COUNTY TRUCKERS FILE SUIT OVER DRUG TESTS, TREATMENT

Albany - The three claim they were falsely identified as substance
abusers and forced into rehab in Florida

Three Schenectady County employees filed a $4 million lawsuit Monday
claiming they were wrongly given drug tests that falsely reported they
had used illegal drugs, resulting in their being forced to travel to
Florida to undergo substance abuse treatment.

In the federal civil rights lawsuit, the county truck drivers -- Mark
Stanton, Robert Pedone and Richard DiDonna -- allege that James Edgar,
former county personnel administrator, and Joseph Ciani, the employee
assistance coordinator, falsely identified them as drug abusers and
sent them to a recovery facility 1,500 miles away instead of one five
miles away -- Conifer Park in Scotia.

The truckers' attorney, Jack J. Sissman, said the U.S. Department of
Transportation reviewed the county's drug-testing polices and ruled
they were flawed. He also said an arbitration case determined his
clients' rights under their union contract were violated.

The legal papers state that the truckers' pleas to remain close to
their families "fell on deaf ears'' and that they were threatened with
losing their jobs if they did not attend a 30-day program at the Dade
County, Fla., facility. The three still work as drivers for the county
highway department. Stanton was hired in 1990, Pedone in 1986 and
DiDonna in 1981.

It remains unclear why the men were sent to the distant facility.
County officials did not return telephone calls for comment. Sissman
declined to disclose the name of the Florida treatment center.

Edgar is being sued because he was in charge of administering the drug
tests, Ciani because he allegedly insisted the men go to Florida.

Sissman said the county had sent other employees to Florida for rehab,
although the suit said a fourth employee, identified as "A.B.,'' was
treated at Conifer Park.

"I don't know what the reason was that Ciani picked that facility in
Florida,'' Sissman said. "But he was insistent that they go ... and at
considerable personal anguish.''

Sissman said Pedone's uncle died in Schenectady while Pedone was at
the center, but he did not attend the funeral because he was not
allowed to interrupt the program.

The attorney said his clients went to Florida even while they
maintained the test results were false because of union rules that
employees must comply with directives and then appeal through the
grievance process.

Edgar, who no longer works for the county, is now executive director
of the Public Employment Relations Board. Ciani and the county were
hit with a $1.27 million civil verdict last week when a woman filed a
lawsuit in which she accused Ciani, a certified social worker, of
taking advantage of her by initiating a sexual affair while she was
his patient.