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State: Insufficient evidence in Sutton discrimination case By Sandy Brundage Almanac Staff Writer
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iscrimination and harassment complaints filed against Menlo Park by city employees may be heading to the courtroom. In December, former city gymnastics instructor Michelle Sutton received notice from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing that the state found insufficient evidence of discrimination, harassment and retaliation regarding a complaint she had filed after being abruptly fired. That may not be the end of the matter. “For the record I will say that I have been working my way through all of the procedural hurdles and that I am keeping
my options open with respect to a civil suit,” Ms. Sutton said. The week before she was fired, the instructor had asked the city’s human resources department and union representatives about filing a harassment complaint against supervisor Karen Mihalek. Ms. Sutton was then terminated on Feb. 12, 2013. She said she was told that a parent’s complaint led to her termination. The complaint, emailed publicly to program management and to the City Council on Jan. 30, described the instructor as unprofessional in how she had asked the parent to step away during a child-only class. Other parents responded to the firing with outrage, flooding the council’s email in-box with letters praising Ms. Sutton. While the initial complaint remained
on the Menlo Park’s website for a week without issue, the city abruptly deleted both the complaint and at least a dozen emails of support for the teacher. According to city staff at the time, the emails left the city
Second gymnastics program employee files complaint with state, and Menlo Children’s Center employee intends to sue city. vulnerable to a defamation lawsuit and related to a confidential personnel matter. But staff suddenly reversed course as public outcry continued, and restored the letters.
Many questioned whether the city even had legal standing to delete the emails in the first place. Jim Ewert, media law expert and legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association called the removal “ludicrous,” arguing that emails to the council are public records just like comments made during public meetings, which are archived on the city’s website. Documentation of another sort proved more elusive. The Almanac found no mention of reprimands or performance issues in Ms. Sutton’s personnel file. Since she was an at-will employee, however, Menlo Park wasn’t required by law to document disciplinary actions, although employers often do so as a safeguard. According to the DFEH, some employers may keep such records
No sign of winter in Woodside Blue sky and summer-dry grass have become the marks of an uncommon winter statewide, but they made for a warm and pleasurable ride at the Horse Park in Woodside last Friday.
Michelle Le/The Almanac
New year brings new plumbing regulations By Dave Boyce Almanac Staff Writer
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ith the start of the new year, and in the middle of a dry, dry winter, California residents face a new set of regulations on the efficiency of plumbing fixtures. Effective Jan. 1, significant remodels of residential and
commercial structures that were approved and completed before 1994 must include the replacement of outdated toilets, urinals, shower heads and faucets in order to get the remodel signed off. Enforcement will be up to the local building departments. Officials from Woodside, Portola Valley and Atherton have
said in interviews that, with a 1994 reference point, many properties have long since been upgraded. The Almanac was unable to reach anyone in the Menlo Park building department before publication time. In Woodside, property owners will regulate themselves. Owners will have to bring to Town Hall a signed form
attesting to the number of fixtures in the building(s) and their having been upgraded, Deputy Town Manager Paul Nagengast told the Almanac. “We decided that, with our (staff) resources, it was best to do it that way,” he said. Portola Valley will use signed See PLUMBING, page 6
with a supervisor’s informal collection of documents instead of placing them in a personnel file. Some examples are counseling memos, written warnings, notes of informal counseling sessions and performance improvement plans. Ms. Sutton said the state’s investigator told her the city cited performance issues as the reason she was fired, which she assumes refers to the letter of complaint sent by the parent. While employed with the city, she said, she was never given any documentation of warnings or performance issues apart from that one complaint. Fellow instructor Chris Ortez quit in protest over her firing and later told the city manager and the council that Ms. Mihalek held See SUTTON CASE, page 7
Rich resigns from Menlo school board Laura Linkletter Rich, a member of the Menlo Park City School District board since 1998, is resigning her post, citing “increasing family demands out of town” that make it difficult for her to carry out her duties. Her term was to expire later this year. The board will decide at its Jan. 14 meeting whether to call a special election to fill the post for the remainder of the term or to appoint someone instead. Although the Jan. 14 meeting will be her last official one, “I have committed to smoothing the transition until a new board member takes office,” Ms. Rich said in an announcement issued by the school district on Jan. 6. Although her children had already left the district’s schools, which serve students from kindergarten through eighth grade, Ms. Rich ran for re-election in 2010 to see to the end campus reconstruction projects, she said at the time. The last of those projects, the transformation of the Hillview Middle School campus, was completed in September 2012. Now, she said in the announcement, “the district has beautiful new facilities; is financially healthy; and has a leadership team of exceptional strength and dedication.”
January 8, 2014 N TheAlmanacOnline.com N The Almanac N 5