The City of Santa Monica is being accused of racism and discrimination by a former employee who alleges the stress of dealing with persistent bigotry caused damage to her mental health before she was fired in retaliation for her complaints.
Lori Gentles, the former head of human relations for the City of Santa Monica, filed the lawsuit against the city in February of this year, just after being terminated from her position.
She alleges the decision was motivated by a longstanding campaign against her by white management that was resistant to her efforts to diversify the city’s workforce.
Gentles is Black and was hired in 2016 as the city’s Chief People Officer by then city manager Rick Cole. Prior to coming to Santa Monica she worked as the Human Resources Director for the County of Santa Barbara. Before her work with that city, Gentles worked for the California State University System as Vice President of HR, Diversity and Inclusion for Cal State Fullerton. She was also the Associate Vice President of HR, Safety and Risk Management for San Francisco State University. Gentles was also the HR Director for Contra Costa County, Deputy Personnel Director for the City of Phoenix and HR Administrator for the City of Mesa.
Gentles alleges that throughout her tenure, she engaged in protected activities such as advocating against institutionalized racism within the city and recommending policy changes. However, she faced adverse employment actions including retaliation for attempting to implement changes to eliminate discriminatory practices. This retaliation included unfair performance reviews, micromanagement, and being held to a different standard than her white colleagues. She also reported instances of racial harassment and discrimination within the workplace. Despite her complaints being ignored or dismissed, the she said she persisted, which led to increased stress and anxiety, ultimately requiring professional treatment. Additionally, during her protected medical leave, she claims there were attempts to interfere with her privacy rights and terminate her employment. These actions culminated in her being placed on paid administrative leave in retaliation for her protected complaints and medical leave.
Gentles cites several specific instances in her complaint.
In one instance, she claims Susan Cline, in her capacity as acting assistant City Manager, asked for an investigation into a situation where a city employee complained about a false or exaggerated police report filed by another city employee. Gentles says her investigation concluded that the police report was not false and that conclusion upset both Cline and then interim City Manager Lane Dilg who wanted the report to be false to limit city liability. Gentles claims a subsequent inaccurate performance review was retaliation for that conclusion.
In April of 2021, Gentles said she was made aware of a complaint regarding a comment made by a white city employee wherein the employee pointed at a Black man and said "don’t worry about him, we could just lynch him". She reported this to Dilg, Katie Lichtig (former Assistant City Manager) and Andy Agle (Former Housing Director.) According to the lawsuit, Agle laughed in response to the allegation and while Gentles wanted to escalate the complaint, she claims city leadership instead assigned the investigation to Agle.
The lawsuit also claims white department heads were able to escape criticism for mismanaging their departments and that persistent failures to implement required performance reviews for most city employees prevented qualified individuals from securing promotions.
"The CITY’s failure to take these allegations seriously caused significant stress and anxiety, and she was forced to seek professional treatment as a result," said the lawsuit.
However, she claims her leave was "abnormally scrutinized" and that leadership (including City Manager David White and Deputy City Attorney Meishya Yang) began to interfere in the confidential leave process by unlawfully requesting copies of her protected medical records in violation of privacy laws.
Gentles claims she was put on a paid administrative leave in retaliation for making protected complaints and for taking protected medical leave due to the stress caused by the city’s inaction before being fired in February.
In its response, the City denies all the allegations. It cites 36 various defenses to the suit including assertions that the claims are barred by various case law, arbitration policies and jurisdictional questions. The response also claims there was no discrimination involved in the process saying there were non-discriminatory reasons for making decisions and that Gentles was unable to perform essential job duties even with reasonable accommodations.
Gentles is asking for as yet unknown financial damages, while the city is asking the court to dismiss the case with prejudice.
matt@smdp.com