Laguna Beach Named in Sexual Harassment Suit

A former municipal employee has filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that she was repeatedly sexually harassed by co-workers and that her superiors refused to help when she complained.

Marion L. Roubanis, who filed the suit in Orange County Superior Court earlier this month, contends that stress and a hostile environment eventually caused her to leave her job with the city’s Municipal Services Department.

In her suit, Roubanis says male co-workers urged her to look at nude magazine pictures, discuss her sex life and wear tight clothing. They refused to remove nude magazine photos of women that Roubanis found offensive, the lawsuit says.

Denying that he and others in management were indifferent to Roubanis’ appeals, City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said Wednesday that some employees have been disciplined as a result of her complaints. But all the employees who received disciplinary action still work for the city, Frank said.

Personnel officer Phil Hofmann, who Roubanis claims rebuffed her pleas for assistance, and City Atty. Philip Kohn declined to comment on the case Wednesday.

Roubanis, 24, washed and fueled buses, inspected city police cars and performed other duties from June, 1989, until February, 1992. She was the only woman working in the department’s garage area behind City Hall.

Roubanis, now a Lake Forest resident, said other employees observed the alleged harassment, which she said involved about six different male co-workers. Roubanis said she had never seen any other female city employee similarly treated.

Because of her complaints, the suit alleges, Roubanis’ supervisors retaliated against her, denying her a promised pay raise. Eventually, the suit alleges, co-workers refused to speak to Roubanis and she felt forced to leave the “hostile and abusive work environment.”

Frank said Roubanis was issued three pay raises during the 20 months she worked for the city. He also said she was offered the opportunity to perform other duties for the city so she could have a change of environment.

“We offered a transfer to another part of municipal services, and she just got a pay raise,” he said, “so I don’t know why she left.”

Among its charges, the suit alleges that a city mechanic rubbed against Roubanis several times, touched his crotch when he talked to her and put his dirty underwear in her locker. When she complained about the various problems, the suit alleges, Roubanis’ superiors refused to intercede, telling her that she had no rights as a part-time employee and that she “could be fired very easily.”

After exhausting other options, Roubanis said, she appealed to Frank, the city manager. According to the lawsuit, Frank told her that she should expect such behavior in “a blue-collar environment.”

Frank called that allegation “total nonsense.”

“I would never say that,” he said. “Let’s face it: men in some blue-collar environments have not worked with women on a frequent basis, and it’s a learning process for them. It’s a learning process for the women. But in terms of being expected, it’s real clear what our policies are and we don’t tolerate that.”

Frank said that Roubanis came to him to complain of a picture of a woman in a bathing suit on the wall in the parks division and that he responded quickly.

“I went to the parks division and took a look at it and told the staff to take it down, and that was done within an hour or so after she came in to see me,” he said.