DAMIANI

EAST PROVIDENCE — Mediation is the next step for the discrimination complaint former Sen. Michael J. Damiani filed last year against the city when it required Damiani to get a physical exam and other tests before becoming one of its assistant harbormasters.

The session is scheduled for Monday if the dispute is not resolved before then, Damiani, 53, said yesterday. A previously scheduled test was canceled because Damiani was ill with the flu. The state Commission for Human Rights, which is where Damiani filed the complaint, will mediate.

“I’ve been fighting for victims’ rights my whole life,” he said. “I’m a victim now and I’m not going to let it go away. It’s a matter of principal.”

For 17 years, Damiani rose through the city police ranks to sergeant before retiring in 1996. He would have stayed longer, but had a heart attack while on the job that required a quadruple bypass. Damiani said the city forced him to take a disability pension and he is “still bitter about it” because he would be “better than 80 percent” of the current officers if he were still on the force.

Damiani was then elected to the General Assembly. Yet additional health ailments caused the 10-year senator from District 18 and longtime Democrat to retire in 2006. The doctors basically told him he needed a “life change,” his wife previously explained.

He proclaimed that year that he would “never” stop helping his city and its residents.

Soon after, members of the Harbor Commission and City Council asked him to be an assistant harbormaster, which pays $2,500 annually. They knew he often aided the harbormaster when he “needed an extra body” and frequently boats so it wasn’t an extraordinary request, Damiani said.

“I can talk to people well, too,” Damiani said, while stating it was a good quality to have for such a position. “… I told them, ‘If you think I can help out, I’ll help out.’”

Yet when the appointment came before the City Council in April 2007, Councilman Robert Cusack allegedly raised concerns about Damiani’s health. The former senator said Cusack — the lone Republican on the board — broke several state and federal laws while discussing his medical condition in public. Nonetheless, the council unanimously appointed Damiani; however, it stipulated he must be cleared medically with a physical and other tests.

Damiani, who was not present at the meeting, didn’t find out about the requirements until after the clerk said she couldn’t immediately swear him in.

“No one else has been asked to have a back screen and physical,” Damiani said. “It’s similar to an agility test for police officers. There’s a disparity here and after all these years sticking up for people, I’m being stepped on.”

City Solicitor William Conley Jr. confirmed yesterday that Damiani is “essentially correct that no one had ever been asked” to complete medical examinations. Yet he said the request was because of “the public knowledge of his health” and the fact that he receives a disability pension from the city.

The city solicitor didn’t comment further, yet Damiani said lawyers for the city’s insurance company — as well as two statewide disability agencies and the Commission for Human Rights — agreed East Providence is in the wrong.

“I’ve had a heart attack and have pins and screws holding me together, but so do others,” Damiani said rattling off city employees, past and present, including an assistant harbormaster who also had bypass surgery. “They weren’t asked to get a physical.”

He continued, “It’s pigheaded behavior and politically motivated and I’m a victim and don’t like it. I don’t want the job and I don’t need it. I’m just trying to help.”

apina@projo.com