Long Beach officials have agreed to pay $375,000 to a former city employee who accused her supervisor of discriminating and retaliating against her before eventually firing her in 2018.

In the lawsuit, Suzanne C. Gordin, a former secretary for the Workforce Development Bureau, also known as Pacific Gateway, who is diagnosed with ADHD, alleged that then-interim director Erick Serrato refused to provide her accommodations for her disability and that he began retaliating against her by giving her write-ups and denying her time off to deal with medical issues, according to an affidavit filed by Gordin’s attorneys in Los Angeles Superior Court. The city denied the allegations in court documents.

The alleged discrimination began when Serrato became her supervisor in 2014 and “almost immediately,” and without explanation, he transferred her to a position in the Youth Opportunity Center that she had no experience or training in, according to Gordin’s complaint.

Serrato, who now works as the director of workforce investment in Merced, denied the allegations and said Gordin requested the move to the Youth Opportunity Center, which was at the time considered a promotion with higher pay and more responsibilities.

“I was happy to facilitate that for her,” Serrato said, adding that Gordin was fired after he was no longer her supervisor.

On Tuesday, the City Council agreed during its closed session meeting to settle Gordin’s case and pay out $375,000.

The case was set to go to trial earlier this month, but according to Principal Deputy City Attorney Howard Russell, the two parties were able to reach a settlement at a “fair and reasonable” amount to avoid the risk and uncertainty of a trial.

“There is no admission of liability as part of the settlement,” Russell said, adding that he could not comment on any specific evidence in the case.

The suit alleges that before Serrato transferred Gordin to a new position as a workforce programs associate, she’d spent 12 years working for the city and moving up from clerk typist to bureau secretary. Her performance reviews for those positions ranged from meeting expectations to exceeding expectations, according the complaint, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2019

Gordin wasn’t comfortable in her new position, according to the complaint, and she requested accommodations, such as using a recorder during training, which she was told she would be tested on, to help her study on account of her ADHD.

Despite her providing a note from her doctor, Serrato allegedly ignored Gordin’s requests and instead singled her out at meetings and mocked her for needing extra attention.

According to the affidavit filed by Gordin’s lawyers, the city received multiple complaints from Gordin alleging discrimination and retaliation, but it never actually investigated the issue before telling her that her claims were unsubstantiated.

“The City Attorney’s Office has no comment about the specific allegations in Ms. Gordin’s Complaint,” Russell said. “The City of Long Beach takes all employee complaints seriously, however, and is committed to conducting a thorough investigation into any complaint.”

In the years that Gordin continued to work at the Youth Opportunity Center, Serrato took responsibilities away from her, ignored her questions about what her work duties would be and began creating a “paper trail” of write-ups against Gordin, which eventually led to her first poor performance review, the affidavit alleges.

When Gordin asked for time off to take care of “urgent medical issues,” Serrato denied the request and placed her on a performance improvement plan, according to the affidavit.

In 2018, Gordin and another long-time employee at Pacific Gateway who had complained about discrimination and retaliation in the workplace were fired based on the critiques that Serrato had given about them, the lawsuit alleges.

“It all started with an accommodation request gone bad,” according to the affidavit. “ Mr. Serrato did not want to provide it, and Ms. Gordin complained about it.”

Gordin’s attorneys did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comment from Erick Serrato.