Allegations Against the James Madisons Foundation

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Considerable uproar continues following the woke takeover in recent years of Montpelier, the museum estate of American founder James Madison.

A year ago to the day, George Urban signed a contract to be the financial director of Montpellier, a job that he was already doing without an official title. On March 31, Urban filed a lawsuit claiming that Montpelier breached his contract by firing him without the severance pay guaranteed therein. Urbans’ lawsuit also suggests his dismissal stems at least in part from a claim he and three others filed the same day he signed the contract, May 16, 2022, alleging the four were subjected to a hostile working environment by staff members supporting what amounted to a coup in which left-wing forces took control of the foundation.

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Now two of the three other high-ranking employees who signed the hostile work environment claim, who also no longer work for Montpellier, have told the others that neither the board nor the new management hired followed up in any way. They said no one appeared to be investigating the complaint, no apparent effort had been made to improve the situation, and no one had reported to them on the status or outcome of their complaint.

Cara Sisson, the former director of advancement, and Colleen Morrissey, the director of human resources, joined Urbans on May 16, 2022, claiming a hostile work environment. The document they filed states, among a list of details, that ongoing hostilities include glaring, entrapment, sarcastic comments, being called a racist, avoiding inappropriate outbursts, shouting anger, spying, lies, open challenge to authority, harassing communications and physical intimidation. .

Urbans’ lawsuit says the board and new management never responded to those complaints.

Earlier this month, several other knowledgeable observers told me they believe the Urban lawsuit played a role in the surprise replacement in late April of board chairman James French, who led the hit. of state who overthrew the majority of the board in 2022. The signed contract attached to his lawsuit makes it clear that Urban owed a full year of severance pay unless he was terminated for cause, with the requirement that Montpelier provide written notice of the alleged violation of a work rule and a period of at least ten days to remedy such conduct.

The lawsuit says Urban was fired without such notice and Montpellier refused to pay him the severance pay under the contract.

After and clearly largely as a result of the woke takeover (which I described in a big story last September), Montpellier suffered from severe cash flow problems. His new management began downsizing and cutting wages, including for employees like Urban who signed the work environment complaint. The Urbans lawsuit states that on August 9, 2022, new interim CEO Elizabeth Chew and an attorney held a surprise meeting with Mr. Urban during which they suddenly declared that the Foundation was unilaterally declaring the contract invalid and not would not honor its binding conditions. They told him he was being fired immediately without cause, but would be allowed to resign if he signed a new agreement to declare the contract null and void. According to the lawsuit, Urban was told that two former co-workers rescinded and disavowed their own agreements in forced resignations obtained by similar threats.

Urban refused to sign the new deal. Montpellier refused to pay his severance pay. Urban filed a complaint.

That brings us back to Morrissey, the former HR director who signed her contract the same day as Urban, May 16, 2022, with the same sort of severance deal. When I tracked her down and read her the excerpts from Urban’s trial, she described an almost identical experience to me, one of which she had recounted several others long before Urban filed suit. Morrissey said that on July 15, 2022, Chew brought her to a closed meeting with an attorney present by phone.

They ambushed me, Morrissey told me. They wanted the contract gone.

She told friends they demanded she sign a lengthy agreement declaring her May 16 contract void so they could downgrade her title and salary. When she asked for time to digest the new deal and possibly speak to a lawyer, she said she was told that if she left the room she would be fired. She protested, but they repeated the threat.

The document they gave him was called Cancellation of Contract. It began: the purpose of this agreement is to void the alleged employment contract you attempted to enter into with the Montpelier Foundation, dated May 16, 2022. The new agreement required Morrissey to declare the attempted contract void and void and of no effect as if never made…including, but not limited to, its salary and severance provisions.

The document contained paragraph after paragraph of stark language emphasizing and reaffirming that the May 16 contract was void, as well as several thinly veiled threats if she did not accept.

Never mind that Montpelier had, by his actions, already ratified the May 16 contract for two full months by paying him the salary, giving him the title, and giving him the responsibilities and powers noted in that contract.

A scared Morrissey signed the new deal. Other than telling a few friends about the threats behind closed doors, she hadn’t shared or confirmed specific language and terms of the forced deal with strangers until I called her and read her costume snippets. ‘Urbans which described the exact same tactics used against him. She said that the document I have in my possession speaks for itself and that she has nothing to add.

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Chew remains a member of the Montpellier staff, although he is no longer caretaker manager. She did not respond to an emailed request for comment. French remains on the board, although he is no longer chairman. Morrissey and Sisson, who along with Urban signed the work environment complaint, both eventually found jobs elsewhere, but without any severance pay and without any concerns about their reports that they had been victims of angry shouting, spying, lies, harassing communications and physical intimidation.

And Urbans’ trial looms over Montpelier, which now stands as an object lesson in how a hostile takeover, partly engineered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, can seriously tarnish a treasured legacy.

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