What's at stake?
City Hall loses $1.2 million and a veteran city attorney with two decades of experience in downtown Fresno.
Fresno City Hall settled a whistleblower and workplace retaliation claim Friday and agreed to pay a former employee $1.2 million with no admission of fault for the city.
The Fresno City Council issued a lengthy statement after business hours on Friday, saying that, despite the hefty payout, City Hall continues to dispute that City Attorney Andrew Janz violated any laws.
In an unusual move, the outgoing employee, Tina Griffin, who worked at the city attorney’s office for 20 years before her dispute with Janz, issued a statement as part of the city’s news release on the settlement.
“The investigation conducted by the independent investigator substantiated my allegations of the facts that occurred after I gave my legal opinion and found that my legal opinion contributed to Mr. Janz’s actions towards me,” Griffin said in the statement.
According to city records and statements released Friday night, the confrontation between Griffin and Janz sparked in mid-December last year when Griffin provided a legal analysis of a proposed change to the city’s Transparency Act that questioned whether Janz had a conflict of interest and should not have signed off on the change and suggested the proposed changes violated state law.
That analysis, she said, triggered what she described as retaliation from Janz.
“I believe the City Attorney immediately engaged in a series of unlawful adverse actions against me for being a whistleblower, including removing authority from me and taking steps to terminate me,” Griffin said. “He did not ultimately terminate me.”
That same month, Griffin said she fought back.
“I filed a confidential complaint with Council and the Personnel Director, alleging, among other claims, the City Attorney unlawfully retaliated against me for whistleblowing activity,” Giffin said in the statement released Friday by City Hall. “I later filed a Government Tort claim, which the City has not yet investigated, which included allegations of further retaliation by the City Attorney against me since the filing of my December 19th complaint. As part of this settlement, I have agreed to withdraw this claim.”
Fresnoland filed a public records request for the whistleblower complaint in late June.
City records show the council on Dec. 18, one day before Griffin filed her complaint, tabled discussion around a proposed change to the city’s transparency act related to reporting how much top city leaders — including Janz — get paid.
Griffin and the city say it was her decision to cut ties with City Hall.
“Although I was encouraged to remain employed in my current role at the City, it is in my best interest to separate from City services under the conditions set forth in the settlement agreement given the existing circumstances and to avoid the expenses and burdens of litigating this matter,” she said.
In their own unsigned statement, Fresno city leaders also confirmed the investigation revealed evidence that Janz’s actions were related to Griffin’s legal analysis.
“The independent investigator obtained facts and evidence that are sufficient to substantiate Ms. Griffin’s allegations of the facts in the timing and sequence of events that occurred after Ms. Griffin’s legal opinion was provided, and that her legal opinion regarding the matter was a contributing factor for Mr. Janz’s actions towards herm” city leaders said in the news release.
“This is a “no fault” settlement and the City denies that the dispute, and Mr. Janz’s actions violated any laws.”
Despite including a prepared statement from Griffin, the city provided no comments attributed to Janz.
