Down and Dirty

(Nov. 19, 2009) A lawsuit was filed last week. It alleged, among other things, that Eureka City Manager Dave Tyson sexually propositioned a former employee of the Eureka Police Department while she was still in the city’s employ. It alleged, further, that Tyson had touched the employee “in a suggestive manner.” It alleged, further and somewhat murkily, that Tyson had told this employee about “his potential sexual encounter with an elected Eureka official.”

A press release was issued on Tuesday. In it, the city of Eureka wrote that the “salacious, sexual” claims made in the lawsuit were total hokum, and that Tyson adamantly denies them. “We are confident that the claims against Mr. Tyson and the City will be thrown out,” the city maintained.

The roots of the present suit go back to the hiring of current EPD Chief Garr Nielsen in the spring of 2007. Shortly after Nielsen took over the post, a faction of the department took against him violently. They began spreading word that Nielsen, a married man, was having an extramarital and intradepartmental affair with a police dispatcher named Tawnie Hansen, a married woman and the person now bringing suit against Tyson and the city of Eureka.

Both Nielsen and Hansen (through her attorney) denied that they were having an affair. They said that they were friends, and that Hansen’s husband was friends with the chief as well. To underscore the point, Hansen brought an earlier suit against another EPD employee for spreading the rumor, and that now-former employee — DeeDee Wilson — settled the case for $10,000.

Now, standing on the outside we civilians have no way of knowing what the absolute facts are in either of these interlinked cases. When we recreate the scene on our desks and kitchen tables, as I encourage you to do, there are no instructions that tell us to insert Tab A into Slot B, or etc. We have to muddle through, and we will never have 100 percent certainty that we will have it right.

It seems to me that these two cases merely present the informed public with a range of questions that, though unanswerable, help us to understand how city government works. Is everyone in Eureka City Hall doing it up, down and sideways 24 hours a day, in every conceivable combination, as if it were the last days of the Roman Empire? Or does everyone just imagine that everyone except them is getting loads of action, resulting in a funky yellow stew of rage inside Fifth and K? Or are both things true, to one degree or another?

One of the above scenarios must be the case. None of them point to what you might call a healthy work environment. The city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars investigating claims resulting from the sex-crazed atmosphere at the EPD, and now will spend scads more defending the suit brought by Hansen, whose underlying claim is that Tyson and the city purposefully slow-played the investigation into her claims of harassment in the workplace because Tyson’s alleged sexual advances were rebuffed. She is asking for $1.4 million in compensatory damages from the city, and an untold sum in punitive damages. This, too, isn’t going away cheaply.

So the taxpayers of Eureka are being asked to subsidize either the saucy fantasies or the saucy facts of their public servants. Our suspicion — confirmed by the million little whispers that reach our ears from time to time — is that this has gone on far too long. A call to a former City Hall employee who fled a few years ago basically confirmed this suspicion.

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13 Comments

Comment / By Thirdeye / Nov. 19, 2009, 2:37 p.m.

“There’s too much free time, I think, and they’re unattractive to anybody but each other.”

ouch

Sex tourism hot spots: southeast Asia, the Philippines, Tijuana, and….Ferndale?

Comment / By Mr. Big / Nov. 19, 2009, 5:44 p.m.

BTW, I heard the Dandy’s “secret source” is Rob Amerman.

Comment / By unanonymous / Nov. 19, 2009, 7:15 p.m.

nice, and I thought the term alternative tabloid referred to the page size.

what we do know is that the only allegations of sexual impropriety that have been settled, ended in the person who alleged such sexual acts paying $10,000 for slander. yet hank, uses his xtube honed logic to conclude that all city employees are engaging in a “sex-mad culture” orgasmithon.

of course, hanks brain was too drained of blood from reading the complaint to realize that a statement like: “There’s too much free time, I think, and they’re unattractive to anybody but each other” might come from a disgruntled employee.

also, I know you are an alternative publication and don’t really consider yourself an actual journalist but: “Our suspicion — confirmed by the million little whispers that reach our ears from time to time — is that this has gone on far too long.” source please? really, a whole million? gee is this satire….is any of this true, are there real sources or is it Bob Dorans wife again.

Comment / By Lineout / Nov. 20, 2009, 7 a.m.

As a City employee being lumped into a disgruntled ex employee’s characteerization of us being ugly and having too much time on our hands is very offensive.

I work very hard at my chosen professsion and often work many hours of unpaid overtime when deadlines are looming.

As far as intra office affairs, I know of none with the exception of what is being alleged in the suit. Mr. Sims, I would use more caution when printing quotes that alledge such unsubstaintiated behavior.

I’m perplexed at your jounalistic motivation for this story. Could you possibly explain why you cast such a wide ugly net over our place of employment? Would it not be more professional to garner other sources?

Comment / By Agree with line / Nov. 20, 2009, 5:28 p.m.

That was about the vilest piece of yellow journalism I’ve ever seen in the Journal.

Allegations and innuendo, along with not so clever worldplay, but quite short on facts.

Weak Hank. Very Weak. In fact, if I hadn’t read it in the pages of the Journal, and knew for a fact the above the law blog was defunct, I’d of sworn it came from that there, trashy as was.

Of course the names would’ve been changed to slam Garr and not Dave, but…there ya go.

Comment / By IN THE KNOW / Nov. 20, 2009, 9:10 p.m.

As a long time City employee just recently retired I’ll say that your article is nonsense. The vast majority of City employees respect that they work for the public, and strive to ensure that the public gets its moneys worth. No one has any time to slip into the coat room or whatever. How long did you spend researching and writing that drivel, ten minutes?

Comment / By Lipton / Nov. 22, 2009, 8:01 a.m.

“…or is it Bob Dorans wife again.”

Unanonimous is obsessed. He should come out of the closet — teabags and all.

Comment / By Agree with line / Nov. 22, 2009, 5:04 p.m.

Ahh, poor Lipton, no good response, so just an insult heraldo’d, I mean hurled un’s way.

So, Lipton doesn’t think what Bob Doran and his wife did (or more importantly didnt do) journalistically was a big deal?

You must be Joel Meilke.

Comment / By Agree with line / Nov. 22, 2009, 5:05 p.m.

Ahh, poor Lipton, no good response, so just an insult heraldo’d, I mean hurled un’s way.

So, Lipton doesn’t think what Bob Doran and his wife did (or more importantly didnt do) journalistically was a big deal?

You must be Joel Meilke.

Comment / By Earl Gray / Nov. 24, 2009, 8:02 a.m.

As Unanonymous continues to suckle his righteous anger, his anonymous ally guesses the identity of an anonymous commenter. What a team!

Comment / By unanonymous / Nov. 24, 2009, 8:34 a.m.

quite fitting for a gossip story with anonymous source. singular use intended.

Comment / By Hank Sims / Nov. 24, 2009, 8:45 a.m.

Single source? You don’t count the legal record?

Comment / By unanonymous / Nov. 24, 2009, 11:04 a.m.

excuse me, allegations and anonymous source.

it would appear that the sexual harassment charge is secondary to the adverse performance of the city manager in investigating the actions of wilson and therefore city of eureka by her supervisory position and alleged collaboration with other managers. the charge of a rebuffed sexual advance is disclosed to show motivation for the inaction of tyson.

regardless, I agree the epd appears to have a large problem with several harassment suits filed by female employees. but wouldn’t that “funky yellow stew of rage” or ‘up and down sideways’ stuff more likely to occur at the epd building on 6th and C streets where they work and events are alleged to have occurred?