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Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Unfit to serve‘: Police union blasts Worcester councilor for inciting aggression towards officers
Worcester's police union is calling for city officials to conduct an ethics investigation into City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj, accusing the local councilor of using her elected position to incite aggression towards police officers. Two people, a juvenile and a Worcester School Committee candidate, were arrested on Thursday after chaos erupted and police officers were assaulted on Eureka Terrace in Worcester when federal agents detained a Brazilian woman. In a statement released Friday night, Worcester Police Patrol Officers' Union Local 911 President Thomas Duffy said Worcester police officers and federal agents 'were threatened, abused and even assaulted on scene." Police union officials called out Haxhiaj for inciting the violence towards law enforcement officers. 'Of particular concern in this case, one of our elected policy makers and someone who has created this difficult task for the police, District 5 City Councilor, Etel Haxhiaj, incited aggression towards the police during the incident,' Duffy said. 'This councilor participated in the conduct of the unruly crowd and eventually assaulted both Worcester police and federal law enforcement officers on scene,' Duffy said. 'Her behavior also emboldened others to act in this manner,' Duffy said. 'The conduct of this anti-police activist councilor is deplorable and unacceptable.' 'Regardless of political opinions or views, city officials should never condone the assault of an officer and flat-out disregard to the point of violent opposition, the authority of police to maintain safety and public order,' Duffy said. Boston 25 has reached out to Haxhiaj for comment. During a press conference earlier Friday, Haxhiaj blasted federal and local law enforcement for their response to the Worcester neighborhood. 'The message for ICE is: Get out of our city,' Haxhiaj said during the press conference. 'The response yesterday from the federal government and the police department was completely unacceptable,' Haxhiaj said during the press conference. Worcester Police said officers responded to Eureka Terrace around 11:15 a.m. Thursday after learning of 25 people reportedly surrounding a federal agent. Witnesses told Boston 25 News tensions grew after federal authorities intercepted a family in a BMW with a two-month-old baby in tow. A crowd of neighbors, community leaders, and immigration activists went to the scene and tried to stop the family from being separated. Then, things escalated. Neighbors at the scene accused ICE agents of not having a warrant and wanted to know why they were taking the unidentified woman into custody. Worcester Police officers were dispatched to Eureka Street for the call from federal law enforcement officers needing assistance 'due to a hostile and uncooperative crowd surrounding them,' Duffy said. Officers arriving on scene continued to call for more officers as the scene continued to escalate rapidly, Duffy said. 'Police officers respond to a variety of highly emotional calls daily and there is nothing that can be more emotional or difficult to deal with than a call that involves times when families are separated or arrested or taken into custody in front of other family members,' Duffy said. 'These types of calls for assistance can be extremely dangerous and place officers at a high risk of injury due to the high emotions people feel at the time,' Duffy said. 'Our officers always strive to be as compassionate as we can daily,' Duffy said. 'We as fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters understand human emotions and try to be as empathetic as we can while still doing the job we are required to do daily.' Duffy said all available Worcester police officers were dispatched to Eureka Street on Thursday 'to protect the public and ensure the safety of federal and Worcester police officers on scene.' 'For obvious reasons, officers became concerned for their safety and that of the federal agents based on the actions of the crowd,' Duffy said. 'They tried to deescalate the situation and prevent injury to all present.' Ashley Spring, 38, a Worcester School Committee candidate on the November ballot, was among those arrested following Thursday's incident. Spring is accused of pushing multiple officers at the scene and throwing an unknown liquid substance on the officers. She is charged with assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct, and interfering with a police officer. A juvenile was also arrested. Neighbors said the teenager is the daughter of a Brazilian woman ICE agents were detaining. The teen reportedly held a baby in front of a law enforcement vehicle as officers were detaining the woman and chaos unfolded at the scene. The teen was charged with reckless endangerment of a child, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Her name was not released because she is a juvenile. Worcester Police said more charges could be coming at the local level as police review videos showing the crowd surrounding and, in some cases, assaulting law enforcement officers. Federal authorities will also review the incident and 'determine whether federal charges may be coming for those involved,' union officials said. 'The Worcester Police Patrolman's Union Local 911 will not stand silently in the face of such outrageous conduct or allow the safety of our officers to be put at risk by any individual,' Duffy said. Police union leaders called Haxhiaj 'unfit to serve' after Thursday's incident. 'Any official, particularly a sitting councilor, who acts in such a manner is, in the opinions of those of us ordered to keep the peace during such hostilities, unfit to serve,' Duffy said. 'This councilor's egregious actions were not limited to physical interference, as she attempted to use her official position several times to interfere with the police on scene,' Duffy said. Union officials said this type of conduct is controlled by the state's ethical laws and our own city charter. 'Councilor Haxhiaj, in our opinion, broke her oath and these ethical laws, and in doing so put the safety of our officers and our citizens at great risk,' Duffy said. 'The members of the Worcester Police Patrolman's Union Local 911 condemn this councilor's disrespectful and dangerous behavior.' 'We will take the necessary steps to hold her and anyone who assaults our officers accountable and call upon those state and local policy makers to do the same,' Duffy said. 'We demand that the city conduct an ethics investigation into her conduct,' Duffy said in his statement. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Local HUD workers terminated in recent Trump administration cuts
Frank Zhu had only been at his job with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for about six weeks but could already see himself making a career out of it. Zhu was then blindsided in the middle of a work call when he received an email saying he was terminated from his role on Feb. 14. As a Chicago-based financial analyst in HUD's Office of Public Housing, Zhu provided guidance to public housing authorities related to their financial health, including their use of federal dollars. 'I was very disturbed and horrified and, above all, livid,' Zhu said, who said he took a pay cut to join HUD. Zhu is one of at least 20 employees in HUD's American Federation of Government Employees Local 911 union, which includes workers in Chicago, Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio, and workers stationed in the area from HUD's headquarters in Washington, D.C., who recently received termination notices as part of President Donald Trump's administration's efforts to cull the federal workforce to reduce spending. A dozen of these employees received termination notices Monday, effective March 28, and work in the local Office of Field Policy and Management, according to a national reduction in force notice sent to Local 911. This will wipe out the entire local department apart from managers, the union said. These employees are tasked with communicating with the public, receiving hundreds of calls and visits daily, the union said. They also handle public records requests and are the intermediaries between HUD, elected officials and external stakeholders. These 20 workers were probationary employees across various HUD departments. Probationary employees are new hires or people starting new positions within a federal agency, a status typically lasting one to two years. HUD did not respond to a Tribune request for comment. HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced in a video on social media Feb. 13 that a task force from billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency had launched at HUD. 'With the help of DOGE, we will identify and eliminate all waste, fraud and abuse,' said Turner, a former NFL player, in the video, adding that $260 million in savings had already been identified. National news outlets have challenged some of the Trump administration's reported billions of dollars in savings. That same week, a document circulated among HUD workers that was reported on by national news outlets and obtained by the Tribune showing HUD's workforce could be halved. It indicates the total agency headcount at about 8,300 as of Jan. 21, with some departments slated for more drastic staff reductions than others. Prior to the terminations, AFGE's Local 911 represented 512 employees, 406 of which were in the Chicago field office. Veronica Bobbitt, president of Local 911, said it has been hard to get information about staffing cuts from management. Antonio Gaines, president of AFGE's National Council 222, the group that represents 40 local HUD unions nationwide, said his organization has repeatedly requested to meet with the new administration's transition team without success. He said he has also reached out to members of Congress and is pursuing legal actions. 'We are exhausting all available resources to try to push back against these efforts,' Gaines said. Politics | 'We are the patriots': Chicago federal employees protest mass firings in Federal Plaza Politics | High-ranking Chicago Housing Authority director fired amid ongoing staff exodus Bobbitt said that while probationary employees do have fewer workplace protections, they are still being wrongly terminated. For the latest reduction in force notice, she said management did not conduct a retention and seniority report to determine who to lay off based on the newest employees and instead just 'arbitrarily' terminated workers and did so without providing the proper document for these workers to apply for Illinois unemployment benefits. Terminated employees who spoke with the Tribune fear their work will now not get done or remaining team members who already have full plates will have to shoulder the burden. They say that while these cuts were done in an effort to make the government more efficient, it will do the opposite. Gabrielle Cole was another Chicago-based probationary employee who recently lost her job in HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. In her role, she was primarily focused on fair housing investigations that looked into how systemic issues such as redlining continue to negatively affect certain groups of people and their housing choices. She said she does not think her work will get done as the department was already 'slightly' understaffed. Cole said they had a 'ginormous' backlog of complaints. 'It had been all hands on deck the past months,' Cole said. 'We were doing a really good job of getting that down. There have been more fair housing complaints than ever before in the last two years, probably the most there have ever been.' A current Chicago-based staffer in the same office as Cole who spoke on the condition of anonymity given that he is still employed with the agency confirmed that his office has already struggled with inadequate staffing levels to handle the large volume of complaints that Cole cited. They receive complaints alleging discrimination under the Fair Housing Act and, as of 2023, the Violence Against Women Act, for victims of domestic violence who face housing discrimination as a result. The office spent the past year, he said, working through a backlog in the thousands. The terminations will and the proposed cuts would 'cripple our ability to do our job,' he said. Bobbitt said five attorneys were included in the probationary cuts Feb. 14. She said these workers ensure closings for Federal Housing Administration loans, litigate 'program-specific issues such as below-standard physical inspections and unsafe living conditions for all subsidized properties in our region' and facilitate in-house legal matters such as union grievances and reasonable accommodation requests from staff. Bobbitt thinks the administration is intentionally gutting the legal office to 'ensure that the union's contract is not upheld' because there will not be enough staff to meet the needs. Gaines said that on top of the terminations, about 600 HUD employees nationwide took the buyout offer. Dan Burke, HUD's former Chicago-based director of the multifamily division for the Midwest region who retired in 2023, said if the 50% reduction in force ends up materializing for HUD, the life of residents and communities in Chicago and around the country will be 'devastated.' 'It will be the case that needed funding and needed services will not be delivered to very low income people,' Burke said. 'The workload is so substantial that no matter how they cut the staffing in terms of which divisions, there is just too much work to be done.' Jayna Lennon worked out of HUD's Illinois field office based in Chicago and was in a meeting about HUD's new mandatory in-office work policy when she received her termination notice; she turned to her supervisor and they excused themselves from the meeting. 'It was so jarring,' Lennon said, who cried 'a lot' that day. Lennon worked in the field policy office that she described as the 'front door of HUD.' When residents, congressional delegations, local governments, homeless organizations and others have questions about the agency and its resources, Lennon was one of the workers to help guide them to the answers. She estimates that in her roughly one year at HUD, she spoke with more than 1,500 residents, referring them to various agency resources. She said her team had a heavy workload. As a younger employee, it was 'really exciting' to come into this line of work. Lennon said everyone she worked with at HUD was 'so passionate and so motivated and made me fall in love with the housing field.' But, she said, she is now 'cut off' during a time when there is an escalating housing crisis. 'It is critical that people are coordinating the resources that are out there and that everybody is moving in the same direction,' Lennon said, ' … (to) incrementally make this problem better … and it is hard to see how the problem isn't going to continue to get worse now.' ekane@
Chicago Tribune
26-02-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Local HUD workers terminated in recent Trump administration cuts
Frank Zhu had only been at his job with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for about six weeks but could already see himself making a career out of it. Zhu was then blindsided in the middle of a work call when he received an email saying he was terminated from his role on Feb. 14. As a Chicago-based financial analyst in HUD's Office of Public Housing, Zhu provided guidance to public housing authorities related to their financial health, including their use of federal dollars. 'I was very disturbed and horrified and, above all, livid,' Zhu said, who said he took a pay cut to join HUD. Zhu is one of at least 20 employees in HUD's American Federation of Government Employees Local 911 union, which includes workers in Chicago, Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio, and workers stationed in the area from HUD's headquarters in Washington, D.C., who recently received termination notices as part of President Donald Trump's administration's efforts to cull the federal workforce to reduce spending. A dozen of these employees received termination notices Monday, effective March 28, and work in the local Office of Field Policy and Management, according to a national reduction in force notice sent to Local 911. This will wipe out the entire local department apart from managers, the union said. These employees are tasked with communicating with the public, receiving hundreds of calls and visits daily, the union said. They also handle public records requests and are the intermediaries between HUD, elected officials and external stakeholders. These 20 workers were probationary employees across various HUD departments. Probationary employees are new hires or people starting new positions within a federal agency, a status typically lasting one to two years. HUD did not respond to a Tribune request for comment. HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced in a video on social media Feb. 13 that a task force from billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency had launched at HUD. 'With the help of DOGE, we will identify and eliminate all waste, fraud and abuse,' said Turner, a former NFL player, in the video, adding that $260 million in savings had already been identified. National news outlets have challenged some of the Trump administration's reported billions of dollars in savings. That same week, a document circulated among HUD workers that was reported on by national news outlets and obtained by the Tribune showing HUD's workforce could be halved. It indicates the total agency headcount at about 8,300 as of Jan. 21, with some departments slated for more drastic staff reductions than others. Prior to the terminations, AFGE's Local 911 represented 512 employees, 406 of which were in the Chicago field office. Veronica Bobbitt, president of Local 911, said it has been hard to get information about staffing cuts from management. Antonio Gaines, president of AFGE's National Council 222, the group that represents 40 local HUD unions nationwide, said his organization has repeatedly requested to meet with the new administration's transition team without success. He said he has also reached out to members of Congress and is pursuing legal actions. 'We are exhausting all available resources to try to push back against these efforts,' Gaines said. Bobbitt said that while probationary employees do have fewer workplace protections, they are still being wrongly terminated. For the latest reduction in force notice, she said management did not conduct a retention and seniority report to determine who to lay off based on the newest employees and instead just 'arbitrarily' terminated workers and did so without providing the proper document for these workers to apply for Illinois unemployment benefits. Terminated employees who spoke with the Tribune fear their work will now not get done or remaining team members who already have full plates will have to shoulder the burden. They say that while these cuts were done in an effort to make the government more efficient, it will do the opposite. Gabrielle Cole was another Chicago-based probationary employee who recently lost her job in HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. In her role, she was primarily focused on fair housing investigations that looked into how systemic issues such as redlining continue to negatively affect certain groups of people and their housing choices. She said she does not think her work will get done as the department was already 'slightly' understaffed. Cole said they had a 'ginormous' backlog of complaints. 'It had been all hands on deck the past months,' Cole said. 'We were doing a really good job of getting that down. There have been more fair housing complaints than ever before in the last two years, probably the most there have ever been.' A current Chicago-based staffer in the same office as Cole who spoke on the condition of anonymity given that he is still employed with the agency confirmed that his office has already struggled with inadequate staffing levels to handle the large volume of complaints that Cole cited. They receive complaints alleging discrimination under the Fair Housing Act and, as of 2023, the Violence Against Women Act, for victims of domestic violence who face housing discrimination as a result. The office spent the past year, he said, working through a backlog in the thousands. The terminations will and the proposed cuts would 'cripple our ability to do our job,' he said. Bobbitt said five attorneys were included in the probationary cuts Feb. 14. She said these workers ensure closings for Federal Housing Administration loans, litigate 'program-specific issues such as below-standard physical inspections and unsafe living conditions for all subsidized properties in our region' and facilitate in-house legal matters such as union grievances and reasonable accommodation requests from staff. Bobbitt thinks the administration is intentionally gutting the legal office to 'ensure that the union's contract is not upheld' because there will not be enough staff to meet the needs. Gaines said that on top of the terminations, about 600 HUD employees nationwide took the buyout offer. Dan Burke, HUD's former Chicago-based director of the multifamily division for the Midwest region who retired in 2023, said if the 50% reduction in force ends up materializing for HUD, the life of residents and communities in Chicago and around the country will be 'devastated.' 'It will be the case that needed funding and needed services will not be delivered to very low income people,' Burke said. 'The workload is so substantial that no matter how they cut the staffing in terms of which divisions, there is just too much work to be done.' Jayna Lennon worked out of HUD's Illinois field office based in Chicago and was in a meeting about HUD's new mandatory in-office work policy when she received her termination notice; she turned to her supervisor and they excused themselves from the meeting. 'It was so jarring,' Lennon said, who cried 'a lot' that day. Lennon worked in the field policy office that she described as the 'front door of HUD.' When residents, congressional delegations, local governments, homeless organizations and others have questions about the agency and its resources, Lennon was one of the workers to help guide them to the answers. She estimates that in her roughly one year at HUD, she spoke with more than 1,500 residents, referring them to various agency resources. She said her team had a heavy workload. As a younger employee, it was 'really exciting' to come into this line of work. Lennon said everyone she worked with at HUD was 'so passionate and so motivated and made me fall in love with the housing field.' But, she said, she is now 'cut off' during a time when there is an escalating housing crisis. 'It is critical that people are coordinating the resources that are out there and that everybody is moving in the same direction,' Lennon said, ' … (to) incrementally make this problem better … and it is hard to see how the problem isn't going to continue to get worse now.'
