you’ve got so many groups eyeballing it and vying for influence.” Plemmons says some people want to “make Buncombe an island to itself and be stricter than the state,” with regards to enforcing air-quality regulations. (The local agency is allowed to adopt stricter regulations than those mandated by the state or federal governments.) In his deposition, Camby remembered getting a call from Plemmons before the board made its June 7 decision: “One of the things he was concerned about was having more restrictive standards … and that [Pitrolo] would be able to impose stricter regulations on some of his constituents than he’d … want to have.” Pitrolo makes this observation: When Camby became director in late 1999, he ramped up enforcement. If she were male and had a reputation for being strict, as Camby was, the board would have made a different hiring decision; they might have hired her, Pitrolo contends. Board members and county officials violated Title VII in their decision process, she insists. Pitrolo also points to another segment of Cloninger’s testimony: Asked whether she thought the engineer was a “sore loser” because she got upset about the decision and filed a lawsuit, Cloninger responded, “I do. … I wouldn’t file a complaint. I wouldn’t do it myself. … What goal is there to be accomplished?” “Women … need to be seriously considered for jobs for which they are qualified,” Pitrolo responds. If gender-discrimination cases were never undertaken, women would find it even harder to advance in male-dominated fields, including engineering, she argues. Further, the federal government doesn’t have the resources to investigate each claim — last year, the EEOC received about 28,000 Title VII complaints — but “Congress put in place the ability to recover attorney fees and costs when discrimination is proven, as it was in my case.” Pitrolo, incidentally, still works in air regulation. After leaving the agency, she returned to the North Carolina Division of Air Quality, where she had worked earlier in her career; and in 2008, she got a job with the U.S. Forest Service, helping address air-quality issues across the Southeast. “There still aren’t a lot of women engineers,” says Pitrolo, who points out another detail in her case: Until Brigman, all previous directors at WNC agency came from the engineering division, had college degrees, and had first been either assistant directors or interim directors (sometimes both). But despite the 10 years’ experience she had accumulated in 2005 and her advanced education, she “wasn’t even interviewed for the job.” She’s optimistic about the chance the appeals court will again reverse Thornburg, and if they do, he won’t be hearing the case this time. And in response to the concerns raised about her maturity level and the fact that her father called to complain about what was happening, she says, “If the jury’s verdict is reinstated, and we recover attorney fees, then Buncombe County will perhaps think twice when making hiring decisions in the future, and hire the most qualified person regardless of gender, race or other personal qualities unrelated to how a person does the job.” X Margaret Williams can be reached at mvwilliams@ mountainx.com or 251-1333, ext. 152
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