Angelo Figueroa outside his Queens Apt., says he loved his job and wants it back. He was suspended without pay after allegations he helped organize organize employee gatherings where co-workers were encouraged to strip. (Photos: David Wexler For NewYork Daily News)
'The city hires these people to work with us. They’re lazy. My job is to make them work. In making them work, I become the bad guy,' Angelo Figueroa said outside his Queens home after facing allegations he helped orchestrate strip parties for female co-workers.
Randall's Island
One of two Parks Department supervisors suspended amid allegations they held parties in a city building and had female co-workers dance on stripper poles says he’s the innocent victim of “lazy” underlings, according to the New York Daily News.
Angelo Figueroa, 49, told the Daily News outside his Queens home Friday that he’s close to having a breakdown.
“The city hires these people to work with us. They’re lazy. My job is to make them work. In making them work, I become the bad guy,” Figueroa said.
“Some of the workers are very unprofessional. I gotta be the drill sergeant and you know who gets the bad rap? Me!”
RELATED: PARKS DEPT. SUPERVISORS SUSPENDED OVER SEXUAL HARASSMENT ALLEGATIONS
“I’m innocent . . . I want my f------ job back. I love what I do.”
Figueroa and Deputy Chief of Operations James Cafaro, 53, were relieved of their supervisory authority last week and transferred from the Randalls Island Parks facility where they worked after two staffers filed reports of sexual harassment. The city Department of Investigation is investigating the claims.
The women said the two supervisors had organized raunchy, booze-filled holiday parties that featured a stripper pole. They said female Parks workers were encouraged to work the pole and lose their clothes for the enjoyment of their liquored-up male colleagues — and if they wanted to be considered for better Parks positions.
The stripper-pole shenanigans were reported in the Daily News on Tuesday. On the same day, the two men were suspended without pay pending the result of the DOI probe.
Angelo Figueroa outside his Queens Apt., says he loved his job and wants it back. He was suspended without pay after allegations he helped organize organize employee gatherings where co-workers were encouraged to strip.
Figueroa says he is being targeted for being too tough on 'lazy' workers on Randalls Island park where he supervised.
Figueroa said being accused of horndog behavior in a front-page story in The News infuriated his wife of 22 years.
He admitted knowing that at least one such party occurred at the Randalls Island facility, but denied attending it.
“I knew there was a party downstairs (last December). I didn’t know what kind of party. I went home. I had nothing to do with it,” he said, noting he found out about the stripping “later on.”
“I’m guilty of not following up on that,” he added.
But he defended his “impeccable,” 26-year work record and said he feels abandoned by the Parks Department.
“I have no support. They’re hanging me.”
The father of two, sporting a Mets hat, was choking back tears as he spoke.
“I’m ready to f------ break down here,” he said, holding out a trembling hand.
“I’m sick of it. . . . Do I need this bull----?”
He said he has been targeted by malicious rumors for years.
“I heard one year I got four women pregnant. The Don Juan of the Parks Department. I mean, come on! It’s crazy,” he said.
Read More:
Parks Department supervisor claims he's victim of being too tough on 'lazy' employees
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He is right, they are lazy! OH, I thought he was talking about the Borough Commissioners' offices.
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