Pierce Co. employee fired 9 days after filing whistleblower complaint, asks for damages
This story has been updated.
A former Pierce County employee sent a damages claim to the county this week, accusing the county government of discrimination and of breaking state whistleblower protections.
The claim asks for between $3 million and $5 million in damages. Before filing a lawsuit against a government, a “notice of claim” has to be filed.
Carol Mitchell, a Black woman, was the senior justice counsel when she was fired on July 23, nine days after submitting the summary judgment in a whistleblower complaint.
Pierce County confirmed that it received the claim. The county government said her firing was lawful and entirely unrelated to the whistleblower complaint.
“We deny her allegations in their entirety,” Pierce County Communications Director Libby Catalinich said.
In the damages claim, Mitchell said she was fired while she had an active and pending whistleblower complaint against the county.
“Pierce County’s termination of an employee who had an active whistleblower complaint is unlawful retaliation and further evidence of the County’s discrimination, harassment, and misconduct against Ms. Mitchell due to her race, gender, and her advocacy for Pierce County minorities,” the claim said.
State and county whistleblower laws protect public employees who expose wrongdoing from retaliation.
In the claim, she added portions of her whistleblower complaint submitted to the state Administrative Court.
Mitchell described that there is a “discriminatory and hostile culture within Pierce County” that is run by “politically-aligned, highly-compensated white men hired or retained by [Executive Bruce] Dammeier.”
Mitchell called this group of top county officials “The Boys Club.”
There are 12 department directors, six of whom are women and 11 are white, Catalinich said.
On the Executive Team, one of the seven senior positions is held by a person of color. Mitchell, once the eighth official, was the only Black woman.
As the senior counsel for justice services, Mitchell served as a senior advisor to the executive on justice-related services. She oversaw the Department of Assigned Counsel, Clerk of the Superior Court and Medical Examiner.
The executive appoints for this at-will position.
Catalinich said many of the allegations included in this claim had been vetted in a 2019 independent investigation, which found no evidence to substantiate them.
In a memorandum of this independent investigation provided by the county, Mitchell expressed concern in July 2018 that a newly-proposed organizational change would be contrary to inclusion and equity goals.
She said in an email to Dammeier that there had been “trust-destroying behavior” and events that “suggest that implicit bias and institutional racism are issues at the highest level of County government – even in our own Executive Team.”
According to the 2019 memo, Dammeier forwarded the email to human resources and an investigation was opened. Mitchell repeatedly did not engage with investigators, telling investigators that her prior concerns had been satisfactorily addressed, the memo said. In October 2019, she spoke to investigators, saying that she never intended to create a complaint.
“My goal was to improve the process, [to increase] thoughtfulness, equity and inclusivity,” she told investigators in 2019.
According to the memo, Mitchell then told investigators she felt the executive listened to her concerns and made improvements to the Executive Team organization, and that she is pleased with the progress.
Mitchell’s attorney, Meaghan Driscoll, said the investigation only looked at one part of a bigger issue.
“What we are talking about is a culture and hostile environment where minorities and minority issues are being silenced,” she told The News Tribune. “Even if one part got better at one point in her time there, her claim is about an ongoing systemic issues that went on until she was terminated.”
The Executive’s Tweet
Dammeier posted on his personal and campaign social media accounts on Wednesday that a “former staffer” covering criminal justice issues is supporting his opponent, Larry Seaquist. His statement came a day after Mitchell filed her damages claim with the county.
“It became clear to me some time ago she had her own political agenda and that my vision for Pierce County was of minimal importance to her,” Dammeier said in a statement.
Dammeier has not responded to multiple requests about the subject of the post. The County government has no comment on the tweet posted to his personal account, Catalinich said.
Driscoll said it’s likely that the tweet is about Mitchell given the timing.
In the post, Dammeier claims that Seaquist supports defunding police. Driscoll believes Dammeier is pivoting the issue into a political stance for his campaign, and defunding police has nothing to do with Mitchell’s wrongful termination.
“It appears that Dammeier’s statement may be an attempt to pivot some bad publicity about bad misconduct of his office to wanting to talk about something about his campaign,” she told The News Tribune. “It’s not relevant.”
Mitchell was hired by Pierce County in 2017, after working for Metro Parks Tacoma as the chief organizational development officer. She has college degrees from the University of Washington and Seattle University, and a law degree from Seattle University School of Law.
Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Mitchell last year on the Clover Park Technical College Board of Trustees.
Driscoll said Mitchell will be filing a lawsuit against Pierce County.
This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
