Your Best

Change, Paradox & Gaps

Anyone else curious about the resolution for the sexual harassment allegations case from over a year ago?

It appears the City Council is taking the “good ol’ boy” approach of sweeping it under the rug and waiting for time to pass. This approach might work this time, but it’s so last century. City Council really needs to come up to the 21st century.

Social norms have changed to expecting leadership to be more transparent. Providing transparency engenders trust. Earning the trust not only of current town folk but also anyone considering moving here. And not just women, but also men who consider how a community responds to various forms of harassment as part of their criteria for where to pick a place to live.

There’s a paradox here: leaders, who appear to have the most power, can also be the most vulnerable.

Developing policies for how to manage harassment allegations protects not just the victims but also leadership. It’s easy to lose your way when acting in a policy vacuum (so to speak). This gap is especially important to fill for situations where there may be a conflict of interest.

In Olney, policy is in place for most of city employees except for three roles: City Administrator, City Secretary and Chief of Police. These three roles are supervised by the City Council directly. If the person accused of harassment—whether sexual, ethnic, disability, religion, age, orientation, presentation or plain ol’ bullying—is on the City Council, then you can see the problem here.

The Council would have no motivation to address the concern because doing so would be messy, cumbersome and may make the Councilmember look bad. Policy needs to be created to fill this policy gap to protect not only individuals working in those three roles but to protect the City Council as well. Not to mention the City as a whole. If someone were to sue the City and win, then the cost would be passed on to everyone living here via taxes, water fees, loss of revenue for addressing other issues, etc. Our city is already struggling with several issues including the water treatment plant and we don’t need any unexpected expenses to create even more difficult choices These kinds of suits might not just be civil, but could also be criminal. The average harassment case settlement in about $50,000. Again, the City doesn’t need another expense like that. I spoke with Mayor Rue Rogers who assured me the City Council is developing policy for addressing harassment concerns in the future.

I look forward to this being in place—not just for Olney and her City Administrator, City Secretary and Chief of Police—but also for the City Council and each councilmember. While it might be a hassle to create the policy now, having that policy in place will ensure more support for everyone, however indirectly.

Grateful the City Council is putting policy in place to prevent this kind of issue from happening again.