When former prosecutor Tracy Miller won a $3 million judgement against The County of Orange last week because of how OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer harassed her when she was the most senior woman in the DA’s office, she called on county supervisors to censure, sanction, or even dismiss Spitzer.
“There’s lots of options they can take,” Miller said in an interview on Friday. “I think they should take as much action as they can.”
“The people deserve better than the Orange County Board of Supervisors spending millions and millions and millions of taxpayer dollars defending this corrupt DA,” Miller continued. “County leaders should hold him accountable.”
That hasn’t happened.
This week, supervisors fully funded Spitzer’s department during budget deliberations, making no public statements about the impact of his actions on the county budget – after years of paying to defend Spitzer from the accusations from over a half dozen female prosecutors.
Three supervisors did issue public statements after the jury verdict noting the importance of public accountability for those in power and protecting against harassment and retaliation of public workers.
But they haven’t actually done anything.
That stands in stark contrast with the aggressive actions taken against OC Treasurer Tax Collector Shari Friedenrich after workers issued workplace harassment allegations against her.
County supervisors stripped her of investment powers over the county’s $17 billion portfolio, citing the issues with workers, and took away two of her staff in the latest budget.
In an interview earlier this month after winning her case, Miller pointed to a series of possible actions supervisors could take to punish Spitzer.
“There are things they can do. They can get a grand jury in there. They can sanction him. They can make public comments,” Miller said. “Not speaking anything, not saying anything, that speaks volumes.”
What Was Spitzer Accused Of?
During her deposition under oath during the trial, Miller shared how Spitzer told her to “baby-sit,” various projects, repeatedly screamed at her both in person and over the phone, and once asked her in the middle of a meeting what sized tampons she wears.
Miller said the harassment came after she helped fellow prosecutors report Gary LoGalbo, the best man at Spitzer’s wedding and one of his top lieutenants who was so known for harassing women at the DA’s office he became known as “Scary Gary.”
Despite county supervisors’ statements about looking at internal procedures for worker complaints or beefing up whistleblower protections, an ensuing county HR investigation backed up the women when they reported LoGalbo.
The failures, Miller said, came from leadership.
“Eight women had the courage to come forward and the DA and his Deputy said they were chickens,” Miller said on Friday.
Following the jury verdict, Spitzer issued a statement that he had been dissatisfied with Miller’s work performance and that his “good faith effort to clean up the public corruption in the Orange County District Attorney’s office,” had been misinterpreted.
“It is no secret that there was a lot of frustration on my part with her lack of performance in handling these very serious matters,” Spitzer wrote. “In hindsight, I realize that I was not as sensitive to the issues Ms. Miller was facing at the time as I should have been, and for that I am truly sorry.”
Another half dozen cases alleging similar issues to Miller’s from female prosecutors have yet to reach a trial.
County supervisors also recently agreed to pay out over $2 million to one of Spitzer’s former investigators, who alleged Spitzer improperly fired him after he reported political corruption. County supervisors settled that case before it reached a jury.
[Read: OC District Attorney’s Conduct Costs Taxpayers Millions In Court Loss]
The settlement costs do not include the attorneys fees charged to the county for their work on those cases, which stretched over multiple years. It’s unclear how much supervisors have spent themselves on attorneys to defend Spitzer.
Supervisors Quietly Respond to Complaints
Supervisors Doug Chaffee, Vicente Sarmiento and Katrina Foley each put out statements sharing that they were supportive of a safe working environment for county employees.
“As public servants it is our responsibility to cultivate a work environment that is free from all forms of discrimination,” said Chaffee in a Wednesday statement. “My focus remains on ensuring we lead by example in promoting dignity and fairness across our county departments.”
“It is important that those entrusted to hold the public accountable are themselves held to that same standard,” Sarmiento wrote in a statement last week. “I hope that the verdict in this case sends a strong message that harassment and retaliation against employees will not be tolerated.”
“As a 29-year employee rights attorney, I strongly support providing a safe, healthy, and positive working environment for all of our County employees,” Foley wrote. “I take very seriously my legal duty as a County Supervisor to ensure our elected department heads comply with our Equal Employment Opportunity Policy.”
Supervisor Don Wagner did not respond to requests for comment, and Supervisor Janet Nguyen declined to comment.
When asked if Spitzer should face any repercussions or sanctions for his actions, supervisors didn’t have an answer.
Chaffee wrote that the county would “continue to review our policies and procedures to ensure employees are protected.”
“Our County employees’ wellbeing is the Board’s highest priority,” Chaffee wrote.
Latisha Townsend, a spokesperson for Foley, said that “The Supervisor clarified that they have no authority to sanction an elected official department head.”
“She is working in collaboration with county HR to ensure county leadership is complying with all legal obligations, and to make sure our workforce feels supported,” Townsend wrote in a Wednesday statement.
“We are working to ensure we have stronger whistleblower protections for all employees,” Sarmiento wrote in a statement. “Including those working for elected officials.”
Supervisors Decline to Publicly Discuss the Issue
Supervisors have not yet decided if they will appeal the case as they are still waiting on a final judgement from the court, according to county counsel Leon Page.
But at their meeting on Tuesday, none of the supervisors brought up the verdict, instead speaking about it behind closed doors after their public meeting.
They also approved Spitzer’s $230 million budget without raising a single question about his department, and praised Spitzer’s launch of a wage theft prosecutors unit via new grant funding.
It’s not the first time supervisors have had to wrestle with how they’ll handle an elected official who has allegations of workplace harassment against them.
At the end of last year, supervisors unanimously voted to take control of the county’s $17 billion investment pool from elected Treasurer/Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich after multiple complaints over how she treated her staff.
[Read: OC Supervisors Break Silence; Publicly Blast Treasurer’s Alleged Workplace Hostility]
They also reduced the size of her staff in this year’s budget over her protests, and dismantled the committee that oversaw her office to set up a new one where she is not a voting member.
Chaffee released a scathing letter about Friedenrich’s issues with workers, marking it as one of the primary reasons they took away the investment pool, while Wagner and Foley met with workers about their complaints.
“They were telling us stories that were hair curling about that office,” Wagner said in February. “That’s what finally prompted us to act.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.