An ex-FDNY official who confronted former Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano about an alleged sexual relationship with a hot pants-wearing employee has settled a lawsuit against the city for $800,000, The Post has learned.
Lyndelle Phillips, a lawyer and former assistant commissioner for the FDNY’s Equal Employment Opportunity Office, said she was fired in 2012 in part because she questioned the married Cassano about his alleged office affair.
Phillips said she fell out of favor with FDNY brass after looking into a formal complaint in 2009 that Cassano was showing “favoritism” to a female supervisor he was romantically involved with.
Phillips said she saw framed photos in the supervisor’s office showing her “wearing short ‘hot pants’ while embracing” Cassano, then chief of the department.
“It was common knowledge that Cassano’s supervisor friend had privileges and access to the Chief that other employees did not have based on the alleged sexual relationship with Chief Cassano,” the suit said.
Phillips advised Cassano to remove the photos “to avoid the appearance of impropriety,” the suit said.
In 2010, shortly after Cassano was promoted to commissioner, his first deputy commissioner, Daniel Shacknai, ordered Phillips to turn over the file on the favoritism complaint.
Phillips reluctantly turned it over, and “never saw the file again,” the suit says.
Brooklyn federal judge Cheryl Pollak later ordered the FDNY to produce the file, but the department insisted it was lost.
In March 2011, Cassano told Phillips, who is black, that she would be replaced as EEO chief. She was forced to leave her office, stripped of her duties, and replaced by a white woman who lacked qualifications and mismanaged the EEO office, the suit alleged.
In August 2011 Phillips testified in a federal race-discrimination lawsuit against the FDNY, describing staff shortages in her office — and thus helping the plaintiffs make their case.
In March 2012, Phillips was fired.
Her 2015 suit, which charged wrongful termination and racial discrimination, had sought $1.2 million. Under the Nov. 21 settlement, she will get $500,000 in back pay that counts toward her pension, plus $300,000, to cover her attorney fees.
She declined to comment.
The city Law Department had no comment on Cassano’s alleged affair.
“This settlement ends a longstanding case in the best interests of all parties,” said spokesman Nicholas Paolucci. “The Fire Department is committed to furthering the progress it has made increasing diversity among its ranks and preventing discrimination of any kind.”
Calls to Cassano were not returned.