One Year Ago Today (May 2, 2021)…The city of Hawaiian Gardens is being sued by one of its female employees, who alleges the city did not do enough to protect her and other women from being sexually harassed by the president of the workers’ union.
Brianna Gonzalez’ Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges sexual harassment and failure to take steps to prevent harassment. She seeks unspecified damages in the suit filed Friday.
A representative for the city could not be immediately reached for comment.
Gonzalez was hired in August 2017 and met the workers’ union president, Fred Licon, at about that time, according to the suit, which does not identify the job titles of either person.
“Licon initially was cordial to (Gonzalez),” the suit states. “However, he quickly began to focus on her, singling her out and frequently stopping at her desk when he came to City Hall — (her) workplace,” the suit states.
By the end of 2017, Licon, more than 40 years older than the plaintiff, escalated from his cordial conversations and began asking her more personal questions, including whether she had a boyfriend and what she liked to do outside of work, according to the suit. He also complimented Gonzalez on her hair and dress, inquired about her personal life and invited her to lunch, the suit states.
Gonzalez “rebuffed these advances, and avoided and refused the lunch invitations,” the suit states. Licon, undeterred, continued to focus on Gonzalez while describing himself as a “man of God,” according to the suit.
Licon told Gonzalez that as union president, he had a high level of influence with the city and that he was close to City Council members, persons who would have influence over the plaintiff’s job and who would perform favors for him, according to the suit.
Licon would offer to “put in a good word” for Gonzalez, the suit states.
“These comments had the effect of intimidating (Gonzalez), causing her fear that if she rebuffed Licon, her job would be in jeopardy,” the suit states.
Gonzalez feared that Licon would influence the city to fire her because she was in her probationary period when he was paying too much attention to her, according to the suit.
During a November 2017 meeting in which Gonzalez signed up to join the union, Licon told her she was “naturally beautiful” and “does not need to wear makeup like the other girls,” the suit states.
Gonzalez later found out that at least two other female employees had complained about Licon and that an investigation was opened into one of the women’s complaints, the suit states.
Licon allegedly stopped bothering Gonzalez for a time in early 2018, but began doing so again in April of that year. He tried to convince her not to help the other female employee in her harassment case against him and told her “that he has a lot of power in the union and influence in the city that can benefit or hurt” her, the suit states.
Licon’s alleged harassment again curtailed for a while, but started again by the end of 2018, the suit states. She filed a complaint with human resources in October 2019, but during a subsequent investigation the city allegedly did not interview any of the witnesses she identified.
A human resources employee told Gonzalez there was “enough evidence in the witnesses the attorney interviewed who supported her claims and the investigation is closed,” the suit states.
The city’s investigation concluded last June by sustaining charges that Licon had made comments about Gonzalez’s appearance, inquired about her personal life and repeatedly pressured her for lunch dates, the suit states.