DOE food inspector who blew lid on tainted food in NYC schools claims retaliation ‘destroyed’ his career
A veteran New York City Department of Education food inspector who was among those to blow the whistle on tainted food being served to public school kids claims he’s been the victim of retaliation that’s “destroyed” his career and reputation.
Reneto Serra, 43, alleges he was abruptly sidelined and stripped of his duties in the DOE’s School Food division after it emerged he leaked photos of the dodgy lunches — including chicken tenders laden with plastic, bones and metal — to the media in October 2016.
The employee, who has worked in the division for more than two decades, spoke of his ordeal after former DOE executive Eric Goldstein was convicted last Wednesday of taking bribes in exchange for turning a blind eye to the spoiled food Serra helped expose.
“I did it to save children,” Serra told The Post. “I paid the consequences because I stood up.”
“Honestly, I never thought the Department of Education would concentrate to destroy the person who did [the whistleblowing]. I would think they would stop what happened … and they’re going to change the way they do business,” he added.
Serra said he started going to his bosses in early 2015 to informally flag his concerns about improper purchasing practices and multiple complaints of moldy pizza and tainted chicken fingers being served up in city schools.
He called for his bosses to put the food, which had been contracted in by outside companies, including the Texas-based meat supplier Somma Foods, on hold until an independent probe was carried out.
But Serra alleges those above him ignored his concerns and told him it wasn’t his decision.
At the time, Serra said he was “afraid” to launch a formal complaint with the school district’s Special Commissioner of Investigation because others had told him cases were often referred back to the DOE to be probed.
“I was afraid to get punished,” he said.
Former NYPD sergeant and DOE food vendor, Pat Russo, reached out to SCI anonymously on his behalf in 2015 but they wouldn’t take up the case because Serra wouldn’t give up his identity.
Serra said he was so “concerned” someone would get hurt that he opted to expose the rotten food saga publicly.
Immediately after the photos of tainted food surfaced in media reports in October 2016, an investigator with the DOE’s Office of Pupil Transportation was brought in to probe the source of the leaks.
“They got that investigator to come down to open an investigation. Not to fix the problem, but to find out who was the rat,” Serra said, adding that they trawled through his emails and computer to find proof.
Serra claims the alleged retaliation against him started that day — and hasn’t stopped since.
For the past seven years, he insists he’s had zero job responsibilities — despite retaining his food inspector title and salary — and that he has been subjected to hostile working conditions.
“I sit at my desk, I clock-in-clock-out, that’s what I do all day,” Serra said.
“They put me in the corner. They don’t give me any work,” he continued. “I’ve been asking for work, they don’t want to give it to me. They’re refusing to give me work.
“That’s retaliation. Everything happened after the first article came out.”
He also accused his bosses of urging coworkers to file a flurry of workplace complaints against him in November and December of 2016 after the media leaks, including for stealing time and one for sexual harassment.
A subsequent probe by the DOE’s Office of Special Investigations ruled that Serra was found to have sexually harassed the employee, though the other complaints were unsubstantiated, according to records reviewed by The Post.
After the harassment allegations were made, Serra said he approached SCI — the school district’s watchdog — in March 2017 to officially probe the alleged retaliation against him.
SCI, however, turned down the case and ruled he wasn’t eligible for whistleblower status because, in part, he’d only made an official complaint to the watchdog about the tainted food after he had already been sidelined.
“The whistleblower statute requires that the report of wrongdoing to one of the designated agencies precede the allegation of retaliation,” the SCI said in their ruling. “In other words, one can’t claim that a prior act by a supervisor was in retaliation for a claim of wrongdoing reported after the action took place.”
The SCI also said the sexual harassment claim against Serra was a “plausible alternative explanation” for his reassignment.
Serra, however, alleges the sexual harassment complaint was completely false and that he wasn’t ever given an opportunity to respond to the allegations, or be interviewed by investigators, before the determination was made.
“I’ve never harassed anyone in my life. I’ve been working for the Department of Education for 20 years. Never in my life,” he said.
Serra said he agreed to undergo sexual harassment and sensitivity training in 2019 to avoid being fired.
“They gave me two options – take the class or we get you fired,” he claimed, adding that he needed “to pay the bills.”
Serra subsequently filed a joint lawsuit in 2019 against the DOE alleging he had been retaliated against. Russo, the ex-NYPD cop, and Debra Ascher, a former supply manager for school foods division, are also plaintiffs in the suit, which is still pending.
He has also submitted a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is currently under review.
Like Serra, Ascher claims she was punished after complaining to superiors about tainted chicken being served up at schools. Ascher, however, was granted whistleblower status because she lodged an official complaint about the dodgy food before she was pulled from her job.
She was among those to testify at last week’s bribery trial where Goldstein — the former head of the department’s Office of School Support Services — was found guilty by a Brooklyn federal jury of extortion, conspiracy and bribery charges for the kickback scheme linked to Somma Foods.
Somma owners Michael Turley, Brian Twomey and Blaine Iler were also convicted of conspiracy to commit extortion and bribery.
The DOE didn’t respond to The Post’s request for comment regarding Serra’s retaliation.
