Sexual harassment and the city: Sacramento, home of ‘world class’ sleaze

There've been two high-profile sexual-harassment claims against city officials this year. The latest was filed last Friday. In the claim, a former Allen Warren aide alleges that the council member used his position of power to “coerce” sexual favors. It says Warren grabbed her buttocks in public view. It says that she and Warren went on sexual escapades to Jamaica. And it says Warren threatened to fire her if she tried to end the relationship.

The relationship began in August 2013, she says, and the accuser was eventually fired on June 23.

On one of their trips, a cabin excursion in Oroville, the claim says that the married council member was shooting off a gun and, later, threatened the accuser. She claims that Warren stated he could have “done anything to her without anyone knowing” at the cabin. That's horrifying.

And even more terrifying is that, according to the former employee, the city failed to respond to her complaints about Warren.

The city similarly ignored complaints about Kevin Johnson last year, when an accuser said she was sexually harassed repeatedly by the mayor, but that the city wouldn't do anything about it. That accuser eventually filed a claim with the city as well, in May, but is not pursuing civil litigation against Johnson.

So many patterns here: alleged brazen and revolting sexual advances and harassment by the city's most powerful, compounded by inaction.

It's unacceptable—yet it keeps happening.

A previous version of this story misreported the date when the alleged sexual harassment began.