Complaints of ‘very toxic culture’ mount as Sacramento County orders probe into its CEO
Toward the end of Paula Spano’s two-decade career as a Sacramento County public defender, she was passed over for promotion to become a supervisor.
Spano suspected gender bias was to blame. So when her complaint to the county’s department of personnel services went nowhere, she turned to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As the federal agency investigated, Spano said she was treated worse by male superiors and one of them warned that her complaint limited her career prospects with the county.
Then another odd thing happened: The day after the county responded to the federal agency’s investigation, a birthday card signed by Navdeep Gill, the county executive, was left on her desk.
“I’ve never met the man. I’ve never had a conversation with him. I’ve never talked to him — nothing,” Spano said, noting that the experience left her feeling intimidated. Spano said she couldn’t recall anyone in the office ever receiving a birthday card from Gill, although he would later gain recognition for sending thousands of them.
To Spano, however, Gill was sending her a message. “It was just him flipping me the bird,” she said.
After their investigation, the EEOC issued her a right-to-sue letter. But Spano said she ultimately didn’t want to go that route. She didn’t need the grief. Instead, she resigned in April 2018 and moved to San Mateo County with her husband where she practices law.
Spano’s experience highlights a widespread view among employees of Sacramento County. This year, nearly a dozen people have complained about a toxic culture that enables hostility and intimidation toward employees. At the core of their complaints is one person: Gill, the highest-ranking non-elected employee in the county administration of 12,000 people.
Last week, Gill was placed on paid administrative leave after the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to express no confidence in his leadership. It would take four votes to fire Gill from the position he has held since 2016. At the same time, the county has hired an outside firm to investigate Gill’s conduct as manager.
Gill did not respond to requests for comment. A county spokesperson declined to comment on the scope of the inquiry citing privacy concerns and declined to even name the outside firm it had hired to investigate the allegations.
Supervisor Patrick Kennedy said it’s likely they would review new claims.
“There have been at least 10 high-level county employees who have leveled accusations of harassment (an/or) discrimination,” Kennedy said. “They’ll specifically look at those accusations and if any others come forward, those as well.”
Public health response under scrutiny
The county executive sits atop a vast bureaucracy that includes nearly every function of government, from elections and law enforcement to regional parks and health services.
Employees have complained that Gill often used that power in punitive ways, handicapping those he viewed unfavorably. Several people urged the Board of Supervisors to fire him during a recent meeting and accused him of creating a “toxic culture” that relies on bullying and intimidation.
Since August, a small revolt started brewing in the public health division which, at first, received only a small piece of the $181 million in federal funds. A public health manager sent the Board of Supervisors a letter in August that alleged they were being misled about the funding.
“The women in public health have faced working in this hostile environment that Nav Gill has created, a very hostile culture,” said Pamela Harris, a public health manager told the supervisors at their most recent meeting. “Not only the women in public health but other women that service this county have also been subjected to this behavior ”
Harris and other public health experts said Gill’s behavior has stymied their response to the coronavirus pandemic as they were either sidelined, disrespected, or intimidated by members of his inner circle, according to letters sent to the supervisors in August and November.
Supervisor Phil Serna, who chairs the board, said the probe will largely focus on Gill and not the managers who work under him.
“My impression is that the culture here administratively is precipitated from the top down. He’s the top and that means the deputy county executives report to him,” Serna said. “To the extent that they deserve the same level of criticism that he is receiving to me is not justified. I haven’t witnessed, necessarily, that there is a shared type of behavior between his executive team.”
Serna stressed that the issues with Gill go beyond the personnel complaints and that he had also been less responsive to the concerns of board members. Even so, Gill’s decisions around the COVID-19 have brought an onslaught of public scrutiny to the supervisors.
Residents and activists took county lawmakers to task after Gill used $104 million in Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act funding to cover expenses for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. The decision has loomed over every meeting since it was revealed in late July.
Then Gill presided over an indoor meeting with department managers during which few people wore masks. Afterward, one department head tested positive for COVID-19 and another 10 people had to quarantine.
‘Do you know who I am?’
The outcry against Gill started in March, as Dr. Olivia Kasirye prepared what would have been the first public health emergency declaration in response to the pandemic. The county’s public health officer received a call from two top managers — Bruce Wagstaff and Gill — who wanted to discuss what she was about to do, Kasirye recently recounted to The Sacramento Bee.
At first, the conversation was easygoing as she explained the marked uptick in local coronavirus transmission. Other counties were already moving to shut businesses down and it was clear Sacramento should do the same.
Gill’s tone shifted upon hearing the news. Over the speakerphone in her office, he started yelling, Kasirye said. He was loud enough that other employees could hear.
“ ‘Do you know who I am? I’m the one that controls the resources,’ ” Kasirye recalled Gill saying. “ ‘I don’t have faith in what you’re doing. Why are you declaring a health emergency?’ ”
Gill told her that if she insisted on the health emergency order, he was going to take it over, Kasirye said. The tense conversation was the start of several demoralizing weeks in which the county’s public health experts were excluded from talking to the media. When the public health declaration was finally announced, she was left to sit in the audience while others answered questions.
“I didn’t have control over the messages that were going out even though they were supposed to be coming from public health,” Kasirye said.
She filed a formal complaint that will be reviewed by an outside investigator who will report back to the Board of Supervisors.
“I think this is an important step. I am looking forward to being able to work with the board of supervisors and administration so we can remove barriers to move quickly in this pandemic to get the resources we need, and that is needed in the community.”
Meanwhile, some employee unions have become more critical of Gill, too, particularly his response to the pandemic. They say he has offered a false portrayal of their members’ needs to the Board of Supervisors if they were shared with the lawmakers at all.
On Nov. 4, the Sacramento County Management Association, a union representing some 800 managers, voiced their concerns to the supervisors in a letter. The two-page memo summarized Gill’s recent missteps and added that a handful of public health supervisors were working extra hours without being paid.
“Frankly, we have no idea how the county executive will portray these discussions when it reports back to you, or if it was planning on not reporting back at all,” wrote Jason Jasmine, a lawyer representing the union. “But we want to make it very clear that at this point, the direction you provided is being undermined. Your employees are being harmed.”
This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.