Stein Accuses Hahn of Condoning Sexual Harassment

Launching his latest attack in the Los Angeles city attorney’s race, challenger Ted Stein on Monday accused City Atty. James K. Hahn of condoning sexual harassment in his department and punishing women who come forward with complaints.

Stein said the city attorney’s work force of nearly 750 employees has become a “hostile work environment” for women and that many keep silent about harassment for fear of retaliation.

To buttress the charges he made at a downtown news conference, Stein brought along Deputy City Atty. Ruth Ebner, who has waged a sometimes-public battle with Hahn over allegations that she failed to win a promotion after reporting sexual harassment by her supervisor.

“I believe there is a continuing pattern of harassment in the city attorney’s office,” Stein told reporters. “I believe it is condoned by Jimmy Hahn himself.”

Hahn’s campaign manager, Matt Middlebrook, defended Hahn’s record on sexual harassment, saying the city attorney has taken aggressive steps over the years to address problems brought to his attention. Middlebrook distributed internal memorandums from the city attorney’s office indicating that Hahn had informed his staff several times since at least 1988 that such behavior is unacceptable and that anyone experiencing harassment should file a grievance.

Middlebrook dismissed Stein’s contentions as a “cheap political trick to resuscitate a dying campaign. Ted Stein is making ludicrous charges that have absolutely no basis in fact or reality,” Middlebrook said.

A high-ranking city attorney’s official also defended Hahn.

Maureen Siegel, chief of the department’s criminal operations, said Hahn has promoted numerous women to managerial positions in which they can monitor sexual harassment. Ten of the 17 supervisors in the criminal branch are women, she said.

“You’re not going to get an outcry from women in this office that Jim Hahn supports, advocates or encourages sexual harassment,” Siegel said. “That’s absurdity. We are in places of authority, influence and policy making, and that has to speak volumes.”

Still, Stein accused Hahn of dragging his feet on a sexual harassment training program that was ordered in 1992 by former Mayor Tom Bradley. Hahn did not implement the training for all employees until last May, but Middlebrook said that supervisors were trained soon after Bradley’s edict five years ago.

Ebner, the deputy city attorney, said she has continued to suffer the repercussions of reporting alleged sexual harassment several years ago.

Ebner won a $10,000 out-of-court settlement in 1993 after alleging that her supervisor in the civil liability division of the city attorney’s office made sexist remarks and grabbed himself in her presence. As a part of the settlement, she voluntarily transferred to another job in the airports division. But two years later, she filed another claim, alleging that she had been denied a promotion by Hahn because of the original complaint, an accusation Hahn denied.

In an arbitration hearing last April, Hahn said that Ebner did not get the promotion because her supervisor said she did not work as hard as other attorneys in her office.

Ebner won her promotion in the arbitration hearing, but she said the harassment continued in her new job. She says she was excluded from important cases and that she received “gratuitous e-mail.” Ebner voluntarily transferred earlier this month to another job in the city attorney’s West Los Angeles office.

“I want to put a face on harassment in the city attorney’s office,” Ebner, who is a member of the Santa Monica City Council, said at Stein’s news conference.

Ebner said that she has received phone calls from several women who have experienced harassment in the city attorney’s office but that few are willing to come forward.

“It’s my belief that many women are terrified [of speaking out],” Ebner said. “The feeling I get from the city attorney’s office is shut up and leave it alone.”