya is Omar Nakash, who owns Platinum Landscaping, Inc, and who still performs work for the city.
The magistrate’s recommendation for the lawsuit’s dismissal is just that, a recommendation. The judge in the case can decide to override the recommendation and allow the case to move forward in its entirety or in part.
If the federal judge accepts the recommendations, Shaya’s lawsuit will be over.
City Attorney Travis Mihelick said that in general recommendations from a magistrate are followed.
“It’s a significant opinion, but it’s not final,” Mihelick said.
Those accused of creating a hostile work environment included former Police Chief Max Garbarino, former city administrator Kyle Tertzag and various city employees.
The magistrate judge, David Grand, noted that none of Shaya’s allegations of ethnic slurs or other comments and actions failed “to rise to the level he perceives them to be.”
Citing case law, the magistrate said Shaya “has simply failed to
show conduct ‘so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.’”
In one instance he was allegedly called an “Arab prince,” in another he was called “ghetto,” and in another he was chastised for being “too busy with your sand meetings.”
The magistrate said the comments – if they were truly made — were “mere insults, indignities, threats, annoyances, petty oppressions, or other trivialities”
Shaya’s lawsuit also included allegations of retaliations for actions he took.
In one instance he alleged that two water department employees shut off water service to his sister, who at the time lived in the city, in response to his allegation that one of them committed water billing fraud.
As it turned out, Shaya admitted in a deposition that his sister had been behind in paying her water bill at the time.
This is the second time in recent weeks that a member of Shaya’s family had a lawsuit involving a Hamtramck entity tossed out of court.
A few weeks ago a Michigan Appeals Court rejected Shaya’s nephew’s libel lawsuit filed against The Review.
His nephew, Omar Nakash, alleged that Review Publisher John Ulaj defamed him by comments he made while running for mayor three years ago regarding Nakash’s billings to the city.
Nakash owns and operates Platinum Landscaping, Inc., which still performs work for the city.
Like Shaya’s claims, the judges noted that Nakash failed to show he was harmed by Ulaj’s comments. The court also upheld that Ulaj’s comments were protected speech.