LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A former city employee testified she believes supervisors retaliated against her after she raised concerns about several business deals, including an investment plan for Louisville's west end.

But Metro government representatives pushed back against those claims during an ethics hearing Thursday and argued that Terri Hathaway was let go from her job as an economic development coordinator last June because of poor performance and workplace disruptions.

The all-day hearing was the latest step in Hathaway's ethics case that also accuses Mayor Craig Greenberg and top officials of violating local ethics and personnel rules in creating a new economic development agency. It is scheduled to resume February 3.

After the hearing ends, the Louisville Metro Ethics Commission is likely at least a month away from taking up the case.

The complaint initially targeted the creation of the Louisville Economic Development Alliance, the Greenberg administration's new corporation focused on business growth. Hathaway alleged that the mayor and other officials violated ethics code provisions on "unwarranted advantages" because the corporation will benefit their personal interests.

The ethics commission has dismissed those claims. At issue now are the retaliation allegations.

Hathaway, who was fired by last year, testified that a promised change in her job duties failed to materialize after she described the West End Opportunity Partnership as a "potential threat" during a meeting with a city consultant. (City officials say human resources policy at the time prohibited granting her request for a supervisory role.)

The west end group is guiding public spending in nine neighborhoods through Kentucky's largest tax increment financing district. Hathaway testified that she told representatives from the Council of Development Finance Agencies about the partnership, drawing parallels to her time observing "puppet governments" in central Africa.

"It had been presented as an opportunity. And I said that it was a threat," she said, adding: "I was really concerned that that was minimizing what residents in the West End were feeling. So I was trying to be honest to that effect."

Hathaway acknowledged under questioning from Metro attorney Amy Cubbage — also counsel to the West End organization — that she used the word "colonization" during the meeting.

Those comments, Hathaway said, brought a reprimand from one of her bosses.

"I felt that I was being rebuked for my comments and told that this was a priority project of the mayor and of the governor, and that I was not to say anything publicly disparaging about this project," she said.

West End TIF district

The West End tax increment financing (TIF) district in Louisville's western neighborhoods 

Jeff O'Brien, executive director of the economic development cabinet, testified that referring to public policy as "colonization" was a "pretty extreme," but he said Hathaway's other critiques of the west end plan weren't out of bounds.

"Identifying it as a threat and a challenge to work through and being something that is not seen necessarily in a positive light in all areas of our community is totally a valid concern and valid complaint," he said.

Speaking during a break in the hearing, Cubbage told WDRB News that there is no conflict of interest in her role with the partnership and representing Metro government. She said that Laura Douglas, the partnership's president and CEO who also serves on the ethics commission, has recused herself from the case.

Besides the partnership comments, Hathaway testified that she believes she was dismissed because she cited a series of "red flags" over several months while working in the city's economic development cabinet.

In testimony and her ethics complaint, Hathaway said she raised concerns about "political interference" from the Greenberg administration in the Metropolitan Business Development Corp., or METCO, that include alleged attempts to get a preferential interest rate for an unnamed borrower.

She also questioned a $500,000 city grant to MMY Group, a UK-based company that plans to open a manufacturing location in an industrial building in the Parkland neighborhood, after the company failed to provide financial information for a loan request.

"I think that I was seen as somebody who was difficult, who was, you know, raising concerns they did not want me to be doing," Hathaway said.

But O'Brien testified that none of those things factored into her firing.

In a May 2024 meeting, Metro economic development director Joshua McKee told Hathaway of "remediation" actions that needed to happen in her role, including responding more timely to clients, according to an audio recording played during the hearing.

Then, several weeks later, O'Brien testified that he was informed that several of Hathaway's coworkers had raised concerns that she was creating a "toxic work environment." The matter was then turned over to the city's human resources department, ultimately resulting in the firing.

"I believe that, in combination with the challenges that were identified on May 10 — I believe that combination of factors led to the termination," O'Brien said.

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