Harassment allegations force Salinas to revise rules for City Council

The city of Salinas is taking a hard look at updating rules for city council members’ behavior, specifically harassment. Mayor Joe Gunter thinks it’s about time council members go through harassment training, according to city council.

This discussion emanated after several allegations and potential lawsuits against council members and now one long-time city council member is saying she doesn’t want taxpayers footing the bill anymore.

“Do taxpayers have to pay for that bad behavior? Absolutely not, no that’s not fair,” said Jyl Lutes, who has been on the council for 16 years. “Coming from a school teacher you can see, that’s something in my world, you break a rule and there are consequences.”

Harsher consequences could be handed down as Salinas City Attorney Chris Callihan gets to work on updating the rules of decorum, a set of guidelines city council members have to follow.

“There have been issues, according to some council members, with the interaction between the council and members of city staff and so we’re looking at how we can revise the existing rules to address those concerns,” Callihan said.

The most recent harassment settlement came with a $400,000 price tag. The deal was made out of court and it concerned three council members and former city librarian Elizabeth Martinez.

Lutes said it’s time to change the rules in a big way.

“We say look you harassed an employee, you were creating a hostile work environment, you go ahead and you deal with that lawsuit on your own,” Lutes said who is a part of a committee working on that.

Meanwhile, she said she’s on board with Gunter’s idea for harassment training.

“We have to teach City Council members what is harassment, what is a hostile working environment,” she said. “If you violate those two rules then we’re not going to defend you, the taxpayers of Salinas should not defend you.”

Callihan said the City Council directed him to have a revised set of rules by the end of March.