Rose Bowl Manager Suspended 4 Days for Misconduct

Pasadena Rose Bowl General Manager David Jacobs, facing a sexual harassment lawsuit by his former secretary, will be suspended on the basis of a city hearing officer’s determination that he violated personnel rules on “offensive or harassing conduct” by making jokes with sexual and ethnic content, as well as by inappropriately touching female subordinates.

Hearing Officer Patsy Lane, in a confidential decision issued Nov. 5, said there is sufficient cause to suspended Jacobs for 36 hours, the equivalent of four working days.

The suspension stems from allegations made by Jacobs’ former executive secretary, Jane Orr, and a subsequent personnel investigation.

“While the specific examples provided in the documentation reviewed may not meet the legal definition of sexual harassment in that the workplace was not pervaded by a sexually hostile environment, the information includes several examples of inappropriate workplace behavior, generally supported by two or more sources, including inappropriate comments or telling inappropriate jokes [with some sexual and/or ethnic content] and instances of inappropriate physical contact with female subordinates,” Lane wrote.

At a Sept. 12 Civil Service hearing, Jacobs and his attorney argued that there was no sexual harassment.

Jacobs told Lane there had been no hint of sexual harassment charges in his 28 years of city employment and that the allegations surfaced after he informed Orr that he intended to fire her.