2 Claim Sexual Harassment by Carson City Councilman

Two women who work for the city of Carson claimed last week that they were sexually harassed on the job by City Councilman John Anderson, who is running for reelection Tuesday.

Anderson called the claims filed with the city Thursday and Friday “totally untrue.” He said the allegations were encouraged by his political opponents who “would do anything to cause me not to win.”

Carson Mayor Mike Mitoma, backing Anderson at a press conference Friday, said he will resign if Anderson loses and the balance of power on the City Council shifts to their opponents.

“If the people are going to elect anyone who was involved in that kind of campaigning,” Mitoma said, “then they can find somebody else to try to serve them.”

Councilwomen Vera Robles DeWitt and Kay Calas, who do not face reelection and are not backing Anderson, said they were not involved with the claims filed by the two women.

The complaints against Anderson come just days before voters in Carson decide whether to break up the three-member majority of Mitoma, Anderson and Councilwoman Sylvia Muise that has controlled the City Council for months. Muise is also running Tuesday.

DeWitt and Calas have supported two political newcomers, Juanita McDonald and Barbara Post. The allegations against Anderson, 72, surfaced Thursday when the longtime secretary to the City Council, Grace S. Fauchald, filed a claim with the city stating that she had been the target of “repeated and unwelcome sexual harassment” from October, 1989, to February, 1990. The claims name Anderson and the city. Claims are the first step in the filing of a civil lawsuit against a city or one of its employees.

Fauchald, 65, declined to comment. Her claim states that Anderson touched her, blocked her movements around the office and retaliated when she rejected his advances.

“That is not my style to go around and make sexual advances to anybody at City Hall,” said Anderson, who is divorced. “I just don’t do it. You talk to anybody who knows me and knows her.”

Later he added: “At my age, 72, if I want to pursue a woman or a lady,” he said, “I certainly wouldn’t do it by harassing her or with innuendoes. I would just buy her some candy or give her some roses.”

The second claim was filed with the city Friday by Mamie Carter, 48, a clerk at the Community Center, which adjoins City Hall. Carter also declined to comment. Her claim says that Anderson made repeated sexual advances from May, 1988, through last month.

Anderson also denied those charges, saying Carter repeatedly flattered him.

Mitoma, who is Anderson’s campaign adviser, denounced the allegations as a last-minute campaign tactic instigated by Calas and DeWitt.

“It’s Vera and Kay playing games,” Mitoma said. He said city employees had told him that they had heard that “DeWitt was . . . asking people if they wanted to file a sexual harassment suit against John Anderson.”

DeWitt said she had never asked anyone to file such a complaint.

Mitoma said he would not be able to work on a City Council that included Calas and DeWitt in the majority.

“That’s right, I’ll quit,” he said. “If (voters) choose to support someone that Mrs. DeWitt and Mrs. Calas support, that means to me there is a mandate that the people of Carson are going to accept that kind of campaigning.”

Anderson was appointed to the council in 1988 to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Councilman Tom Mills.

Calas reacted angrily to claims that she is behind the sexual harassment allegations, saying, “This is a total lie.”

DeWitt also denied Mitoma’s claim. “That’s Mike’s mentality. That is not the way we operate,” she said.

Calas and DeWitt said that Fauchald had complained about Anderson to them several months ago and that they had told her to take her complaint to City Administrator Jack Smith. Smith could not be reached for comment.

Nathan Williams, president of Local 809 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents about 250 Carson employees, said Fauchald had gone to the union several weeks ago for assistance and also contacted state fair employment officials.

The State Department of Fair Employment and Housing has no record of a complaint being filed by Fauchald, although files are sometimes not recorded on microfiche records for several weeks, said spokeswoman Wanda Kirby.

Carter first complained to the union three months ago but wanted time to speak with her husband before filing the claim Friday, Williams said.

“The union was coordinating this,” said Nancy Severtson, another union official. “Kay and Vera had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t just five days before the election. This has been going on for months.”

Both claims were filed for the women by a union representative and were handled by the same attorney.

The union has endorsed two other candidates, Post and McDonald.

Anderson said the union is opposing him because he is not a rubber stamp for its wishes.

But Severtson said the timing of the filing had nothing to do with the election.

“I didn’t even think about it, to tell the truth,” she said. “I guess I am incredibly naive.”

In interviews Thursday, three council members said that they had never seen Anderson harassing or intimidating women.

Mitoma said, “I’ve seen John kid with women, but . . . I know for a fact he has absolutely no interest, absolutely no interest, in Grace.”

Muise said she also had seen Anderson joke with female employees but had never heard complaints about his behavior or seen anyone shrink from him.

“Do you suppose we will see (the claim) on a political flyer distributed at the last minute?” she asked. “ . . . Why is it just being brought to light on April 5, five days before the election?”

Calas, though at odds with Anderson politically, also said: “I’ve never seen anything like that (from him). I know (Fauchald) made a complaint. She said she didn’t like the way he talked. She did go to Jack Smith.”

DeWitt said she did not want to comment on Anderson and Fauchald because there might be litigation.