Employee Takes MTA to Court

A Thousand Oaks man who alleges he was punished for reporting sexual harassment by a male co-worker and safety problems at the Metropolitan Transit Authority in Los Angeles is having his day in court.

The lawsuit by 21-year MTA veteran Kenneth Barbara is being heard by a jury in state Superior Court in Los Angeles. The case should conclude by early next week, Barbara’s lawyer said Thursday.

“We’re looking for a significant recovery because we hope that will sensitize the MTA to its responsibilities,” said attorney Bennett Rolfe of Camarillo.

In his complaint, Barbara contends that the MTA retaliated against him after he reported in April 1996 that bus safety records were being falsified.

According to the complaint, Barbara, then in the agency’s safety department, reported that “defective buses were not being repaired and instead were being sent out on the roads with their defects intact, and that the records pertaining to these buses falsely indicated that the buses had been repaired.”

After an Aug. 21, 1996, explosion of a compressed natural gas bus, Barbara contacted the National Transportation Safety Board about ongoing safety violations at the MTA, the complaint said.

“They don’t want to hear about safety problems,” Barbara said in a telephone interview. “As soon as you open your mouth you’re deemed a troublemaker.”

Barbara’s lawsuit is being heard just months after MTA whistle-blower Amelia Earnest lodged similar allegations against the agency.

Earnest said she had cooperated with several investigative bodies, including the FBI and the MTA inspector general’s office, in uncovering fraud and safety violations at the MTA.

Barbara’s suit alleges that MTA supervisors forced him, in retaliation for his complaint, to work alongside a male co-worker whom he had previously reported in a sexual harassment complaint.

The suit also contends that Barbara was suspended and threatened with a transfer because of his sexual harassment and safety complaints.

MTA spokesman Ed Scannell declined to discuss the case. He said, however, that the charges of same-sex sexual harassment are probably the first of their kind leveled at the MTA.

Although the sexual harassment charges are just a part of the overall case, Barbara’s attorney said the MTA’s response to those charges revealed deep problems at the agency.

“There is no question that the case would have been handled differently if it had been male-female sexual harassment,” Rolfe said.