September 26, 2008
Hon. Joseph DiVincenzo, Executive
County of Essex
Hall of Records, Floor 4
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: Rashidah N. Hasan, Esq.
Dear Mr. DiVincenzo:
CWA Local 1081, the Union representing the non-managerial employees of the Essex County Division of Welfare, herein protests the County’s continued reliance upon Rashidah N. Hasan, Esq. to serve as the hearing officer for our members managerially indicted for alleged major disciplinary workplace infractions:
1. Until relatively recently, the County had always utilized the services of an array of attorneys from a list approved by the Essex County Board of Freeholders and assigned on a rotational basis to act as hearing officers in cases involving CWA Local 1081’s members.
2. Conversely, and inexplicably, Ms. Hasan has been exclusively employed by the County to act as the hearing officer at our members’ major disciplinary hearings for some time.
3. Our Union has, respectively, found Ms. Hasan ostensibly less than objective toward our Union and our affected members both in her comportment and her recommendations to management.
4. Ms. Hasan is a former employee of the Essex County Division of Welfare, which might possibly explain our assessment of her actions in the abovementioned regard and which may as well represent a conflict of interest.
5. Concerning the most recent major disciplinary hearing over which she presided involving a member of our Union, CWA Local 1081 was not even provided by Ms. Hasan a copy of her recommendation to management, thus compelling our Union to request and receive a copy of the document from County Counsel.
6. As per the article below, published within the April 4, 2008 edition of The Star Ledger, Ms. Hasan’s reported conviction for contempt of court gives CWA Local 1081 additional pause as to the attorney’s ’s appositeness for assignment to our members’ major disciplinary hearings.
CWA Local 1081, therefore, respectfully requests Ms. Hasan no longer be assigned by the County of Essex to serve as a hearing officer in matters involving any members of our Union.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081
C: Anibal Ramos
Bruce Nigro
Yvonne Davis
Courtney Gaccione
James Paganelli, Esq.
Lynn Buckley
Hetty Rosenstein
Stephen Weissman, Esq.
Rashidah. N. Hasan, Esq.
Lawyer sentenced in contempt of court case
by Guy Sterling/The Star-Ledger
Friday April 04, 2008, 2:31 PM
William Perlman/The Star-Ledger Rashidah Hasan.
A Superior Court judge in Hudson County has sentenced Rashidah Hasan, a Bloomfield lawyer held in contempt of court in Essex County, to a year of probation, fined her $500 and ordered her to perform 16 hours of community service.
Judge Paul DePascale, sitting in Jersey City, told Hasan he would forget the whole thing if she wrote a letter of apology to Joseph Connolly, a Municipal Court judge in Bloomfield. Hasan had objected to how Connolly handled an otherwise routine traffic case. She instead said she would file and appeal.
Hasan appealed the original finding of contempt by Connolly, but it was upheld.