At the recent County Board workshop on October 16th Commissioner Forsman again commented on sexual harassment complaints filed against County Commissioners Rauker and Fink, even after County Attorney Melanie Ford advised him not to do so.
The Board met in closed session to discuss litigation pending against the county pertaining to a pending sexual harassment complaint between county employees. Prior to this session, during the County Board workshop, Commissioner Forsman referred to that matter as a “real” sexual harassment case, not to be confused with the cases that were brought against commissioners, which he apparently does not think were “real”.
This only reinforces the need for some training for these commissioners, as well as a “Code of Conduct”.
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5 comments:
Forsman is saying that Raukar's actions were not sexual harassment. He needs to understand that it was. It seems impossible to get through to them. They do not seem to understand that when someone in power repeatedly demands sexual favors of someone who works for the same agency but in a less powerful capacity it is a situation that is very specifically sexual harassment. All you have to do is read what Fink and Raukar did to see that they are charged with sexual harassment. They had the woman who brought the charges agree not to sue them in trade for keeping her job. This is intolerable.
Mr. Fink said during the meeting that there are statutes that forbid the county having a code of conduct. Try as I might I cannot find it in the Minnesota Statutes. You'd think the County Administrator would know if such a statute exists but he went ahead and worked on the code as did the county attorney.
I find it odd that Mr. Fink is the only one that sees this bit of statute.
http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/getpub.php?pubtype=STAT_CHAP&year=current&chapter=375
these are I believe the statutes he referred to, but where on earth is such a law?
375.71 PROTECTION OF RIGHTS UNDER STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS.
Subdivision 1. Equal employment, human rights. Nothing in sections 375.56 to 375.69
shall be construed to permit or encourage any action or conduct prohibited by the Minnesota
Human Rights Act or prohibit recourse to any remedies provided in the Minnesota Human
Rights Act or any other state or federal law relating to equal employment opportunities, and
the provisions of these acts shall continue to apply to county employment generally, including
positions excluded from the jurisdiction of the county personnel administration system.
Subd. 2. PELRA rights. Nothing in sections 375.56 to 375.69 shall be construed to affect
the rights and obligations of employees and employers under sections 179A.01 to 179A.25, or to
in any way supersede provisions regarding public employment relationships under the Public
Employment Labor Relations Act of 1971, or the provisions of any contracts or agreements
executed pursuant to it.
History: 1976 c 182 s 16; 1984 c 462 s 27; 1984 c 629 s 2
It seems like this is the more relevant statute
http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/revisor/pages/statute/statute_chapter_toc.php?year=2006&chapter=351
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