Livingston union blasts city over labor negotiations, sexual harassment claims

The union representing Livingston’s public works employees recently blasted the city manager in a series of letters expressing frustration over stalled labor negotiations and claims of mistreatment and sexual harassment by a supervisor.

According to the letters, the union agreed to employee furloughs equaling a 5 percent reduction in salary, but the city pushed for an additional 1 percent wage reduction. The union, which represents 12 city employees, also agreed to pay a $25 monthly contribution toward their medical benefits.

Livingston City Manager Jose Ramirez declined comment on the labor negotiations, saying he can’t discuss an ongoing bargaining process. A union official said numerous concessions have been agreed to but the city hasn’t budged on its demands. Negotiations began in May.

“It’s been a very slow process,” said Nancy Vinson, business agent with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2703. “Everything we propose they take directly to the City Council, and that’s out of the ordinary. They’re not supposed to take it back to the City Council until we reach an agreement and then they approve it.”

In addition to a deadlock in the negotiation process, Vinson said the bigger concern is with a public works supervisor. Livingston’s previous public works director, Humberto Molina, was terminated in December and the city never hired his replacement.

But city administrators last year promoted Ruben Mendoza to a supervisorial role, overseeing about nine people. Vinson said the union began receiving numerous complaints about his leadership, leading to a vote of no confidence signed by 11 employees in May.

In an Oct. 9 letter obtained by the Merced Sun-Star, Vinson alleges an incident where a sexually explicit video and pictures were shown to employees by Mendoza in the break room. The letter says the incident happened a day after the employees went through sexual harassment training. Six employees who were offended by the alleged incident wrote a signed letter to the city manager, Vinson said.

City officials said an outside investigation substantiated one of the complaints, but declined to say which one. Mendoza could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Vinson also highlighted other alleged concerns with Mendoza’s management, including yelling at employees, hostile behavior and threats of physical violence. The letter also alleges Mendoza has an inappropriate relationship with Mayor Rodrigo Espinoza, allowing the mayor to have preferential treatment on projects related to his property.

“The mayor calls Ruben Mendoza directly on his cellphone and in two instances, it was for personal favors from public works,” Vinson said in a telephone interview. “One was a leak on his street and he wanted them to come over and make it a priority.”

Espinoza did not return calls for comment. The letter also claims Mendoza assigned city workers to mow the lawn on Mayor Pro Tem Gurpal Samra’s private property.

Samra vehemently denied claims of his personal lawn being mowed by city workers, saying his son mows his lawn. Samra, who lives about a block away from the mayor, said he did call about a broken water line on his street.

“Water was coming down the road; I have a right to call about that,” Samra said Thursday. “Water was coming down the street, and that’s a priority for the city. Anybody that sees a water line leaking, they need to call it in.”

Ramirez said he takes the union’s complaints very seriously, and hired an outside law firm to investigate the claims. The city paid $14,000 to the Oakland-based law office of Terry Roemer for the two-month investigation, Ramirez said.

The investigation substantiated one of the claims against Mendoza, but Ramirez would not say which one.

“To characterize him of doing wrong things would be very unfair,” Ramirez said of the 25-year employee. “There’s always two sides to a story. That’s why I wanted to have someone independent of the city conduct the investigation.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2014 at 8:19 PM with the headline "Livingston union blasts city over labor negotiations, sexual harassment claims."