Former chair of Cambridge accessibility committee says harassment investigation meant to 'silence me'
City says it's their 'responsibility as an employer to act on allegations of abuse or harassment'
The former chair of Cambridge's accessibility advisory committee — who openly spoke about his frustrations with the city — says he's now being investigated for workplace harassment.
Devin Sisak says he believes it's in retaliation for the comments he's made publicly and also might be a warning to others.
"It really scares me for anyone looking to volunteer because if the city is willing to go to this level when you speak up, why would anyone want to volunteer their time?" he said in an interview with CBC News on Monday.
"Since speaking up, that's when this all came to a head. And I feel that this is a way for staff to try and silence me for speaking up for the rights of my son and others with disabilities like him."
Sisak, whose 12-year-old son is in a wheelchair, spoke out to local media including CBC News about a March 12 meeting where he admits to being frustrated by city staff not having time to answer questions he had.
Sisak says he questioned why a certain city staff member was at that meeting because they weren't part of the committee.
He quit the committee after that and went public with his frustrations, saying the city hampered the work the accessibility advisory committee was able to do and accused staff of sometimes bypassing the committee and going straight to council without getting feedback.
Sisak says he received an email on April 30 from a lawyer working on behalf of the city to say an investigation was underway.
In an emailed statement to CBC News, the City of Cambridge said it is their responsibility as an employer to act on allegations of abuse or harassment. The city declined to comment further.
Sisak says the city taking this action doesn't mean he will stop speaking out because he says the city is not doing enough to address the accessibility needs of the community. He started an online advocacy group called Barrier Free Cambridge, which has already written to council asking for an update on its multi-year accessibility plan.
"Accessibility is a right. It's not something that you can just pick and choose when you want to give it to people," Sisak said.
"There's lots of people in our community that have accessibility needs and really require the prioritization of accessibility by the city and I hope that going forward they start to really realize that and prioritize it."
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