Hall of Shame: More hostile work environment lawsuits

California's governor came down from Sacramento to talk to some people downtown on Tuesday. Not everyone in the city, but a few people. But then maybe some folks were trying to navigate themselves around a roped off City Hall block where the $12 million re-renovation of the downtown pedestrian mall is currently taking place. The only thing standing are some of the trees and the Martin Luther King, jr. monument which stands among the wreckage but as usual, the message of the man has been lost to the city.

It wasn't a great day for Riverside's City Hall after it became public that three of its code enforcement officers were suing the city. There had been rumors that Code Enforcement Manager Mark Salazar was removed from his position but although he's no longer holding that rank, he's a full-time advisor to the city on code issues, according to Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis who was interviewed by the Press Enterprise. Turmoil within the code compliance division has been ongoing for a while now, just as similar problems have plagued several other city departments. All part and parcel of excellent city management of course.

Mary Furfaro, Todd Solomon and Steve Livings, all long-time code compliance employees, filed suit alleging age discrimination, harassment and the failure of City Hall to accommodate disabilities in its workplace.




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)




Furfaro complained about what she believed was inappropriate touching by Salazar, Livings complained about what he felt were inappropriate sexually oriented comments Salazar made to female employees, and Solomon complained about comments Salazar made publicly about Solomon's weight, their suit says.

In March 2006, Salazar retaliated by banning the three from City Hall, took away their laptop and desktop computers and sent them to a new office -- in a metal storage shed in the city yard near the Auto Center, their suit says.

The shed held boxes with markings indicating radioactive material was inside, and the shed also held soil samples contaminated with hazardous waste, the suit says.

The shed was bug-infested, dusty and dirty, with no air conditioning or heating, no clean drinking water, no chairs and exposed electrical wiring and insulation, the former employees contend in their suit.

"There wasn't even a phone," Solomon, 43, of Murrieta, said in a recent interview.







The scandal about the three code compliance officers being essentially banished to the shed used to store hazardous wastes was actually broken by the alternative publication, Inland Empire Weekly in a story titled, "Code Red". Not long after that story, was when this publication apparently became persona non gratis in the city's downtown library's periodical section. At least for a while. Stories abounded about that action being decided upon by the mysterious man in the blue shirt. Some blamed the weekly's sudden disappearance on its racy advertising, while others thought it was its stories about the innards of Riverside's governmental agency that was the real problem.




Naturally, City Attorney Gregory Priamos publicly said the lawsuit has no merit, but he won't be litigating it. And it doesn't really mean much because Priamos has issued the same statement about every labor law suit (not to mention the wrongful death lawsuits which are now being paid out one by one) including several which have resulted in some rather big payouts by the city.

Expect this latest discrimination and harassment lawsuit involving the city to be farmed out to a private firm. Hopefully, not the same firm the city hired to defend itself from previous employees who filed lawsuits including Officer Roger Sutton.



As for Salazar's fate with the city, the explanation provided that he's an "advisor" but he's not the manager at the moment.

Full-time advisor? Issues pertaining to the department he once led? Why do these statements sound so familiar? If previous episodes of the city's history in labor issues are any indication, this status doesn't exactly hold great hope for career longevity at City Hall.



You would think that it's the manager who would serve as the full-time advisor but maybe that's not the case in Riverside. It's kind of reminiscent of the time when then Human Resources Director Art Alcaraz resigned from that position but spent at least six months working as an advisory consultant on what else, human resource issues, for the city manager's office.

It's difficult to figure out why in a year of fiscal budget shortfalls and hiring freezes from one end of the city to another that the city manager's office would actually want to create an advisory position to basically fill one of the roles that a code compliance manager would, but if you spend too much time trying to figure out what this office does, all it gives you is a headache. On the other hand, if Salazar's been removed from the manager position, it makes sense that the city has to put him somewhere to be of use given that these are fiscally difficult times.


Code Compliance isn't one of the four "P"s in the city when it comes to either being sued over hostile work environments or being the focus of workplace investigations internally or by outside agencies. Perhaps if things keep going on like they are, it will soon be in a class of its own.




Labor litigation aside, there's plenty going on in Riverside.


Here are some of the interesting Web sites which will provide further information about what's in Riverside politics.


City of Riverside : They say this site's won awards but it's still confusing to navigate through especially when doing document searches on its engine, in part because it's two separate sites in the place of one, due to having a separate section for "text only" information. If you want to see a copy of the agenda for the weekly city council meetings, it's right here.



Here's the organizational chart of City Hall which shows you the current pecking order of who's in charge of whom inside the halls of power and even features a photographic guide of all the players including those on Riverside's penthouse floor.


This city department used to be a separate division Before Hudson Era but is now under his office. Check out the city's annual budget for last year and previous archived years. Soon to come is the city's long anticipated and some say dreaded budget for fiscal year, 2008-09.



Community Police Review Commission: This site's located on the city's site and hasn't been updated in months. Some of the links on the left side are broken. Still, it's worth checking out for the reports whether they be the annual, monthly or those for the commission's officer-involved death investigations.



Riverside Police Department This is a pretty user-friendly site with links to several reports including the police chief's annual report and the police department's different programs on the front page. This link will take you to the crime statistics and the map showing the four neighborhood areas.



Riverside Police Officers' Association This site has also been updated recently and includes different categories of information for the officers who belong to it and the public. A list of charities that the union contributed to last year can be found here.



SEIU Local 721 This site serves the union which represents hundreds of Riverside city employees. It includes articles on the issues impacting this chapter.



City of Riverside Redevelopment Department This site allows visitors to access more information about the city's redevelopment division including maps of the city's redevelopment zones and the projects impacting those areas.



And if you're a Riverside city employee especially if you're a man or woman of color at City Hill or simply getting a little long in years, here are two sites that you might also find helpful.


Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing.






County of Riverside This site was recently redone (again) and it takes some patience to navigate including for the online services which are currently located on the left side of the home page.



Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner's Department The Web site is kind of basic but it's divided into categories that are easy to access to find information. It includes a rather detailed recruiting page here.


Riverside Sheriffs' Association This colorful site features a lot of information for its members who are sworn employees of the Sheriff's Department and several other county divisions, as well as the public. If you want to see which political candidates the union's political action committee is endorsing, look here.



Riverside County Grand Jury This page includes information about the civil grand jury process and reports including those which are archived. Alas, it doesn't include investigations which get buried.




Former Riverside County Superior Court Judge Robert Spitzer is out of appeals against his removal from the bench for judicial misconduct.


And if you want to know the reasons why the courts in Riverside County are backlogged. This is one reason why.




A U.S. Marines sergeant was charged in connection with the killing of prisoners in Fallujah, Iraq in the same case which also led to manslaughter charges filed against former Marine and Riverside Police Department Officer Jose Nazario.







Queens County prosecutors challenged statements made by New York City Police Department Det. Marc Cooper after the shooting of Sean Bell. Cooper is one of three officers currently on trial related to criminal charges filed in that onduty fatal shooting.



(excerpt, New York Daily News)



The statement by Detective Marc Cooper will most likely be called a lie by prosecutors and a simple mistake by his lawyer in arguments at the trial. Detective Cooper has since agreed that he fired four shots that morning, Nov. 25, 2006, according to the opening statement his lawyer, Paul Martin, gave last month.

But the assistant district attorney who was testifying, Michelle Cort, said on Tuesday that during Detective Cooper’s interview with members of the Queens district attorney’s office 45 days after the shooting, on Jan. 9, 2007, he said he fired one round. Ms. Cort, who was present at that interview, is not among the prosecutors in the trial.

She said that another assistant district attorney at the interview, Charles A. Testagrossa, told Detective Cooper that if his Glock had been fully loaded, as required by police regulations, he would have fired four rounds.

“Detective Cooper was certain that he only fired one time,” Ms. Cort testified, and that “he found the loose rounds in his home in a drawer.”

Detective Cooper said that he had a habit of unloading his Glock after work and reloading it the next day, and that he sometimes forgot to insert the round that had been in the chamber. “‘I may have two or three loose bullets,’” he said at the interview, according to Mr. Martin, his lawyer, on cross-examination.



In other trial testimony, witness Fabio Coicou denied hearing any remark about a gun in connection with events that took place before the shooting.



(excerpt, New York Times)



The testimony of the witness, Fabio Coicou, appeared to undermine the defense of the three detectives on trial in the killing, as a pillar of their case rests on the claims of undercover officers that they saw Mr. Coicou argue with Mr. Bell and that someone in the surrounding group said, “Go get my gun.”

However, on cross-examination, Mr. Coicou (pronounced KWAH-coo) was faced with versions to the contrary that he gave last year in meetings with Queens prosecutors and in appearances before a grand jury. A defense lawyer, Anthony L. Ricco, asked him if he remembered telling prosecutors in January 2007 that he heard someone say, “We’ll get the gat,” slang for a gun.

Mr. Coicou replied: “I don’t recall that. I don’t remember anyone saying that and I don’t recall that statement.”

If you felt the earth shake at around midnight, you weren't alone. A 3.0 earthquake hit two miles south of Loma Linda.

Here are the intensity statistic by zip code.