GUEST POST: City staff go through ethics, sexual harassment prevention training

By George Johnston

Sexual harassment prevention and ethics training were on the agenda for the Benicia City Council and staff at its Tuesday meeting.
Every two years, government employees and officials are required to go through AB1825, sexual harassment, and AB1234, government ethics, training. The meeting, which ran from 6 to 10 p.m., was split into two parts: AB1825 training first, then AB1234. 
Sam Zutler, an attorney from Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP, lead the training for sexual harassment prevention. She explained that there are two types of sexual harassment recognized by the law: quid pro quo, the promise of work benefits for the exchange of a sexual demand; and hostile work environment, employees subjected to unwelcome advances, sexual innuendos or offensive gender-related language on a regular basis which make the person feel uncomfortable. Zutler said hostile work environments are not limited to huge events but are a thousand little incidents that build up. She used an example of the first female fire fighter of different cities’ fire departments who faced a hostile work environment and eventually had to sue the city
“Courts are not interested in regulating the individual interaction of people,” Zutler said. “Your workplace has more of an interest in doing that. Your workplace has an interest in you being respectful and productive at work.” 
Leah Castella, a litigation attorney from Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP, lead the training for government ethics. She went over rules on transparency, conflict of interest and receiving gifts, and also gave examples of other ethics rules like another city’s employees who misappropriated more than $40,000 dollars in funds. 
“What these ethics rules are about, the conflict rules, transparency rules, the gift rules, they are all about ensuring the public believe you are acting in their best interest because, at its foundation, that is your responsibility as a public official to act in the best interest of the public and not your own interest,” Castella said. 
She would end the presentation with a slide that "Don't end your career this way” in the reference to all the rules and rule-breaking examples she spent the previous two hours discussing. 
The council will next meet on Tuesday, Feb. 6.