County mulls how to handle harassment complaints against commissioners

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Sam Morris

Clark County commissioner Chris Giunchigliani talks to other commissioners Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 during a meeting of the Clark County Commission.

Tue, Mar 20, 2018 (6:20 p.m.)

Commissioners are discussing updates and expansions to Clark County’s sexual harassment policy, with a possible vote next month.

The county on Tuesday reviewed a comprehensive policy on harassment at the request of Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani. She said one of the proposed changes gives people a process for filing complaints against commissioners.

“There currently isn’t anything other than maybe just going to the county manager, which isn’t necessarily appropriate,” Giunchigliani said.

Giunchigliani said the county recently received an anonymous letter of complaint against Clark County public defender Phil Kohn. She said she hopes the new policy gives people like the anonymous letter writer a starting point as well as the paperwork and guidelines for how to file a complaint.

“If we maybe had a policy in place, whoever was alleging could have gone through a process and not had to go through just sending out an anonymous letter and hoping we’ll respond to it,” Giunchigliani said.

Some commissioners raised concerns on Tuesday about ensuring confidentiality and sufficient punishment for violating the policy. Commissioner Lawrence Weekly said an example has to be made in order to discourage similar behavior.

Clark County does lay out some processes for people to file harassment complaints. Giunchigliani said the new policy centralizes the two or three references to harassment complaints that currently exist, and gives people more options for handling complaints to avoid conflicts of interest.

Human Resources Director Sandy Jeantete said all complaints made with the office of diversity are investigated. Punishments for violations could be as severe as termination of employment. Staff can bring grievances to supervisors and managers, who are trained to report these complaints to the office of diversity. Employees can also go directly to the office of diversity.

People can file complaints with the office of diversity, the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, or the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission. Officials say the office of diversity will cooperate but not conduct its own investigation if complaints are filed with NERC or the EEOC, who take over jurisdiction in these cases.

“When we do get an inquiry from an employee, we certainly encourage employees to file with the office of diversity,” Jeantete said. “As an organization, we take these types of allegations seriously and we want to address them as soon as possible.”

The county is getting input from employees and other groups and could vote on the policy in April.

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