The conversation, secretly recorded, was stark.
The mayor of Linden and two school officials spoke bluntly about just who they thought should be hired by the school system. And who should not, according to court filings.
“If it’s in a neighborhood school district,” said one of those present, identified in those filings as the school board president, “we don’t mind if it is a Black person or a Haitian-speaking person.”
The mayor was more direct, it was alleged.
“That’s what has to happen in order to keep our community being taken over by guys with big hats and curls,” he said, referring to the growingJewish community in Linden — a phrase clearly taking note of the wide-brim black hats and payot, or curled sidelocks, traditionally worn by some Orthodox men.
In a whistleblower lawsuit filed on Thursday, Paul Oliveira, who served as Linden’s assistant school superintendent, accused Mayor Derek Armstead, as well as school board president Marlene Berghammer, Superintendent Atiya Y. Perkins, and others of blatant antisemitism in what was called an effort to deliberately exclude Jews from employment with the schools.
The mayor, one of 11 Democrats running in a special election this summer to finish the unexpired term of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr., denied the allegations, calling them “hogwash.”
The case, filed in state Superior Court in Union County, claimed that Armstead and other school officials specifically sought potential job candidates of African-American or Haitian descent. And that Jewish individuals were to be excluded.
Oliveira, a 20-year veteran of the Newark school system serving as Linden’s assistant superintendent for academics, also alleged acts of retaliation in violation of New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination and New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act.
Oliveira’s attorney, Armen McOmber of McOmber McOmber & Luber in Red Bank, called the allegations “deeply concerning.” He said the complaint not only alleged that the mayor and members of the school district “engaged in illegal and antisemitic hiring practices,” but that the Linden Board of Education also “unlawfully abrogated their responsibility to their constituents by allowing Mayor Armstead to handpick candidates of his choosing for open positions.”
The filing said that “while it would be laudable” to undertake efforts to recruit staff members of diverse races, nationalities or backgrounds, the mayor and others “had a very different agenda in mind — namely, an antisemitic and illegal hiring scheme…to literally, keep Linden from being ‘taken over’ by Jews.”
In the filing and on recordings made available to NJ.com, Armstead during that Jan. 22, 2024 meeting with Oliveira and Berghammer — who was participating by phone — warned that “Linden will go the same way as Roselle, Irvington, Newark if we don’t manage this thing the way that we’ve been trying to manage it, and that’s having full and complete control of who gets hired.”
He called Newark a “hellhole.”
“It’s a hellhole over there from top to bottom,” Armstead declared on the recording. “Because it’s been mismanaged for years, you know, and nobody, nobody’s taking the time to try to figure out how to fix it.”
The recordings were made by Oliveira, his lawyer said.
Much of the conversation focused on whether prospective hires, including hall monitors, para-professionals, teachers and other staff, were from Linden, which the mayor said should be the top consideration.
“I don’t care what they are,” Armstead said on the recording, in response to the school board president’s call for Black or Haitian candidates. “If they’re from the general area here, that’s what we’re trying to build here. That’s what has to happen in order to keep our community being taken over by guys with big hats and curls and I’m just keeping it real. And if people don’t understand that, you know, we are really trying to save our community here.”
At one point, Berghammer asked “do we have demographics” as to the race or ethnicity of applicants.
“You can almost figure that out by the name sometimes,” Armstead suggested.
He also complained of one prospective maintenance worker who failed to show up for a training session and then left Linden, selling his home to someone in the Jewish community.
“Moved out of town,” Armstead said. “He sold his house to the guys with the big hats and the curls too. So, you know, everybody’s undermining the progress we’re trying to make here in town.”
Bunch of hogwash
In a phone interview following the filing of the lawsuit, Armstead said he did not recall having that conversation and called the allegations “a whole bunch of hogwash” concocted by someone who he said was let go for performance reasons.
“Everyone is welcome here in Linden. It’s our strength,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re Jewish, Black, white or Latino. We get along well in Linden.”
The mayor added that the employment numbers for the school system would dispute everything alleged by Oliveira. The lawsuit did not indicate if anyone was or wasn’t hired as a result of the January conversation.
“Paul is off his rocker. I can’t fathom why he would take this approach. It’s disheartening,” he said. “Paul can go to hell with gasoline drawers as far as I’m concerned.”
As for what was captured in recordings, the mayor said, “I’m glad he has me on tape. We are a good community and we all get along with everyone in this town.” He added: “Nobody respects someone who comes into a room and starts tape recording people.”
An attorney for the Linden school district declined comment.
“The board looks forward to our opportunity to vigorously present our defense,” said Joseph Garcia of Cleary Giacobbe Alfieri Jacobs in Oakland.
That the mayor even had a voice in school hiring, though, was itself improper, according to the lawsuit. By directing Oliveira to hire candidates of Armstead’s choosing, the filing said the Linden school district “engaged in the illegal practice of abrogating its responsibility to hire its own employees” to the mayor.
“Of course, (Armstead), in his capacity as mayor, could not and should not have been directing (Linden) as to who should be hired for certain positions in the Linden School District,” the court filing alleged, saying that ordering the district to hire specific individuals “went well beyond the scope” of Armstead’s authority as mayor.
The mayor, in his response, said, “there is a close relationship between my administration and the Board of Education.” In fact, he said he championed Oliveira’s hiring upon the recommendations of a councilman.
The complaint, though, also charged that directives marginalized individuals of the Jewish faith and allowed the “cherry picking” of specific candidates they want hired in the Linden School District, based on unlawful criteria.
Oliveira, in the lawsuit, said he voiced his objections.
“I don’t feel comfortable doing this,” he told Perkins, the school superintendent, the lawsuit claimed.
Recounting a subsequent discussion with other school officials, Oliveira said Berghammer was asked whether the district could get sued over the hiring plan.
“Yes,” he said Perkins responded.
When asked why, the lawsuit said, another official responded, “because technically that is discrimination.”
Still, Oliveira said he was sidelined over his objections and the subject of criticism of his work performance via emails and formal memoranda, “creating a work environment so unbearably hostile” that he was forced to take protected medical leave to deal with stress and anxiety.
Ultimately, he claimed he was the subject of “constructive dismissal,” resigning as a result of a hostile work environment.
The lawsuit seeks back pay, attorney fees and unspecified damages.
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Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @TedShermanSL.
