San Benito County Board of Supervisors this week finally
certified a sexual harassment lawsuit against the District
Attorney’s Office that requires every employee in the office
undergo discrimination training.
Hollister – San Benito County Board of Supervisors this week finally certified a sexual harassment lawsuit against the District Attorney’s Office that requires every employee in the office undergo discrimination training.
Although the details of the training classes haven’t be outlined yet, Acting County Administrative Officer Susan Lyons said the county won’t be out any more money to provide the classes.
San Benito County pays an annual fee of almost $11,000 to belong to consortiums that offer between 12 to 15 different training classes for county supervisors and employees – the sexual harassment and discrimination class being one of them, Lyons said.
To pay for this batch of training, the county will dip into its insurance fund to pay for the settlement classes, she said.
“We pay a very small amount to keep us going,” Lyons said. “Instead of paying for lawsuits we pay for the classes.”
District Attorney John Sarsfield has already completed the training class he was required to take as part of a harassment lawsuit settlement with two women in the Victim Witness Department of his office.
Sarsfield completed a harassment and discrimination management class sometime between October and January, according to Rick Bolanos, the county’s attorney in the settlement. The settlement stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Katie Fancher and Julie Roybal in August that alleged Sarsfield was having an affair with his office manager which created a hostile work environment, and that he behaved in an “openly rude and contemptuous manner” toward women in the office.
Bolanos said the terms of the settlement were agreed upon in principle several months ago, but the details had to be hashed out before everyone involved was satisfied. However, in December Sarsfield called the settlement terms “rank speculation” and “completely wrong,” and said he wasn’t sure if an agreement would ever be reached.
All employees, including those in the Victim Witness Department, must take the training in the near future in an attempt to prevent any future harassment issues within the factious office. While the county already ponied up $35,000 for Fancher and Roybal to split as part of the agreement, the training won’t cost taxpayers any additional money, according to county officials.
Although the county ended up spending money on this suit, making employees attend the program, which includes lectures, presentations and role playing, will help prevent the same problem from occurring again, according to Liz Brown, human resource director for the county.
“It’s valuable for anyone to attend – it’s very healthy training. I wish all employees were required to do it,” she said. “It gives them insight for what to look… and teaches them how to handle situations.”
