Why The City Clerk Is Upset

June 8, 2012

To: City Council Members.

Re: Pacific Municipal Code 2.88- Equal Employment Opportunity

On June 4th, 2012 I informed Mayor Cy Sun That Howard Erickson confronted Becky Cromwell a member of Local Union 117, in the hallway of City Hall. He was accompanied by Leanna Mason who was the person that Mayor Sun had brought before the City Council on April 29, 2012 for confirmation to the position of Community Services Director. The City Council did not confirm her appointment. Mr. Erickson singled Becky out and used a common demeaning term used only with women to refer to me. He stated, “I’m going to get that Bitch fired, she was supposed to be out on medical leave and she was really in Connecticut selling her house.” Ms. Cromwell stated to me that he was angry, and hostile and she found his remarks to be shocking and inappropriate.

This is not the first time the Mr. Erickson has been in my workplace making inappropriate comments about me. The last time he was in an employee only area demanding to see my job description and questioning my authority to do my job as the Personnel Manager. This was reported to me by the former Finance Director, Maria Pierce. Mr. Erickson was angry because I had followed the City Policy and Procedure that in regard to the hiring of a Community Services Director and the candidate that he told the Mayor to hire, Fran Neumiller had not been selected for the interview process.

Maria Pierce came and told me and I went to speak to Mr. Erickson to find out what the problem was. We had a long discussion. I explained that I had followed the Policy of the City and that Ms. Neumiller was not qualified for the position and that therefore she had not been granted an interview. Mr. Erickson appeared to be satisfied.

In this case, I decided to bring a person with me to speak to Mr. Erickson. I asked Sheryl Finwall to accompany me because I knew that she was well liked by Mr. Erickson and I felt I needed a witness and a person who could potentially arbitrate for me. We found Mr. Erickson in Joanne Futch’s office. I asked him if we could talk about what was said to Becky Cromwell and he verbally exploded and moved toward me and with a red face and a loud voice stated, “You are a fucking bitch, a traitor”. He continued making statements that I was disloyal to the Mayor and that I was “working with John Calkins and Councilmember Jones”. I attempted to talk to him but it was impossible. He approached me a second time and got very close to my face. He looked at me with bulged eyes and took a threatening stance towards me stating “You are a bitch”. I told him that a true man would not act like this, (use male aggression, stance, stature, derogatory gender based language), but would sit down and talk with me to resolve this issue. He refused and walked off. All of this was done in the presence of Joanne Futch, Sheryl Finwall, and Dale a young man with a disability who was looking on. There were also about 8 young men playing basketball, but I do not know if they overheard his statements to me.

After Mr. Erickson left, I was in shock. Joanne and Sheryl both apologized to me and stated that they too were shocked and they both stated that his behavior was out of line and uncalled for. I was very upset by his behavior.

I left and went to my office and immediately called the City Attorney, Ken Luce and reported the conduct. The City Attorney advised me to report this to the Mayor. I also called Sgt. Jim Pickett (acting Police Chief to report the incident). Sgt. Picket accompanied me to speak to the Mayor.

Sgt. Pickett told the Mayor that he had enough cause to arrest Mr. Erickson. I then told the Mayor what had happened. The Mayor stated to Sgt. Pickett that I had come to him before about Mr. Erickson’s behavior and that he had not done anything about it. He stated that he had been wrong to not help me then. He asked me if I would give him the chance to go speak to Mr. Erickson to help me and I agreed that I would but that I wanted to continue to make my report to the Police Department. The Mayor said that he would report back. The Mayor left immediately.

I did not see the Mayor again until the Council meeting that night and he made no attempt to speak to me about his conversation with Mr. Erickson. Mr. Erickson came to the Council Workshop and the Mayor acted in a cordial friendly manner to him and Mr. Erickson did not apologize to me. The Mayor had ample opportunity to speak to me after the meeting and he did not do so.

The next morning on the 5th, The Mayor was in City hall but made no attempt to speak to me. At this point I decided that again, the Mayor had ignored my request for help. I went to the King County District Court and obtained a temporary anti-harassment order against Mr. Erickson. While I was waiting for my final paperwork at the Court which was in the late afternoon, I received a call from Betty Garrison the Treasurer. Betty reported to me that the Mayor had asked her to type of a letter hiring Mr. Erickson for the position of Building Official/Code Enforcement Officer for $30 an hour. She told the Mayor that she did not want to do that and asked him to see me because that was my responsibility as the Personnel Manager. I was quite shocked by this because I felt it was very inappropriate to reward a citizen for harassing me by attempting to hire him for a position which was currently held by another Union employee, Roger Smith. It also showed me that the Mayor had no respect for me as a woman and a city official. I also believed that this action totally proved my belief that he had been disingenuous when he told me the previous day that he would go talk to Mr. Erickson on my behalf to help me.

The Mayor has the legal responsibility under Pacific Municipal Code Chapter 2.88, Equal Employment Opportunity to oversee this law which is required by local, state and federal laws. (See attached Exhibit A). It has also been reported to me that the Mayor has made been making statements to others that, “I was the aggressor”, in the incident with Mr. Erickson.

As the City Clerk, Personnel Manager for the City I am putting the City on notice that I have been discriminated against as a female employee, based on both my gender and my age. I believe that I have not been granted the equal treatment under the law that I entitled to and that the Mayor is required to enforce. I believe the Mayor has violated all of the following;

Federal Equal Employment Opportunity statutes.
Pacific Municipal Code- 2.88. 2.88.010, 2.88.020, 2.88.030, 2.88.040 and 2.88.050.

Specifically:

2.88.010-The city will not tolerate racial, ethnic, religious or sexual slurs or comments, or any form of sexual harassment, by or about any officer, employee, applicant or the public. By Ordinance 1153.

2.88.020
The Mayor shall oversee the City’s equal employment opportunity and nondiscrimination policy.

I am asking the City of Pacific to take the appropriate steps to discipline and cite the Mayor for his disregard of these laws. I am also asking that his actions and lack of actions be reported to the appropriate regulatory agency or commission which deals with the federal and state laws in regard to these statutes. I have called Councilmember Steiger and have asked him to contact the Council President, Leanne Guier for me as I would like the City Council to add this to the agenda for our meeting on Monday the 11th. I will be emailing my correspondence to the City Attorney and to Canfield and Associates as well.

Sincerely,

Jane A. Montgomery
City Clerk, Personnel Manager