Legal battles, brought on by two former managers who claim they were fired unjustly, hang over Tacoma’s leading Hispanic social service agency.

After harsh accusations from all sides, the lawsuits come as money for nonprofits becomes scarce and Centro Latino tries to cling to its traditional sources of cash, including money from Pierce County.

Frank Munoz, the agency’s former director of family support services, claims Centro Latino fired him last October to cover up a conflict of interest by one of its board of directors in the retrofit of its building, according to his lawsuit filed in Pierce County Superior Court in April.

Centro Latino denied those claims a month later in its response.

Munoz’s lawsuit also claims the agency’s board of directors falsely accused him and former executive director Joy Gomez-Gonzalez, his supervisor at Centro Latino, of having an inappropriate relationship. Gomez-Gonzalez brought her own wrongful termination lawsuit against Centro Latino last November.

The agency again denied most of Munoz’s claim.

Munoz suit is scheduled to go to trial next year. His claims mirror allegations by Gomez-Gonzalez. Her trial is scheduled for November.

Centro Latino, based on Tacoma’s Hilltop, provides job training, youth mentoring and family services to the South Sound Hispanic community and others in need. In June, the agency helped local residents having problems with the transition to digital television.

While fending off lawsuits, Centro Latino has had a difficult year financially. The Pierce County Council in June voted not to give Centro Latino almost $20,000, citing county budget concerns. The county had frozen about $30,000 in funding six months earlier in the wake of Gomez-Gonzalez’s lawsuit.

Tacoma lawyer Thaddeus Martin represents both Munoz and Gomez-Gonzalez, who share many of the same claims.

Both accuse board member David Almonte of having a conflict of interest in the retrofit of Centro Latino’s building, 1208 S. 10th St., because he was allegedly trying to win a contract for his friend, as well as secure a $150,000 contract for his furniture business. The suits claim the board knew about the conflict but didn’t deal with it.

Centro Latino denies that it entered into any illegal contracts, and Almonte flatly denied the conflict-of-interest accusations in a November interview with The News Tribune.

Records obtained by the newspaper show the renovation project’s budget in June 2008 included $138,000 for “office furniture.”

The lawsuits also claim the board falsely alleged Munoz and Gomez-Gonzalez had an improper relationship that led to a job promotion for Munoz. The two deny any inappropriate relationship.

In response to Gomez- Gonzalez’s lawsuit in November, Centro Latino maintained an improper relationship existed between Munoz and Gomez- Gonzalez, but they have denied spreading rumors about it.

In the same court papers, Centro Latino claimed she engaged in the inappropriate relationship knowing it could “influence and impact her ability to perform her position as executive director.”

The agency also accused her of downloading and storing “multiple photographs of herself in semi-dressed to unclothed states,” which she denies.

In an April interview, Munoz told The News Tribune that there’s a culture of lying and distrust at Centro Latino.

In addition to wrongful termination, Munoz claims emotional distress, race and gender discrimination, and defamation.

Munoz’s court papers detail the wedge between him and Centro Latino’s board:

 • Centro Latino hired Munoz in December 2007 as a family support worker. After failing on the first try, he was promoted to director of family support services 10 months later.

 • Both lawsuits claim that over a monthlong period starting in September, Gomez-Gonzalez asserted that the Centro Latino board had entrusted her to make decisions about the building retrofit.

She twice expressed concerns about Almonte’s alleged involvement in the project, and the board told her it would confront him, according to court documents.

 • At Gomez-Gonzalez’s performance evaluation Oct. 20, board members suggested “that an inappropriate relationship had occurred between the executive director and the plaintiff that had resulted in the plaintiff’s promotion to director of Family Support Services,” according to Munoz’s lawsuit.

The next day, Gomez-Gonzalez gave documents to the board denying the alleged relationship, and also told the board that she was planning to meet with state Rep. Dennis Flannigan on Oct. 24 to discuss her concerns about the building retrofit, according to the suit.

 • On Oct. 24, the board fired Gomez-Gonzalez and, according to Munoz’s lawsuit, held an off-site meeting with agency staff without him.

 • Three days later, Munoz sent an e-mail requesting a meeting with the board to discuss the relationship allegation, the off-site meeting with staff and the hostile work environment he said the board had created.

At a hastily called meeting, “The board responded, ‘You’re fired. You have 30 minutes to clean out your office,’” court papers state.

In a response filed May 27, Joseph Diaz, Centro Latino’s attorney, denied almost all of Munoz’s claims.

The board acknowledged that both Gomez-Gonzalez and Munoz were frustrated and that some meetings with each of them had taken place, but it denied the allegations about the building project and the inappropriate relationship rumor, according to the lawyer’s response.

Artis referred questions from The News Tribune to Diaz, Centro Latino’s attorney.

He did not return phone messages left at his office last week.

Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653

brent.champaco@thenewstribune.com