Agency says all issues were "amicably resolved."
By: Jennifer Potash
The YWCA Princeton announced Monday an agreement to settle a lawsuit by a past director.
"The YWCA Princeton announced today that all issues between it and its former executive director Mary Jane Barretta, Ph.D., have been amicably resolved," according to a statement by Patricia Orr, director of Public Relations for the YWCA. She declined to make any further comment.
Ms. Barretta, who served as executive director from Jan. 29, 1999 to Sept. 14, 2000, filed a lawsuit in December 2003 and claimed she was fired as she planned to blow the whistle on financial mismanagement.
The lawsuit, filed against the YWCA and former Board of Trustees President Katherine McGavern in Mercer County Superior Court alleged the nonprofit organization "unlawfully retaliated against (her) and discharged her because of her disclosure or threatened disclosures to supervising (Board of Trustees) members of what she reasonably believed to be unlawful conduct."
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Ms. Barretta sought compensatory and punitive damages and reinstatement of her job among other items in her lawsuit.
Ms. Barretta could not be reached for comment Monday.
In her lawsuit, Ms. Barretta claimed there was a lack of proper accounting and treatment of YWCA funds; that a $25,000 grant from the J. Seward Johnson Foundation was misapplied; and that invoices were paid without proper documentation.
The complaint alleged Ms. McGavern terminated Ms. Barretta’s employment without just cause and due process, a grievance hearing or an exit interview. The day her employment was terminated, Ms. Barretta was writing a report for an upcoming trustees meeting detailing questionable payments and other issues she believed might violate the law, according to the complaint.
Ms. McGavern could not be reached for comment Monday.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, the attorney representing the YWCA, Richard Collier, called Ms. Barretta’s allegations " false and defamatory."