Departing Auburn city manager accused of gender discrimination in employee’s lawsuit
Auburn’s outgoing city manager is facing allegations of gender discrimination and workplace harassment in a lawsuit filed by an employee in federal court.
Tonya Ward, a city planner with over 20 years of experience, is suing the city of Auburn in U.S. District Court Eastern District of California. In the lawsuit filed Nov. 3 by Sacramento-based Attorney William F. Wright, Ward alleges that City Manager John Donlevy “does not view women as equals and felt free to treat them differently than men and felt free to harass them because of their gender and to sexually harass them.”
The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday left phone messages and sent emails, asking Donlevy, Auburn Mayor Sandra Amara and City Attorney Gary Bell to respond to the allegations made in Ward’s lawsuit. They did not respond to those requests.
Instead, the law firm of Angelo, Kilday and Kilduff responded to questions from reporters. The Sacramento law firm is representing the city of Auburn in this civil case.
“The city has not been served with the lawsuit, which is a required step for any person suing the city,” according to a written statement from the law firm. “The lawsuit as reported by the media contains numerous unsupported accusations and alleged statements. Rather than litigate the case in the press, the City will respond to any lawsuit in court.”
Donlevy, previously the city manager of Winters in Yolo County, was hired to become the Auburn city manager in June 2020. Donlevy submitted his resignation to the Auburn City Council in early October to spend more time with his family and do more charitable work and participate in service ventures, the Auburn Journal reported.
Ward was hired as a senior planner in Auburn in June 2018. Ward worked under Planning and Public Works Director Bernie Schroeder until Schroeder retired in March 2020. That left Ward as the only person working in the Planning Department, but then City Manager Robert Richardson authorized Ward to hire consultants as needed to accomplish the department’s tasks.
Richardson retired in August 2020, and Donlevy replaced him. Ward’s lawsuit alleges that Donlevy has a “problem with dealing with a woman such as (Ward) who is skilled and expects to be treated the same as her male peers,” and began mistreating Ward.
Ward in December 2020 submitted a written complaint with the Auburn City Attorney’s Office. In the letter, Ward alleged that Donlevy denied her consultant resources, harassed her due to her gender and said that she was being underpaid while essentially working as her department’s director.
“The complaint to the city attorney did no good and Donlevy continued to mistreat her,” Ward’s attorney argued in the lawsuit. “He put her under the supervision of the fire chief who knew nothing about city planning. The fire chief yelled at her and treated her disrespectfully, just as Donlevy had done.”
Ward claims that she continued without the resources needed while Donlevy gave male department managers the support and resources needed to be successful. Donlevy continued “verbally abusing” Ward over the problems he had created by denying her resources, according to the lawsuit.
Ward also alleges that Donlevy, during his time as city manager, committed sexual and gender harassment against Ward and other women city employees. In a hiring search for an assistant, Donlevy “openly told staff that he would only hire a woman and she would have to be ‘cute as a button,’” according to the lawsuit.
Donlevy addressed women employees as “honey,” mimicked women by speaking in a high voice, complained at staff meetings with women and men managers that there was a time when women wore skirts at those meetings and implied those were better times when only men attended those meetings, Ward alleged in her lawsuit.
The lawsuit also claims that other women city employees complained about Donlevy, saying they were “grossed out” and “creeped out” by him.
This story was originally published November 15, 2022 at 3:46 PM.
