City Clerk Patricia McBride addresses the Syracuse Housing Authority Board Thursday, February 19. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current

A 2025 investigation found that complaints against City Clerk Patricia McBride’s alleged workplace violations were more credible than previously reported, according to recently obtained public documents reviewed by Central Current. 

During the investigation into McBride — who the council in January unanimously re-appointed to another term as city clerk — a leader of the council cast aspersions on the complaints and their motives. Later, council leadership appears to have obscured evidence supporting allegations of misconduct in an article published on Syracuse.com.

The city clerk is an appointed position that maintains public records and performs other administrative and procedural duties on behalf of the city council. McBride served as deputy clerk from 2014 to 2022 under longtime City Clerk John Copanas. The council in 2022 first appointed McBride, who then became the city’s first Black woman to serve as city clerk.

McBride also serves on the Syracuse Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.

Central Current’s review of previously unreported documents confirming McBride’s workplace misconduct follows SHA Board Chair Ryan Benz’s recent call for McBride to resign. She seemed to accuse Benz of a conflict of interest.

Multiple Common Council staffers in January 2025 submitted complaints to the City of Syracuse’s Department of Human Resources, accusing McBride of multiple different instances of workplace harassment by McBride.

The city commissioned Bond, Schoeneck & King to perform an independent investigation into the complaints. Colin Leonard, a management side labor and employment lawyer, performed the investigation. McBride was last year placed on paid leave for about a month during the investigation.

“The complainants assert they work in an environment in which the city clerk has used profanities, yells, and threatens them,” Leonard wrote.

Working in the council office under those conditions made them uncomfortable, caused stress, and created uncertainty about their future, complainants told an investigator. 

The investigation, completed by the firm on Feb. 26, 2025, determined the city clerk’s conduct had not resulted in a hostile work environment on the basis of discrimination. McBride’s actions nonetheless violated multiple city workplace policies, Leonard wrote. Leonard also wrote McBride “helped to create an unprofessional work environment.”

“This misconduct must be addressed and corrected by the Common Council,” wrote Leonard.

Leonard’s report also delineated four corrective actions for the council to take in response to McBride’s conduct:

  • Discipline McBride with either a written warning or short unpaid suspension for violation of city rules
  • Enroll McBride in a leadership training program to be selected and paid for by the city that focuses on employee management
  • Require McBride to immediately improve the professionalism of the Common Council office by eliminating any use of profanity and any yelling at employees
  • Have the Common Council more clearly articulate in writing the role of the McBride viz a viz Common Council employees.
McBrideDownload

When the city itself reviewed the written complaints against McBride, the HR department also determined that McBride’s conduct violated some of the city’s workplace policies. 

HR Director Richard Alsever in a March 4, 2025 letter to McBride explained that her conduct specifically violated city rules regarding the use of inappropriate language in the workplace, interactions with coworkers that may have been perceived as unprofessional or disruptive and the importance of maintaining a professional and businesslike work environment.

“This letter serves as a written warning and a reminder of the city’s expectations for all employees to maintain a respectful and professional workplace,” Alsever wrote. “To support you in this, you will be participating in a workplace training program focused on effective employee management and professional communication.”

Alsever told McBride that, in addition to the mandated training, the Common Council would soon be providing further clarification regarding the clerk’s role as it relates to council employees.

Central Current could not independently verify whether the above recommendations were followed.

The city did discipline McBride with a written warning through Alsever’s letter. The city did enroll McBride in a leadership training program, according to multiple sources. 

Mayor Sharon Owens’ office declined to comment on the allegations against McBride.

“The Clerk is hired and managed by the Common Council,” a city spokesperson said. “She does not report to the administration. Any allegations surrounding misconduct, an investigation or any resulting action should be addressed to the Common Council.”

It is unclear what actions McBride took to “immediately improve the professionalism of the Common Council office” as instructed. Likewise, it remains unclear if the council ever provided further clarification on the clerk’s role, and that position’s professional relation to council staffers.

The city’s website does not appear to detail the clerk’s role at all, let alone explain how the clerk is supposed to interface with council staffers in their daily work. Leonard in his report on the investigation opined that the “unsettled nature” in the council’s office may have partially resulted from “a lack of clarity regarding the supervisory structure.”

“I can’t say I’ve ever had a clear understanding of who I report to for this, for that. The councilors are our direct bosses. But I also heard the city clerk is a supervisor of us. Or is in charge of HR matters,” one complainant told Leonard.

Another complainant echoed those concerns about structural opacity in the council’s office.

“My understanding of my supervisor is [that] my boss is the councilors. My supervisor on a day-to-day basis is the city clerk. Sometimes it feels like the city clerk goes above the city council. We have to run what we are doing by the city clerk for the council,” the complainant said.

‘You gotta just get it done’

The Bond, Schoeneck, and King investigation focused on specific incidents that occurred between Jan. 22, 2025 and Jan. 24, 2025, which complainants reported in written statements that the city received on Jan. 29, 2025 and Jan. 31, 2025.

Leonard, the attorney, began in early February 2025 interviewing subjects with information on the allegations and familiarity with McBride and the complainants. Interviewees included the complainants, McBride, other council office staffers and former Council President Helen Hudson.

Central Current contacted seven of the eight interview subjects that participated in the firm’s investigation and every member of the 2025 iteration of the Common Council.

Councilors Marty Nave, Chol Majok, current Council President Rita Paniagua, Pat Hogan and Hudson did not respond to calls from Central Current reporters. Councilors Jimmy Monto, Rasheada Caldwell, Corey Williams and Patrona Jones-Rowser declined to comment on the story.

Caldwell told a Central Current reporter, “you should’ve known better to call me on that,” because the investigation took place a year ago.

“What’s this got to do with today?” Caldwell said.

Multiple members of the council, present and past, contended that if there were any workplace tensions undergirding the investigation into the city clerk’s conduct, McBride was the one being treated unfairly.

Hudson, who was the final person interviewed for the investigation, appears to have pushed back on the allegations and criticized the complainants themselves, Leonard wrote.

According to Leonard’s report on the investigation, Hudson argued that one complainant had filed the allegations against McBride in order to insulate themselves from discipline for poor work performance. Hudson also appears to have made a point of alleging that one of the complainants had used inappropriate language in the past.

“Ms. Hudson also communicated her opinion that the City Clerk is a ‘great supervisor and good at her job,’” Leonard’s report stated. “However, she was not present during the at-issue incidents at City Hall which are central to this investigation.”

At the time of her interview, Hudson was not the leader of the council. She was contending with a prolonged medical issue, and in April 2024 abdicated her role as council president. 

It is unclear if she was interviewing as the acting council president, or as a character witness who had familiarity with both the complainants and McBride, given Hudson’s decade of prior experience on the council. Hudson began serving on the council in 2012, later ascended to council president in 2018, and therefore had years of experience working with McBride and the complainants.

Hudson’s absence in 2024 made then-President Pro Tempore Pat Hogan the council’s leader in her absence.

It is unclear if Hogan was present during the at-issue incidents at City Hall which were central to the investigation. 

A subsequent report from syracuse.com | The Post Standard declared that Hogan had characterized the investigation as having found the allegations to be “unsubstantiated”. That word does not appear anywhere in Leonard’s report on Bond, Schoeneck, and King’s investigation, and Hogan is not quoted in the story as having used that word.

The city’s own investigation and the outside investigation the city commissioned both concluded that McBride had violated workplace policies. 

Hogan did not return two calls before the story’s publication.

One year later, two members of the council at the time of the complaints maintain that the investigation was a targeted attack resulting from personal disdain for McBride, rather than McBride’s approach to her work. 

Former Councilor Amir Gethers praised McBride’s work ethic and leadership. Though Gethers believes the investigation into McBride’s workplace conduct was unmerited, he said it resulted in McBride making further improvements to ensure “the highest level of professionalism” in the council’s office.

“She just wants things to be done correctly and make sure that everything is done legally, correctly and professionally the way that we normally would do things,” Gethers said. “She’s old school as well. It’s just like, you gotta just get it done.”

Reporting contributed by reporter Debadrita Sur.

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Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...