Elizabeth Reich served as Chief Financial Officer of the agency for nearly two years. She wrote that she resigned because she “could no longer tolerate the abuse.”
DALLAS — The DART board agreed to pay $75,000 to resolve a federal discrimination complaint from a former executive alleging harassment, differential treatment and hostility by board members that ultimately humiliated her to the point of tears, according to records obtained by WFAA.
Now-former Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Reich said “female executives are aware that when briefing the DART Board an angry and humiliating outburst could occur at any time.” In contrast, she said male executives are treated with “professionalism, courtesy and respect.”
She said the disparity was made clear to her by DART CEO Nadine Lee when Reich first came aboard the transit agency in 2022.
Reich said Lee told her “the DART board had made numerous improper and misogynistic comments, and that female executives were treated more harshly by the DART board,” according to the complaint.
The board’s conduct eventually led her to resign last June, Reich wrote in the September 2024 complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was obtained by WFAA through a records request.
“I could no longer tolerate the abuse by the DART board,” she wrote.
Reich said Lee responded to the resignation that she was “not surprised, given the abuse of females by the DART board.”
The EEOC document details repeated complaints about behavior by DART board member and Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer and former Plano representative on the board Paul Wageman. Both declined to comment.
The DART board is made up of representatives appointed by each member city. The collective board serves as a governing body that oversees the transit agency, its leaders and its 3,800 employees.
Reich said Lee told her in February 2024 that she saw Stopfer tell other board members that Reich “needs to know her place,” following a budget committee meeting earlier in the day. “I found it deeply disturbing,” Reich wrote, “As such language is not acceptable anywhere, much less in the workplace.”
At a meeting March 2024, she said the mayor “angrily accused me of disrespecting a male executive” by interrupting him, though she said other male executives had done the same.
“It was clear to me at that point that female executives should not speak unless requested do so by a male DART board member,” she wrote.
Reich accused Wageman of aggressive behavior with her and other female executives on multiple occasions, including during a March 2024 meeting in which he “became very angry and emotional and yelled at me claiming I was ‘blaming’ him, becoming very aggressive while berating me during the meeting,” according to the complaint.
“Close to tears, I reverted to casting my eyes downward throughout the course of the meeting, becoming completely submissive and trying not to do anything that would further provoke [Dart Board Member] Wageman,” Reich wrote in the complaint. “After being humiliated, I went to my office and cried, trying to comprehend why I was being treated in this way.”
Reich said Wageman demanded that female executives, including Lee, wait to be recognized before they were allowed to speak during board meetings and chastised them for interruptions — but did not hold male employees to the same standards.
Wageman said the March settlement agreement with Reich included non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses that prevented him from offering a response to this story.
He resigned from the DART board the week of March 10 after nearly 14 years as Plano’s representative. The settlement agreement with Reich passed unanimously at the next board meeting at the end of the month.
Wageman said his resignation was tied to the increasing time required to serve on the board “given the many challenges facing DART.”
“As my service to DART was competing inordinately with my professional and family commitments, I chose to retire from the board,” he told WFAA in an emailed statement.
Reich declined to speak with WFAA, writing in a text message “I’m only able to say that the matter has been resolved.”
DART does not admit fault in its settlement with Reich, according to a copy of the document obtained by WFAA. In it she agrees to withdraw her complaint in exchange for $75,000 — half paid for economic damages and half for other claims she may have, such as mental anguish or emotional distress, according to the settlement agreement.
DART did not respond to a list of questions from WFAA. In an emailed statement, Lee said she knows decisions the DART leadership team makes affect the entire organization and she does not take the responsibility lightly.
“In building an empowered agency—it’s important for every employee to feel seen, heard and valued,” Lee wrote in the statement. “I want each person at DART to come to work with a deep sense of purpose and professional pride, knowing that what they do matters. When we believe in our mission, we don’t just do our jobs, we make a difference.”
Reich said she was asked to “moderate her public statements” about her resignation after nearly two years as CFO, but said she wrote in a note to file in June 2024 that she “intended to stay with DART for at least 5 years” and the “real reason I was resigning was ‘because the employment culture here at DART – specifically the way the board treats executive women – became intolerable and I cannot continue to serve.'”
Before working as DART CFO, Reich led the finances for the city of Dallas for nearly six years. She now works as the Senior Vice President of Business Administration at Broadway Dallas.
At the close of her EEOC complaint Reich wrote “I am hopeful that things will change at DART, but I am concerned about the agency as long as DART Board members are allowed to continue this behavior and treatment of my former female colleagues.”
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