Petaluma settles firefighter sexual harassment case

Andrea Waters, a former Petaluma firefighter, who claimed she experienced sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, will receive a $1.25 million settlement.|

After more than two years of litigation, the city of Petaluma has reached a $1.25 million settlement in a lawsuit brought forth by the city’s second-ever female firefighter, who allegedly experienced a pervasive pattern of sexual harassment and discrimination during the six years she worked at the Petaluma Fire Department.

The cost of the settlement, reached Dec. 6, is approximately equal to the combined total of legal fees the city and the former firefighter Andrea Waters would have accrued if the case went to trial, according to City Attorney Eric Danly. The figure marks the largest settlement the city has reached in an employee-related case since at least 2005, Danly said.

The city is settling the case with financial support from its risk pool, the California Joint Powers Risk Management Authority, a statewide association for insurance based risk-sharing pools. Of the $1.75 million in overall legal fees and settlement costs incurred during litigation, the city will pay $500,000, while the remaining balance will be drawn from the risk pool, Danly said.

In the line of duty

Waters was hired by the city as a firefighter and paramedic on June 2, 2008, becoming the department’s only female firefighter, and the first woman to work in the city in that capacity in almost 40 years.

She came to the job with more than five years of experience working at Northwest Fire District in Tuscon, Az., and was chosen from a pool of 250 applicants.

In an interview Friday, Waters, now 37, said the alleged cycle of harassment and retaliation came as a “really slow progression,” during her time at the department. She noticed she was subjected to a higher level of scrutiny than her male counterparts, she said, and was denied opportunities for training or advancements in the department that she sought and felt she was qualified for.

She alleged that proper accommodations were not provided, with sleeping quarters that lacked privacy during overnight shifts. She said she was not provided with a separate shower facility, forcing her to wait to shower or change at times when her male counterparts were not using the facilities.

When she tried to address those and other issues with her superiors, she alleged that she experienced retaliation.

During an evaluation after she had brought up her concerns, she said a superior told her that he “didn’t trust me with the lives of his crew and with his own life,” a comment that left her shaken.

“I was of course frustrated and the worst part about it is stuff I still deal with - it’s the amount I started to question my own abilities that’s really the worst part, that self-doubt and also a lot of anger,” she said.

She said she spoke with superiors, a union representative and the city’s human resources department, though she alleged that she was never advised to lodge a formal complaint and did not do so.

She took a leave from the department in February 2014, and in May 2014 filed a charge alleging sexual harassment and retaliation with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While still on leave, she resigned from her position three days after she filed the charge, Danly said in a press release. The EEOC complaint was the first indication the city received about the alleged harassment, Danly said.

“It was getting toward the end of my leave and I just knew that mentally - it wasn’t - I couldn’t go back. It was really clear to me the reason I was treated the way that I was,” she said.

The city in June 2014 retained an outside attorney, Amy Oppenheimer, to investigate the claim and to work with Danly to prepare a defense for an anticipated lawsuit, according to an appeal court ruling. The report concluded that Water’s claims were “without merit,” Danly wrote in a news release.

Danly declined to comment if any disciplinary measures had been taken against department employees at the time, citing employee confidentiality laws.

Waters and her legal team filed a suit seeking lost wages and financial damages in November 2014.

“I knew that if I just walked away and didn’t do anything that nothing was ever going to change,” she said. “I mean that’s really the reason, I didn’t want to walk away from it and have it be the same for the next woman.”

Legal battle

By mid-2016, the city was tangled in a contentious legal battle over the release of the report from the city’s investigation. A lower Sonoma County court had ruled in May 2015 that Waters’ legal team could have access to the report’s findings, which the city argued were exempt due in part to attorney-client privacy rules.

The California First District Court of Appeals then issued an opinion in June stopping Waters’ attorneys from reviewing the findings of the report, maintaining that it was privileged and not subject to disclosure.

In the ensuing months, Waters’ legal team spoke informally with a number of current and former fire department staff, while also taking depositions, Waters’ attorney Deborah Kochan said. After a period of discovery and hearings, both parties entered mediation in November before settling the lawsuit in exchange for release of all claims, Danly said.

“It is unfortunate to have such an expenditure of public funds and it’s a terrible shame we didn’t have a chance to address Waters’ issues while she was in the workplace,” Danly said of the settlement. “We would have absolutely done that. It’s good to have this resolved, as you can see, it’s drawing a lot of resources.”

Kochan, a Berkeley-based lawyer with nearly three decades of experience handling cases centering on employee workplace disputes, said she and Waters are satisfied with the resolution.

“When you’ve been through something like that, there’s no amount of money that could compensate for that. In some ways, it’s not about the money, but at the same time, the goal is to change things, and to the extent this makes an impression and gets the city of Petaluma to reevaluate how they handle these situations, it sends a message,” she said. “Certainly we are very happy with the outcome in that regard.”

Kochan’s firm, Kochan & Stephenson, issued a statement late Friday afternoon indicating that Waters and her attorneys are “disturbed” by a press release issued Thursday by the Petaluma city attorney’s office outlining the settlement. In the written statement, the attorneys asserted that the department’s employees were aware of the situation at the time, and current and former personnel who “came forward to talk about the discriminatory and retaliatory behavior” had “forced” the city to resolve the lawsuit.

Waters, who now works at an office job in the South Bay, said she has yet to feel closure about the settlement. She said she is “struggling” with thoughts of returning to the fire service, and said it’s not clear if the lawsuit will have negative implications as she seeks future employment.

“I thought I would feel closure,” she said. “But I don’t, I just honestly feel sad about the whole thing. I feel disappointed that the friendships I did have in the fire department aren’t there anymore. I am kind of at the point of ‘what’s next now?’?”

Moving forward

City Manager John Brown said that the city employs a “continuous improvement process” with sexual harassment training for its employees, and keeps up to date with evolving current legal requirements. It also has in place a “zero tolerance” policy for sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, he said.

Brown said the city is seeking to identify money to fund improvements to the aging infrastructure at its fire stations, and there are strategies for accommodating female employees in the buildings if the need arises.

Reflecting on the lawsuit, he said it’s difficult to speak to what could have been handled differently.

“We’ve obviously talked a lot about that over the years, what would we have done to have done this differently,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s really a way you can prevent an employee from coming back after the fact they’ve resigned with allegations … how do you deal with a workforce employment claim you don’t know about?”

Petaluma Fire Department Chief Leonard Thompson, who became the interim leader in April 2015 and permanent chief that September, said he’s committed to fostering an inclusive environment in his department, with routine trainings in place for personnel that also reflect his own expectations that “everyone will be treated equally.”

“We have a pretty good fire department when it comes to those kinds of issues, and we’re looking forward to getting the guys more training and make them even more cognizant of issues surrounding gender in the future,” he said.

He said the department employs two female fire inspectors, though there are no women currently working in the firefighter or paramedic capacity. He said any employee who may experience discrimination has the opportunity not only to approach their supervisor, but also to speak to the fire chief and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission directly about complaints, which will be investigated by the city.

Waters said she hopes that the lawsuit will serve as a way to bring a sense of equality to the department that she felt was lacking.

“I just want it to be an equal and level playing ground for everyone - at least maybe this lawsuit will bring awareness to that,” she said. “Change is created with awareness to start.”

(Contact Hannah Beausang at hannah.beausang@arguscourier.com.)

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.