This is one of those times that we can’t believe we actually
have to say this, but here it goes: A sexually explicit toy doesn’t
belong in any workplace, but it is breathtakingly poor judgment to
display one in a department run by a man facing multiple charges of
workplace sexual harassment.
This is one of those times that we can’t believe we actually have to say this, but here it goes: A sexually explicit toy doesn’t belong in any workplace, but it is breathtakingly poor judgment to display one in a department run by a man facing multiple charges of workplace sexual harassment.
We’re stunned that as a manager – leaving aside the charges that he touched, kissed, groped and made sexual comments to women who have worked in the Hollister Recreation Division – Robert Ornelas would permit any of his employees to display a teddy bear wearing a leather thong bikini that emits sexually graphic noises when squeezed.
Talk about creating a hostile work environment – anyone in a supervisory role should know better than to permit it. But when we factor in that Ornelas, the city’s recreation services manager, is the subject of a lawsuit filed by six women charging him with workplace sexual harassment, the lack of judgment astounds us. When we consider that minors had regular access to the office in which the lewd bear was prominently displayed on a computer monitor, we’re left reeling over the situation. Whether the bear’s presence is ascribed to arrogance or ignorance, we’re not comforted but angered and astonished.
The employee who displayed the bear for months, Tina Talavera, her supervisor, Ornelas, and his boss, Management Services Director Clay Lee, should be called into the city manager’s office and read the riot act – which ought to include a long and emphatic refresher course on the city’s sexual harassment policy.
If that policy includes any punitive action for violations, those ought to be levied. Notations of their lack of judgment, and in the cases of Ornelas and Lee, stunning lack of oversight of their employees, ought to be made in their personnel files.
Of course, taxpayers, who foot the bill for Talavera’s, Ornelas’ and Lee’s salaries, will never know if that happens: City officials won’t comment on personnel matters.
Because sexual harassment policy seems to be a matter of great mystery to some of Hollister’s civil servants, now would be a good time for all employees to see a copy of it. Perhaps every city employee ought to be required to read and initial a copy of the policy for his or her personnel file.
Hollister taxpayers don’t deserve and certainly can’t afford to foot the bills for any more sexual harassment lawsuits.
