Schuylkill County denies that a Courthouse cleaner lost her work for reporting former Commissioner George Halcovage and says her company’s bid came in more than $90,000 higher than the one that won.
The County is responding to the federal lawsuit filed Sept. 24 by Jane Doe 5. In a statement, it denies the claims against the County and the three officials sued in their individual capacities: County Administrator Gary Bender, Human Resources Director Anthony Kern, and Equal Employment Opportunity Officer Elaine Gilbert.
Halcovage, also a defendant, will be represented separately, the County says.
“The County, Mr. Bender, Mr. Kern and Ms. Gilbert intend to defend the case vigorously,” the statement says. “The publicly available bidding record and contracts contradict her claims.”
Jane Doe 5 is suing over what she says Halcovage did to her while she cleaned the Commissioners’ Suite in 2023. The lawsuit alleges he sexually harassed and assaulted her there, that County officials knew she was alone with him after a time restriction imposed on Halcovage by a federal Consent Decree with the Dept. of Justice, and never reported it.
It also alleges the County rejected a bid her company submitted for the next Courthouse cleaning contract 19 days after she reported him. The Courthouse cleaning contract that put Jane Doe 5 in the building ran from Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2023. It was for $149,862, according to the County.
For the 2024 and 2025 contract, the same company bid $235,000 and did not include the required bid security, the County says in its defense. Diversified Maintenance-RWS LLC submitted a complete, secured bid of $143,412.32, and was awarded the contract by a 2-0 Commissioners vote on Dec. 20, 2023. Halcovage was a sitting Commissioner at the time but exited the meeting just prior to the vote and returned a short time later.
The lawsuit alleges any argument about the missing bid security is a pretext, because Halcovage told her to submit the bid without the certified check and said he would talk to Bender about securing the contract for her without it. The County’s statement does not address that claim.
The County also says Jane Doe 5 was never a County employee. The statement describes the cleaning company as her private company. Her lawsuit calls her a W-2 employee of the company and argues the County was her employer or joint employer because officials controlled how she worked.
“Nevertheless, the County took her complaint seriously,” the County statement says.
Gilbert began an investigation in December 2023 in line with the Justice Dept. Consent Decree, according to the County. It says it referred the matter to an outside EEO investigator at her request, and took steps to keep her away from Halcovage while her company finished its existing contract, as she’d asked.
Her lawsuit tells a different story. It alleges the investigation broke the Consent Decree from the start because Gilbert reported to Bender, who reported to the Commissioners, including Halcovage. It says no outside investigator ever contacted her and the County never told her what came of her report.
The outside investigator found the County investigated promptly and responded appropriately, according to the County. That investigator found no evidence the County violated its policies or aided or abetted Halcovage’s alleged conduct, the County says, and found the lower, complete bid was a legitimate reason to award the contract to Diversified, with no evidence of retaliation. The statement does not name the investigator or say when they finished the inquiry.
The investigator also reviewed security footage of an interaction between Jane Doe 5 and Halcovage in the Commissioners’ Suite and noted it differed from her report, the County says. No physical contact was visible, though parts of the interaction were outside the camera’s view. The statement does not say which encounter the footage shows.
The lawsuit describes several encounters in Halcovage’s office. In one, she says he touched her between her legs as she emptied the trash can under his desk. On the evening of Nov. 28, 2023, she says, he pressured her to put a soundbar in her bra in front of him, and at some point around then told her, “I see you on camera.”
The County says Jane Doe 5’s attorney, Catherine Lowry, notified it on Dec. 20, 2023, the same day as the contract vote, that she intended to due. She filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Jan. 17, 2024. The EEOC dismissed that charge Sept. 25, the County says, one day after her lawsuit was filed.
Her lawsuit says her attorney asked the EEOC for a notice of right to sue three times this year, in July and September, and never got one. She argues she can sue anyway because more than 180 days have passed since she filed the charge.
Her company kept working under other County cleaning contracts after she made her complaint and filed the EEOC charge, according to the County. It later asked to be released from those contracts, the County says, citing a split in the business’s ownership that it said was unrelated and affected its ability to do the work.
“Schuylkill County remains committed to preventing discrimination, harassment, and retaliation,” the statement says. “The County and these individual defendants will further respond to the allegations in court.”
Editor’s Note: The plaintiff is suing under the name Jane Doe. Coal Region Canary is referring to her as Jane Doe 5 because four other women sued the county as Jane Does in the earlier case. The lawsuit does not name her employer, saying that identifying the company would identify her.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Jane Doe 5 v. Schuylkill County
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