Official Accused of Sex Harassment Apologizes

Amid calls for his resignation, the treasurer-tax collector of San Diego County apologized Wednesday for sending a series of e-mails to an employee that led to a sexual harassment claim against him that was settled for $100,000.

But Bart Hartman refused to resign his elected post.

“I don’t believe one mistake is too much to forgive,” Hartman said in a written statement.

After reviewing an internal investigation of the alleged harassment, members of the county Board of Supervisors called for Hartman to resign, but said they can’t legally fire him.

“The public trust is in jeopardy,” Supervisor Dianne Jacob told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We have an elected official who has done a very bad thing.”

The internal investigation found that Hartman, 50, sexually harassed the highest-ranking woman in his office, Chief Deputy Tax Collector Rhoda Corpuz, by sending her a series of e-mails urging her to have a relationship with him, beginning shortly after he took office in January 1999.

“When I am in your office, I want to walk over and hug you, kiss you, hold you so, so bad,” he wrote in one e-mail, according to a report from the investigation.

His advances continued over her protests and she feared professional retribution, the investigation concluded. “What part of NO do you not UNDERSTAND,” she wrote in one e-mail response, according to the report.

At one point, the woman’s husband--also a county employee--asked Hartman to stop the e-mails.

Hartman said in his statement that he disagrees with the investigation’s findings.

“While I don’t believe my feelings were one-sided, I would like to apologize to Ms. Corpuz and her family for any pain or embarrassment that I might have caused,” he said.

The Board of Supervisors voted in closed session to pay $100,000 to settle a harassment claim filed by the woman. Corpuz, 45, still works for the county, but in a lower-paying job in another department.

The board also appointed two members to look into whether Hartman, who is paid $119,000 a year, can be relieved of control over the $2-billion county investment pool.