Republican West Hartford Town Councilwoman and former candidate for state comptroller Mary Fay filed a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) against the West Hartford Republican Town Committee in June of 2024, alleging she was “denied equal services and demoted due to my gender, sexual orientation, and previous opposition,” according to documents obtained by Inside Investigator.
The complaint was filed following a series of conflicts between Fay and fellow Republican town councilmen Mark Zydanawiciz and Alberto Cortez. According to her complaint, she encouraged the RTC in 2023 not to endorse both men for reelection to the council. In the complaint, she points out that both men are “Male, Heterosexual.”
Fay claims that she took her concerns to West Hartford RTC Chairman Shawn Daley on November 8, 2023, who “told me that I am difficult and tough to deal with, and that I should go ahead and resign if I so desired.”
The issue apparently culminated with Fay losing her minority leader status on the town council, being voted out of her position on the town Finance and Budget Committee on a bipartisan basis, and being moved to the Human Services Committee. She further claims she is being “excluded from caucuses,” which, she writes, is ongoing.
“I was reassigned to the human services committee from the finance and budget committee, after 6 years and with a strong finance background, and assigned to seat #3, which is where the person with the fewest votes is supposed to sit,” Fay wrote. “I think this was done to make fun of me and their way of threatening to force me to voluntarily leave the committee.”
The RTC, according to documents filed both in August of 2024 and April of 2025, is denying the allegations, stating that they have no employees and, since Fay’s complaints about being ousted from her committee position are a matter of politics, they have no way in which to remedy the loss. The RTC claims the CHRO is trying to interfere in local politics by accepting the case.
“The WeHa RTC is shocked and disheartened that CHRO accepted the Complainant’s meritless and error-filled complaint and is attempting to insert themselves in the affairs of local town politics,” wrote WeHa RTC Risk Manager Kyle Zelazny.
In their responses, WeHa RTC cite video from election night 2023 posted to X by West Hartford resident Mark Walsh that shows Fay “engaging in a profanity-laced, alcohol-fueled rant directed at the other two Republican town councilors and the members (and their families, including children that were present) of the RTC,” according to their April 2025 motion to dismiss.
They also cite a letter to the editor written by West Hartford Democratic Town Committee member Kevin Sullivan, encouraging local Republicans to replace her, as evidence of why she was voted off the finance and budget committee but added the RTC has “no control over the decisions and actions of the members of the West Hartford town council,” according to the WeHa RTC’s August 2024 response.
In their April 2025 Motion to Dismiss, Zelazny argues the RTC “believes this Complaint was maliciously filed in an attempt to ‘play the victim’ using identity politics, i.e. disingenuously leveraging her sex and sexual orientation, in order to intimidate the RTC and attempt to regain political leverage in town – leverage Ms. Fay lost due to her own incorrigible, deplorable behavior as well as an inability to get along with her fellow Democrat and Republican town councilors.”
The WeHa RTC is arguing the complaint should be dismissed because the CHRO lacks jurisdiction; Fay makes no mention of what the RTC can do about her position on the town council; the complaint is frivolous and the RTC is the improper party; and that Fay has failed to make a case that she was discriminated against based on her gender or sexual orientation.
Fay, a financial services executive, has been in West Hartford town government for roughly ten years and is a well-known figure in state politics as well, having run unsuccessfully for the Connecticut House of Representatives, Congress, and most recently State Comptroller in 2022. Fay was the executive director of the Connecticut Retirement Security Authority (CRSA) for a brief time until the fledgling agency went broke when Gov. Ned Lamont opposed extending a $1 million line of credit to the agency. That loss meant the CRSA couldn’t afford her salary anymore, resulting in a fiery email sent by Fay to board members and publicized by the Hartford Courant.
Reached for comment, Zelazny said their motion to dismiss “speaks for itself,” but says the whole situation “sucks,” as the RTC has long supported Fay as a strong Republican voice both at the local level and state level.
“We supported her. Not just for local government. Not only did myself and the whole RTC door-knock for her and raise funds for her municipal campaigns, we helped her when she ran for comptroller – we wanted Mary there. She has a great financial background,” Zelazny said. “Then she turns around and blames the RTC and accuses us of discriminating against her.”
Zelazny suspects the CHRO is overstepping its bounds by accepting Fay’s case, particularly one against a political committee. The WeHa RTC has filed a request for early legal intervention to “review whether the Complaint should proceed to a public hearing, be further investigated, or be released from CHRO jurisdiction.”
The RTC has also requested copies of the original and amended complaint, both of which are referenced in CHRO’s communications to the RTC but none of which are fully enclosed and allege the CHRO is targeting them politically.
“As the CHRO should know, the weaponization of government agencies for partisan political purposes, particularly against Republicans, is a common phenomenon in the modern United States of America,” the motion to dismiss says.
Requests for comment sent to Fay were not returned.
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