SEQUIM — Has Vernon Stoner hit another speed bump on his way to becoming Sequim’s newest city manager?
The City Council is scheduled to sign his contract at its next regular meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
But unknown to council members Walt Schubert, Bill Huizinga and Erik Erichsen, Stoner was named in a May 14 sexual harassment claim for alleged comments he made to Shellyne Grisham of Olympia while both worked at the state Insurance Commissioner’s Office.
The claim was settled for $50,000 on Aug. 31.
Paid by the state of Washington, it was signed one day before the City Council selected Stoner as the city’s top administrator.
The Seattle executive search firm Waldron & Co., which was hired by the Sequim City Council for $20,000 to find candidates for the city manager position, also did not know about the claim or the settlement, company owner Tom Waldron said Friday.
Stoner denies claim
In a telephone interview Friday, Stoner, fired June 15 as chief deputy insurance commissioner, denied sexually harassing Grisham.
He said he knew nothing about Grisham’s claim or the $50,000 settlement.
“This is the first I ever heard of it,” he said.
But he did say he was questioned as part of a $20,000 state Insurance Commissioner’s Office investigation into Grisham’s allegation that he had made inappropriate comments.
“There were no conclusions drawn,” he said of the report that resulted from the inquiry.
Erichsen said Friday that he will suggest council members discuss the impact of the sexual harassment claim and settlement at its Monday meeting.
Erichsen said did not know if the meeting would be in public, or behind closed doors in executive session.
“I feel really strongly about our own employees and not subjecting them to anything that’s not right,” Erichsen said Friday.
Grisham, a 44-year-old single mother of two teenage girls, was Stoner’s executive assistant from May 2008 through February 2009 during his yearlong tenure as state deputy chief insurance commissioner, the agency’s No. 2 position.
In her complaint, she said the harassment started immediately after she began working for Stoner.
“During my tenure of employment through February 2009, I have been subjected to continuous gender-based harassment by my immediate supervisor that rendered my working environment hostile,” she said in the complaint.
Insurance Commissioner’s Office spokesman Rich Roesler confirmed Stoner, 61, was Grisham’s immediate supervisor.
Grisham, who is living with her sister, has not worked since February because of “physical ailments” related to stress caused by Stoner, she said in the complaint.
She is now living on funds derived from “hundreds and hundreds of hours” of built-up paid sick and vacation leave “donated” to her by state employees sympathetic to her situation, she said.
Those employees mostly work for the state Department of Ecology, where she had worked for several years and where she hopes to return, she said.
City Council members had said earlier this month that they did not know Stoner had been fired from his chief deputy position.
Stoner told the Peninsula Daily News on Sept. 4 that he was fired on June 15 for reasons he was never made aware of by Commissioner Mike Kriedler, who had hired him.
Stoner has filed a lawsuit in Thurston County Superior Court claiming that “age or race discrimination” played a role in his firing, his lawyer, Judith Longquist of Seattle, said Friday.
Stoner, an African-American, is seeking damages of $1 million to $20 million, Longquist said.
Mike Watson, the former chief deputy insurance commissioner who came out of retirement to take retake the position on April 15, said Friday that Stoner was fired because “the commissioner wanted to make a change in the chief deputy position.”
Stoner was placed on “home assignment” — in effect, fully-paid administrative leave — on April 11 “to give him an opportunity to get other work,” Watson said.
“His effective date of termination was June 15.”
Getting unemployment
Stoner is now receiving unemployment benefits, he said in an earlier interview.
Interim City Manager and City Attorney Craig Ritchie, Mayor Laura Dubois, Mayor Pro Tem Ken Hays and council members Susan Lorenzen and Paul McHugh did not return calls for comment about the harassment claim on Friday.
“We have to look into it,” Huizinga said Friday. “It doesn’t concern me until I know what the facts are.”
But Schubert said the council should stay on course.
“I stand behind Waldron because I trust them,” said Schubert, who is running for re-election in the Nov. 3 election against Ted Miller, a retired CIA systems analyst.
The city manager position was vacated in May 2008 by Bill Elliott, who was fired by the City Council.
Sequim Police Chief Bob Spinks served as interim city manager until December 2008, followed by Linda Herzog and, most recently, Ritchie, who is serving in that capacity until Stoner’s expected start date in October.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladaily news.com.
