9 Current & Former Manhattan Beach Employees Sue City, Alleging Hostile, Discriminatory Environment

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — One of nine current and former Manhattan Beach employees suing the city, claiming a hostile work environment in which city officials and upper managers allegedly subject people of color to discrimination, can proceed anonymously in the case, a judge has ruled.

The lead plaintiff in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit is senior management analyst Erika King, a Latina. She and her fellow plaintiffs further contend that the public works and human resources directors as well as the city engineer punish those who report alleged government corruption or mismanagement.

The one plaintiff who asked to proceed without her true name being revealed is identified in the suit only as V.C. On Friday, Judge Holly Fujie granted V.C.'s request, finding that her need for anonymity outweighs any prejudice to the city as well as to the public's interest in knowing her identity.

V.C. is Asian and was hired in August 2021 as a senior management analyst. She alleges she was discriminated against and harassed on the basis of her race, gender, and depression disability. She further maintains that she was harassed by a subordinate and that her work environment became so intolerable she eventually resigned.

"I am fearful that if I pursue my claims publicly, the details of my mental health disability will be published online for anyone to see, including family members, acquaintances and future employers, and that would further threaten both my mental well-being and future employment prospects," V.C. said in a sworn declaration.

V.C. added that if she did not have the option to file the complaint using a pseudonym she would not have pursued her claims.

In their previous court papers, attorneys for the city denied all of the plaintiffs' allegations.

"Despite its breadth, the (lawsuit) fails to allege sufficient facts to support any viable cause of action," the city's lawyers write.

According to the suit, the city "fostered a culture in which sexual harassment and retaliation for taking parental leave were not only tolerated, but normalized," allowing city officials "to engage in blatant government corruption, reckless mismanagement of city funds, and staggering incompetence, without consequence or oversight, even when their failures drained taxpayer dollars and flagrantly violated state and federal laws."

King writes and manages contracts and budgets, administers grants and conducts financial and policy analyses. She says the city engineer and public works director limit resources for women, people of color and older employees -- King is over 40 -- and set impossible project deadlines to set certain people up to fail.

When King protested the alleged disparate treatment, the public works director allegedly told her to "be a good soldier" and to "stay in your lane" while also dubbing her a "mama bear," the suit originally brought on Feb. 5 states. An amended complaint was filed April 25.

"Most alarmingly, (the public works director) pressured Ms. King to sign financial documents for the West Basin Water Association Board, a high- stakes responsibility explicitly reserved for the director or utilities manager," the suit further alleges.

The public works director also "systematically diverted massive city resources to create a false narrative of competence for his favored employees" and in the past two years he allegedly channeled more than $700,000 to outside consultants to perform engineering work that the city engineer should have done, the suit further alleges.

When King reported some of her concerns to human resources and the city attorney, she received a "dismissive" response and a city investigator asked her, "Do you think he's breaking the rules or just circumventing the rules to make business processes faster?" the suit further states.

In retaliation for speaking out, the public works director "orchestrated a punitive campaign against her," transferring her to a different division, stripping her of crucial projects and removing her essential support staff, according to the suit.