Artesia’s city clerk and its former human resources manager allege in a lawsuit that embattled former City Manager William Rawlings and three City Council members systematically ignored employee complaints of retaliation, gender discrimination, and election and fiscal misconduct.

Ernesto Sanchez, the clerk, and Boyd Horan, the human resources manager, filed separate civil complaints last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Rawlings and council members Tony Lima, Monica Manalo and Ali Sajjad.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, describes the defendants’ alleged conduct  as “malicious, fraudulent, oppressive and despicable.”

Rawlings, Lima, Taj and Manalo could not be reached for comment Monday Feb. 21.

Council members parted ways with Rawlings in October 2021 after municipal staff complained he was not fit to lead.

The employees alleged that Rawlings had presented budgets that didn’t include the city’s actual expenditures and accused him of berating and belittling workers. One employee complained Rawlings hadn’t come to City Hall in 12 months during the COVID-19 pandemic, but required other staff members to be present.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives are investigating possible felonies related to the 2020 Artesia City Council election, demanding texts, voice mails and memos between Rawlings, Lima, Manalo and Sanchez, according to a search warrant from late last year obtained by the Southern California News Group.

Election interference alleged

Sanchez, who is responsible for administering municipal elections, alleges Rawlings told him in August 2020 any action involving an upcoming City Council election, including communications with prospective candidates, “had to be run by him first.”

“This caused purposeful delay in providing application packages to at least two city of Artesia residents who expressed an interest in becoming candidates for the City Council,” says the lawsuit.

Rawlings also allegedly directed Sanchez to be unavailable and unresponsive to potential candidates seeking to run against Lima and Manalo, ultimately who ran unopposed. The suit does not name the potential candidates. However, Tony Simoes and Venkatesh Koka told the Southern California News Group they attempted to file for the seats held by Lima and Manalo, but were not provided paperwork by the city.

Sanchez complained to Horan about Rawlings’ instructions regarding the election and other incidents of misconduct, according to the complaint.

“Boyd informed Mr. Sanchez that city policy required him to take the complaint to Rawlings,” the suit says. “Because Mr. Sanchez feared retaliation from Rawlings and ultimately losing his job, he withdrew the complaint.”

In November 2020, the City Council approved a discrimination and harassment policy that permitted municipal employees to take their complaints to the city attorney and city manager.

According to the suit, Sanchez complained in May 2021 to contract City Attorney Hong Doe Nguyen about Rawlings’ interference in the election, selective enforcement of certain rules and instructions to hide or misrepresent information given to other government agencies, including those providing funding to Artesia.

About the same time, other city employees also raised concerns with Nguyen about Rawlings’ unethical and illegal conduct, the suit says.

Council refuses to investigate

However, Lima, Manalo and Taj voted against investigating the complaint and the City Council reversed its November 2020 policy allowing employees to take their complaints to the city attorney, the suit states. As a result, employees were once again required to bring complaints to Rawlings, including those that were directly about him.

“Not surprisingly, given the city’s failure to take any effective action to address the complaints about him, Rawlings’ treatment of Mr. Sanchez worsened after his complaint to the city attorney,” the suit states. “On numerous occasions, Rawlings stripped Mr. Sanchez of his duties and generally criticized him. Rawlings also continued to unabatedly to engage in unlawful misconduct and continued to direct Mr. Sanchez and others to do the same.

“As a result, Mr. Sanchez has been subjected to intolerable working conditions that have made it nearly impossible to continue working for the city of Artesia.”

More complaints, retaliation

The lawsuit filed by Horan, who began working for the city in January 2018, alleges Rawlings prohibited him from speaking to City Council members about complaints from municipal employees.

Horan learned on Sept. 13, 2021, that Rawlings wanted to fire an employee who complained he had not received adequate notice that a co-worker had tested positive for COVID-19, the suit states.

Horan complained about Rawlings’ alleged retaliatory intention to then-Mayor Rene Trevino, informing him that it’s illegal to terminate an employee for making a complaint about workplace safety. Trevino told Horan he would speak to the city attorney about his complaint, the lawsuit says. However, a week later Horan was fired in apparent retaliation for his complaints about Rawlings, according to the suit.

Horan filed a complaint on Nov.12, 2021, against the city of Artesia with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. He has exhausted all of his administrative remedies with the agency.

Joseph Markus, an attorney representing Sanchez and Horan, said the allegations show how whistleblowers can run into problems when attempting to report their superiors.

“It’s a prefect example of a city government run by a city manager that was out of control and a City Council that took his lead and ending in disaster,” he said.

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