Barth's Statement

Council voted 5-0 to daylight the attorney's review of Barth's complaint. Council went 3-2 against agendizing (Barth & Houlihan for) a discussion on how the council might set up policies/practices/procedures for council members to respond to harassment claims.

Here is Barth's statement:

I welcome the opportunity to now openly and freely discuss the full contents of my complaint of harassment and hostile work environment.

As the media and public will see, my complaint was filed as a city of Encinitas employee based on the city’s “zero tolerance” policy against harassment.

I chose to file an internal complaint because I did NOT want this to be political but rather a sincere attempt to stop the escalation of bullying and possible retaliation against myself, my family or personal property.

It is unfortunate that Councilman Stocks chose to leak the existence of the investigation to the media and made a grandstand show of waving a sealed envelope marked confidential at a recent council meeting.

With the growing epidemic of bullying in our schools and the disturbing deterioration of honest political debate at all levels of government his behavior demeans us all. In these challenging times, honest and civil discussion is what the public expects from their elected officials and it is what they deserve from us.

It was the decision of the city attorney and city manager to seek outside counsel for this investigation. It was the decision of that legal firm to hire an additional investigator, who interviewed me for approximately 2 hours on January 6, 2010.

The first item that should have been addressed was my status as an “employee”. Why it took four months to make that determination is unclear. Because it was determined that I am not an employee further investigation into some, but not all, of my complaints appears to have been unnecessary.

I join Councilman Stocks in shock at the cost of this investigation. I hope that he will join me in calling for a review of the city’s legal service policies, especially as it pertains to the use of outside counsel and to determine if there are any internal efforts at cost containment.

Let me make it clear that I am not naive as to the rough nature of politics. However, it is truly a shame that as a sitting city councilmember, there is no legal recourse within the existing structure to address harassment.

Note: If anyone has a copy or link to the complaint and report please send it to us and we will post it.