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Virtucon Exposes Explosive County Sex Harassment Scandal
By Greg L | 4 June 2009 | Crime, Prince William County | 17 Comments
Now that Craig Gerhart is stepping aside and the chances of retaliation have somewhat abated, someone has leaked to Virginia Virtucon some damning evidence alleging pervasive sexual harassment within the county’s Planning Office that doesn’t seem to have ever been addressed. Although the county is more than willing dig into equal opportunity complaints, some justified and some clearly not, happening elsewhere in the county the explosive allegations made public today appear to have been covered up by the office of the County Executive. Senior officials who allegedly engaged in what appears to be utterly reprehensible conduct seem to have been wrongly protected from the consequences of their behavior. Given the plethora of EEOC laws and regulations out there, civil and criminal penalties may well apply in this case.
This six-page letter goes on to allege various abuses and unethical behavior in detail as well as support the allegations in the aforementioned memo to Ms. Hosen by providing names of other female employees who had allegedly been harassed and discriminated against (also redacted to prevent reprisals against them.) The letter raises the issue of potential conflicts of interest and preferential treatment, citing the Walsh Colucci Lubeley law firm as a possible beneficiary of such action by the Planning Office. The author of the letter alleges that Planning Director Steve Griffin has engaged in covering for Utz as well.
The documents focus on the behavior of Planning Department Chief Ray Utz, who allegedly engages in some activity that in a corporate environment would bring swift and certain termination, regardless of seniority:
On my first month working for the County, I was approached by Ray Utz with questions of my commute and where and when I was going to move. At the time, the area was still new to me and I needed more time to decide. He continued to question if I would rent in the area and if I did, would I rent a place with him. I was very uncomfortable with this suggestion. I felt that the answer would compromise our Boss/subordinate relationship. I answered: “I do not know if I will rent yet, I will probably buy something”. He then asked: “if you do, can I rent from you?”. Again, I felt pressed and further compromised about our working relationship since I said that I could not live with him since I live alone and I value my privacy. I knew at this point that this man was crossing the line with an insensitive approach, which I consider sexual harassment but I had just started my job, and had made a serious turn in my career that I could not jeopardize. I therefore did not report this then.
Apparently Utz was unsatisfied with the complainant’s reaction to his advances, as the letter then documents an extensive pattern of retaliation that shouldn’t be difficult to confirm, given the breadth and scope of what is said to have happened.
The first 3 months I mostly worked on special projects and current planning cases. It was strange to me that I was never introduced to the planning commissioners, not even on my first public hearing. It was almost as if Ray Utz was trying to hide me. I noticed when two other new planners were hired (John Lassiter and Scott Meyer), they were formally introduced and formal training of internal procedures and technical equipment at the hearing chambers was arranged for them.
The complainant continues:
I used to log my extra hours on my timesheet, well aware that I would not be compensated for any extra hours, mostly to help Ray Utz be aware of my workload and to better distribute work among all planners. One day he requested that I remove all extra hours logged and that I should discontinue to log extra hours on my timesheet. I refused to do so since he said “I don’t care how much extra hours it takes you to do your work, you are supposed to work extra per personnel policy 16.4 C.”
I was then approached by the Planning Director, Steve Griffin. He said “I hear you can’t get your work done”, “and what is this crap about not doing as you are told and change your timesheet?”. I explained the matter, Steve Griffin apologized and suggested I log my extra hours elsewhere. Note: Ray Utz continued to assign the same amount of work with no relief and never cared to look at the extra hours log I made on my outlook calendar. Note: Ray Utz misused the County’s personnel policy to justify his abusive infringement on my personal time.
Another shocking allegation coming from these documents was the extraordinarily close cooperation between county staff and one of the major developer interests in the county.
I was requested to “fast track” a case and the case was scheduled for a post submission meeting for discussion. Since the case was to be fast tracked, I did not receive all the comments from reviewing agencies yet and I prepared a casual memo to the applicant’s agent. I did acknowledge that it would be expedited, however, did not provide the case manager’s analysis yet, I could not, without assessing all reviewing agency comments. The memo triggered a meeting with the Planning Director, Steve Griffin, who was outraged and informed that over lunch with land use attorney Mike Lubeley, he was informed of my “refusal to expedite the case”. He said: “ he is my best friend you know…. I want this taken care of immediately!” And I had to, irregardless of my pressing schedule with many other deadlines at that time.
I wondered how much of this goes on, possibly special favors that the Walsh Colucci Lubeley law firm might receive. I can attest that there is a red carpet for this firm at the planning office. Special meetings with the Planning Director and the Chief of Planning are granted for them and their clients. Most other applicants go through the normal route of scheduling a pre-application conference with the turn planner on Thursdays.
Someone might want to check into this unusually cozy relationship between Steve Griffin and the law firm that represents most of the developers in the county. This conflict of interest, if true, could result in some significant civil penalties being laid on the county. I can’t imagine that unethical behavior like this would happen without some sort of personal financial incentive to offset the grave risks involved.
These allegations were provided to the Human Resources department, but strangely nothing happened to address them. Soon I hope to complete compiling the evidence that suggests a cover-up by Craig Gerhart’s senior staff of this and other incidents involving many more female employees working under Ray Utz. There is a huge swamp to be drained here, and that draining needs to start right now.
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17 Comments
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It’s about time. Unfair treatment of county staff and others, particularly women, and attempts to intimidateare a common practice.
Though I don’t blame Gerhart for the corruption in the Office of Information Technology, I do blame him for culture that has been created and permitted.
This certainly seems to rise to the level where the women in this case could prevail in a gender harassment suit. If there are more than a few, a class action civil rights suit is certainly not out of the question here.
If the county fails to quickly and decisively respond to these allegations it would definitely be in a bad position during a trial. If the county is going to have any chance to shield itself from punitive damages, it better get moving on this right now. I hate to see the county take a hit like this, but when employees get out of control like this the victims deserve justice and some compensation for what they had to go through.
I’d like to see Utz personally have to compensate the victims.
Is “irregardless” a word?
Chaunce-no.
C’mon. Here’s someone who has suffered what seems to be gender-based harassment and you’re going to quibble about their word choice in a complaint to HR that was never properly investigated?
I guess there is more information and revelation from the way PWC has been managed. Things like how positions were advertised, re-advertised to suit certain candidate even when HR rejected applicants, how positions were not filled because some one in the department insisted that no one would be their supervisor, especially not a minority or anyone from within the department. Other concerns that was never visited was how senior management positions were created and filled, how the DDS was created and furnishing of offices within this department, etc. It will be interested to look how much involved was the County Executive in the planning and execution of activities in the Department of Public works. Finally, the elimination of Arborist review was done surely to please some developers. Perhaps after July when the New County Executive takes office, this could be revisited too. PWC is a great place to live and work. However, some people have taken the government services as their personal property and have manipulated and rendered it non-serviceable to the people of PWC. Harassment, discrimination and the abuse of power are prevalent within the County Government. Who will fix this? Something to think about…
Lighten up Greg. If you publish something you’ve got to accept a little satirical poke at it. Maybe the reference to Chauncey escaped you.
Never saw the movie, so I had to look this up. Funny.
I know of nine different women who were subjected to this kind of abuse by Utz. He is a monster that has been protected by senior staff for far too long, and Peacor and Griffin knew full well what was going on the entire time.
I don’t understand how Melissa Peacor would go to such lengths to shut down any efforts to fully investigate these allegations when she could have been a victim of this abuse as well.
It’s every bit as legitimate as “gender,” Chauncy. That is to say, not at all.
It’s SEXual harassment, not “gender.” “Gender” is a term of language, frequently misused by the far Left.
Why is it that the far Left approves of any kind of sex except that between a husband and his wife, or for that matter, between a man and a woman?
As I said in another post, I thought the first bid rigging scheme was just the tip of the iceberg. Watch out I think the Titanic is sinking.
Good ridance to both Horton and Gerhardt.
I love the Google ad that is running at the top of this page right now. “Sexual Harassment Class — Presented by the AJ Novick Group — Increase Appropriate Workplace Conduct and Reduce Company Liability — www.sexualharassmentclass.com“
We need to significantly shrink PWC Government and return to the fundamentals: roads, safety and security. We are spending too much time measuring grass height and teaching people to worry about what their neighbors are up to. Our Government has grown bloated providing opportunities for corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse. I’m surprised that a Republican BOCS lead by a tax conservative has supported this growth.
Shrink Government, sell the McCourt Administration Center and other evidence of our growth, and return to the fundamentals. Our BOCS has allowed too many “Kingdoms” do develop and now we are paying the price (both literally and figuratively).
I’m rather proud of our rural character and really don’t want to be like Fairfax. Am I alone in this regard?
do any of you fine individuals out here expect anything less from our public officials?
you have to remember…it’s prince william county!!!….LOLOL
I am a former PWC employee, and I know the complainant in this case. She quickly earned a reputation as a pedantic, dismissive whiner. She alienated herself from colleagues not only within the Planning Department, but from County staff throughout the government organization. Though she was a lower-level staffer with no management or administrative authority whatsoever, she constantly berated others for not doing things correctly (i.e., her way), while she herself failed to follow even the most basic established procedures. She never demonstrated any breadth of knowledge in the planning profession, and exhibited aggressive behaviors toward others as a defense mechanism to cover her incompetence.
Finally: If any of you were to see this woman, none of you would believe that Ray Utz or any other sighted person was making advances toward her. At the time she claims Utz was trying to “move in” with her, he was going through a divorce, and was looking for temporary housing until he bought a place. He asked me about the same thing, and I certainly never once thought that he was coming on to me. The complainant is once again trying to deflect attention from her own incompetence by making false claims against others.
Irregardless - You’ve helped build the case against your friend Ray Utz rather than exonerate him. First, you not only provided your first-hand account of his trying to move in with one of his female subordinates but you added that he also attempted to do the same with you. Whether he was going through a divorce, or uses any other reason, is no excuse. This is intolerable behavior on the part of a supervisor toward his female subordinates and coworkers.
Also, the memo written by the female victim that was posted on Virtucon is very credible and convincing. She sticks to facts and events. Your only arguments were ad hominem attacks against her. You claim that her job performance was poor but you have never been her supervisor and are in no position to make such a judgment. In addition, you make insulting remarks about her physical appearance. Since when is a woman’s appearance an excuse to engage in sexual or gender harassment? Your remarks are sexist and people like you are a big part of the reason that people like Ray Utz get away with their behavior.
All in all, you should have kept your mouth (or your keyboard) quiet. Your post convinces me even more that the woman who wrote the original memo is credible, and that Ray Utz should be fired immediately.
First: I did NOT provide a first-hand account of Utz trying to move in with one of his female subordinates. I could NOT have done that, because I never witnessed such a thing. I was not even aware of the accusation until I read this board.
Second: Contrary to your assertion, Ray Utz was NOT my supervisor; I worked in a different department.
Third: You assert that I was never her supervisor, but I didn’t say that, either. Mmmm… At any rate, many people with whom she interacted observed her lack of skill and knowledge — irrespective of whether they were her supervisor or not. There are many witnesses to her incompetence.
Fourth: I didn’t say that a woman’s physical appearance was an excuse to engage in sexual or gender harassment — nor do I believe that any occurred. I believe she fabricated everything to cover her own incompetence. I wrote that I find preposterous the claim that Ray Utz was coming on to her.
So you are wrong in EVERY characterization you make of my writing. Please read thoroughly before you shoot off your mouth (or your keyboard) again.
Finally: The woman who wrote the memo (very possibly you) is NOT credible.