Two top budget analysts recently dismissed from Kansas City’s government have sued City Manager Wayne Cauthen and the city, claiming reverse discrimination and retaliation.
Jordan Griffin and Colleen Low, both white, veteran employees, allege they were victims of race and age discrimination and retaliation when they were let go this month, even as younger, less-qualified minority candidates were retained.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Platte County Circuit Court, alleges Griffin was unfairly scapegoated in an investigation into Internal Revenue Service computer tapes missing from City Hall. And it raises questions about the promotion of minorities by Cauthen, whose evaluation at the time was based in part on his commitment to workplace diversity.
“Under Wayne Cauthen, the city has adopted a ‘whites need not apply’ policy,” said attorney Mark Jess, who represents Griffin and Low. “We want people to know it’s illegal and wrong.”
Also named in the lawsuit was Troy Schulte, the city’s budget officer.
City spokeswoman Mary Charles said city officials, including Cauthen and Schulte, won’t comment on what is considered to be a personnel matter. But a couple of City Council members denied that the city engaged in reverse discrimination.
The lawsuit comes at a time of turmoil in City Hall, including the filing of an employment discrimination lawsuit against the city and the mayor, as well as a budget crunch that prompted the layoff of more than 100 people.
The two women are asking for lost pay and benefits, as well as punitive damages.
Griffin, 61, began working for the city in August 2001. Cauthen appointed her acting commissioner of revenue in February 2004, according to the suit, after one of his assistants, L.T. Underhill, “mistakenly assured him that Griffin would favor minority employees and applicants regardless of job performance or qualifications.”
But in June 2005, Underhill, who has since resigned, “began almost daily harassment of Griffin because Griffin had failed to rid the Revenue Division of white managers,” the lawsuit alleges.
Underhill could not be reached Monday for comment.
Griffin asked to be transferred to her previous position of revenue analyst in the Office of Management and Budget to escape harassment and because her husband was having serious health problems. She was told to wait and, in February 2006, was allowed to transfer, according to the suit.
Her husband had died, and in May 2006 she applied to the still-vacant position of commissioner of revenue. Although she had served as acting commissioner for two years and “received the highest performance rating possible,” she wasn’t granted an interview, according to the suit. Two other qualified white applicants were also denied interviews, the suit alleges.
Instead, the city appointed Judy Hadley, an African-American who had handled liquor control duties before and had no experience in the revenue department. Her hiring came while Cauthen’s contract called for him to receive extra pay if the city retained or increased the number of women and minority employees. Hadley abruptly resigned in January after what the city described as a personnel decision.
In November 2006, Griffin and the two other white applicants for revenue commissioner filed race discrimination complaints against the city with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In May 2008, the city settled with the three for $30,000, according to court records.
Shortly after filing her EEOC complaint, Griffin was asked about a box of IRS tapes missing from the revenue division. Schulte later told her that “Cauthen had targeted her because of her EEOC complaint,” the suit alleges.
The tapes have never been found, but no evidence was produced to implicate Griffin, said attorney John Osgood, who represented Griffin in a grand jury investigation.
But while the investigation “just sort of died on the vine, the city continued to hassle her after that,” Osgood said.
Griffin and Low were dismissed, effective this month, even though they had just received the highest possible evaluation scores and there were still vacant positions for which they were eligible, according to the suit.
In an interview last week, Griffin said she was subject to “actions taken to render it very difficult for me to successfully perform my job.”
“I’m going public with this because what the city is doing — Wayne Cauthen’s policies — are just wrong,” she said. “Selecting me for the reduction in force was pure retaliation and it was wrong.”
Low said she was suspended without pay and then laid off when she openly spoke up in support of Griffin, according to the lawsuit.
“Discrimination of any kind hurts what we are trying to accomplish in terms of public service,” she said in an interview. Low, 53, who worked for the city for 23 years, said she and Griffin were among the go-to “workhorses” in the budget office.
Contacted last week before the lawsuit was filed, two council members insisted the city does not discriminate against white workers.
Councilman Terry Riley said the policy of the council and city manager is to “hire the best candidates, no matter what the race, age, sex or ethnicity.” Riley pointed out that Cauthen has hired white men to lead several high-profile departments, including Finance and Aviation.
Councilwoman Deb Hermann said she did not believe there was discrimination in the way the recent layoffs were handled. Data from the Human Resources Department show only minimal changes before and after this year’s layoffs in the percentages by age and race of city employees.
“The staff was careful to ensure what we were doing was proper” to meet the city’s staffing needs and to avoid any perception of bias, she said.
Hermann added that, in 2005, the council made work force diversity one of Cauthen’s performance measures in his contract because “we all want a proper balance, reflecting the population of Kansas City.”
The human resources data for city employees show that the number of females increased by 123 and minorities by 199 between 2006 and 2008.
Hermann emphasized that she and the rest of the council support the hiring and promotion of the best candidates, “and I don’t see any evidence that that has not been done.”
She added that any charges like those brought by Griffin and Low are “serious and deserve investigation.
”