Mayor Parker’s neighborhood engagement director ‘has been separated’ from the city after allegedly accosting a Council member
City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas accused Hassan Freeman and another city employee of accosting him three weeks ago at the lawmaker’s parking spot outside City Hall.
Hassan Freeman, who was Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s director of neighborhood and community engagement, is no longer with the administration after a City Council member accused Freeman of accosting him three weeks ago at the lawmaker’s parking spot near City Hall.
“Hassan Freeman has been separated from city employment,” Tiffany W. Thurman, Parker’s chief of staff, said in a statement. “This is a personnel matter, and we have no further comment.”
Freeman and another city employee confronted Councilmember Isaiah Thomas in a “negative and disturbing interaction” when Thomas arrived at City Hall about 9 a.m. for Council’s Sept. 18 meeting, according to an email Thomas wrote to administration officials on the day of the incident that was obtained by The Inquirer.
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Thomas wrote that Freeman and the other employee were waiting for him when he arrived, and “spoke to me in a disrespectful manner, a hostile tone, and addressing me outside my name and title.”
Thomas has clashed with the administration over issues including school board picks and Parker’s housing initiative, and his opposition to some of the mayor’s priorities has stood out in a Council that has for the most part acquiesced to her agenda.
“This is another example of the lack of respect for me, my office, and my position as a member of City Council,” Thomas wrote.
Neither Freeman nor Thomas responded to requests for comment Tuesday.
Parker spokesperson Joe Grace declined to say whether Freeman was fired. Grace also declined to identify the second city employee referenced by Thomas or say whether that person was still with the city.
A police report related to the incident was filed, said Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police spokesperson. Gripp said he could not disclose any details in the report, including who filed it, because it did not involve potential criminal allegations.
“I have a report of a disturbance, and it’s a verbal disturbance,” Gripp said. “As a disturbance, there is no report of a crime, which is something that would require further investigatory action by the police department.”
The administration “takes all allegations of employee misconduct seriously,” Thurman said in a statement the day after the incident.
“It’s our standard to review any information shared, and take any action deemed appropriate under City policy,” Thurman said at the time.
In his email to members of the mayor’s administration, Thomas said he believed “the goal of the conversation [for Freeman] was to communicate his concerns about a conversation I had with another member of the Parker Administration.”
A week before the encounter with Freeman, Thomas had a tense conversation with Chief Deputy Mayor Sinceré Harris at an event marking the start of Council’s fall session, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation who previously spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve relationships. Freeman reported to Harris, who oversees legislative affairs for the administration.
Freeman’s job entailed operating the administration’s Neighborhood Community Action Centers, a Parker initiative that involved managing 10 “neighborhood city halls” where residents can get connected to benefits, file complaints about abandoned cars, and access other services, according to the city website.
It was not immediately clear if Parker had tapped anyone to fill his role.