PORT ANGELES — Dale Holiday, a former candidate for Clallam County commissioner and a current county employee, has filed a racial and sex discrimination complaint against the county.
Her charge of discrimination was filed March 29 with the Washington Human Rights Commission and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Holiday, an African-American, said in the complaint that the discrimination was based on her race and gender and occurred in retaliation for her “protests of race discrimination.”
Holiday, 58, did not respond to two email requests for comment.
Holiday, who works in the county Department of Health and Human Services, and the county have agreed to mediate the dispute in a session that has yet to be scheduled but could result in a monetary settlement for Holiday or in a lawsuit if mediation does not work, Administrator Jim Jones said Tuesday.
Jones said Holiday had made the offer for the complaint to be mediated.
“We categorically deny all the accusations and intend to defend ourselves in whichever venue we need to go,” Jones said.
“If you can come to a settlement, it’s in the interest of everybody.
“It’s less expensive to go through than going to court.”
Holiday, the full-time grant coordinator for Health and Human Services, is paid $24.98 an hour, or $51,958 annually, said county Human Resources Department Director Rich Sill.
Holiday unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat in the primary election for county commissioner in August 2012 in a general election race that was won by incumbent Mike Chapman, an independent.
Holiday is the wife of Port Angeles City Councilman Max Mania, who is not seeking re-election in the Nov. 5 general election.
A copy of the complaint was obtained by the Peninsula Daily News.
Text of complaint
Here’s a complete text of the complaint:
“Since mid-2012, I have been subjected to lower-graded performance evaluations than those I previously earned; and to a warning letter dated Oct. 26, 2012; and I was placed on a performance improvement plan; and I am required to make a weekly task list although other employees only are required to make a monthly task list; and I was denied approval to attend the Montana Summer Institute for 2013.
“I believe that these actions are based on my race, black; and are in retaliation for my protests of race discrimination; and are based on my sex, female; in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.”
Holiday worked for the county Department of Community Development from June 2007 to December 2010, Sill said.
She has worked at Health and Human Services since December 2010.
Holiday relayed concerns about discrimination verbally to Jones earlier this year, he said.
“She complained in a meeting with me that she has been the victim of racial discrimination many times throughout her life and including, previous to this instance, in the county,” Jones said.
Jones said it was the first time he learned that Holiday believed she was being discriminated against at her job.
“When she came to me, it was on the specific issues of how she believed she was being treated unfairly because of her supervisors’ disapproval of the quality of her work,” Jones said.
She told Jones that the performance improvement plan was imposed because of her race and gender, and was in retaliation for her protesting racial discrimination against her, Jones said.
After talking with Holiday’s supervisors and the county Human Resources Department, Jones told Holiday on March 22 — a week before Holiday filed the complaint — that he saw no evidence of discrimination, he said.
“I told her if I found instances of it, I would not tolerate it, and the county would not tolerate it,” Jones said.
EEOC next step
Even if the county won a lawsuit over the complaint in court, the county could not collect damages to recover attorney fees, he said.
“The next step is to have a hearing with the EEOC officer,” he said.
“We are just preparing all the paperwork for that.”
A state Insurance Risk Pool lawyer is handling the case at no cost to the county, Jones said.
That lawyer will be paid from the county’s $100,000 insurance deductible once the mediation process begins, he said.
There are no other current discrimination complaints that have been filed against the county, and “three or four” have been settled with monetary settlements since mid-2006, when Jones became county administrator, he said.
“[Holiday] hasn’t lost any work or anything,” Jones said.
“At this point, if it goes to court, she could make a claim for attorney fees, pain and suffering, who knows.”
Rudy Hurtado, a program analyst with the EEOC’s Seattle field office, said about 80 percent of EEOC charges of discrimination that go to mediation are resolved without proceeding to court.
“Is there some sort of monetary settlement involved?
“Generally there is, but not always,” Hurtado said.
The goal is to make the person “whole” based on what the person lost as a result of the discrimination, he added.
“It’s a matter of making things right.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
