Council resolves Rex E. Wyatt sexual harassment case
Gilroy – A sexual-harassment firing that threatened to morph into a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city was resolved Thursday, when council members agreed to pay $370,000 to a former building official.
The case involving Rex E. Wyatt, fired three years ago on charges that he made sexually suggestive comments to a subordinate, transformed into a potentially expensive counter-suit last fall after a judge overturned the dismissal. The decision freed Wyatt, 49, to sue the city for a violation of his due-process rights during an internal City Hall investigation that his lawyer likened to a “runaway train.”
Anxious to avoid the costs of further litigation, council members Thursday evening approved the settlement in a 6-1 vote. Just 45 minutes after convening behind closed doors, Mayor Al Pinheiro emerged from the meeting, walked across the hall to city council chambers and officially announced the decision before a room of empty seats, save those occupied by City Administrator Jay Baksa and legal counsel Ernest Malaspina.
“Many factors are considered in making a decision to settle a lawsuit,” the mayor said, reading from a prepared statement. “First and foremost, the city council must continuously evaluate and attempt to do what is best for the city. In this instance, the decision to settle will end what has been, and what would continue to be, a serious disruption to city staff and its ability to conduct city business. Additionally, a settlement permits the city to avoid the cost of further litigation, including the pending trial on several issues still unresolved.”
Craig Gartman was the only councilman to vote against the settlement.
“I don’t think that it’s appropriate to settle this issue, given the circumstances surrounding the situation,” he said. “I do not believe this is a justifiable action on behalf of the city. That’s the reason why I could not support it.”
He declined to say if he would have preferred a smaller settlement offer or to continue fighting the case, since discussion of those topics took place in closed session.
The settlement means that Wyatt, hired in Sept. 2001, will not return to work at the city. His attorney, Steven Fink, could not be reached for comment. Fink has declined in the past to disclose the whereabouts of his client or to say whether Wyatt would have been willing to resume work in Gilroy.
The internal investigation into the harassment charges exposed strained relations between Wyatt and a number of employees in the city’s building, engineering and planning departments. A dozen workers across the departments were interviewed as part of the investigation that led to Wyatt’s firing in Oct. 2003.
Four tiers of city officials approved the decision, starting with Community Development Director Wendie Rooney. In the letter of termination, Rooney told Wyatt he was being dismissed “based on the investigative findings that you made inappropriate sexually suggestive comments and improperly disclosed personal information to a subordinate, initiated unwelcome invitations to subordinate co-workers to meet for drinks, and established and maintained an intimidating work environment toward subordinate co-workers. Additionally … it is determined that you were not credible, or in the alternative, less than forthcoming during the investigative interview process.”
The conclusion that Wyatt violated city rules on sexual harassment and workplace discrimination was subsequently upheld by the Gilroy Personnel Commission, Baksa and city council.
Their decisions came despite vigorous arguments by Wyatt’s attorney, who claimed the city conducted a one-sided investigation that failed to seek out evidence and witnesses that could have contradicted Carolyn Costa, a permit technician who accused Wyatt of harassment after he gave her a negative employee evaluation. Costa left her job at the city earlier this year.
Three years after Wyatt’s termination, Pinheiro said he still supports the decision.
“The city went through the whole gamut of what is known as an impartial investigation,” he said Friday. “The city staff, the city administrator, the personnel commission, city council – we all did this in good faith and made a decision based on what we thought was the truth and what we thought was the right thing to do for the city.”
Superior Court Judge Leslie Nichols did not offer a detailed critique of the city’s handling of the matter, but ruled in Oct. 2005 that the decision to fire Wyatt was not supported “by the weight of the evidence.” He ordered the city to rehire the former building official, pay him for lost wages, and purge his personnel file of any mention of the charges that led to the termination.
