By Count Friedrich von Olsen
The already absurd pasquinade of governance in Adelanto has now descended into buffoonery, with what appear to be competing charges of sexual harassment having been trotted out against both the mayor and the city manager…
In August, when Gabriel Elliott was brought in as Adelanto’s fifth actual or acting city manager in two-and-a-half years, Mayor Rich Kerr was all for the new arrangement. Only two months later, Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Kerr were apparently on the outs, or most certainly headed that way. That Adelanto is going though city managers only slightly less frequently than the average American changes coffee filters is a function, no doubt, of the upheaval that is accompanying the city’s move, in accordance with what might be arguably asserted is a larger societal shift, to make the production and sale of marijuana a central component of that city’s economy. Reasonable individuals can certainly disagree not only with regard to the wisdom of such an approach but the actual implementation of the policies and regulations accompanying it. Thus, the departure or replacement of a city manager or maybe even two in the meantime might have been expected. What is at this point clear, however, is that the breakneck intensity with which some strong personalities on the city council want to transform Adelanto into the Cannabis Capitol of the Western World does not match up with the vision, wisdom and advice of not just one or two but several professionals functioning within the norms of municipal governance. The reason for this urgency, or so the city officials consumed with the messianic zeal to make Adelanto so quintessentially marijuana-friendly contend, is the city’s dire financial state, which they reckon can only be adequately cured through capturing an advantage position in the now manifesting marijuana boom. But for some time a number of people have suspected that it is not just the city’s financial health that the marijuana crusaders are so concerned about. Rather, some aver, the true motivation is venality and greed, and that those pushing Adelanto toward a cannabis economy are looking to get in on a piece of the action themselves. Those suspicions were at least partially confirmed when Adelanto City Councilman Jermaine Wright was arrested by the FBI and charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with, among other things, receiving a bribe in exchange for using his authority in making arrangements to facilitate an undercover FBI agent’s putative marijuana distribution operation in Adelanto…
If we count, perhaps prematurely, Mr. Elliott as being the fifth city manager trampled in this mad marijuana stampede, the number of direct casualties of this sordid chapter of Adelanto’s history runs to at least 12, including the five city managers, Wright, three former city attorneys and at least three city employees who were perceived as obstructionists and were handed their walking papers on some pretext or other…
It appears that the pretext selected by Mayor Kerr to get rid of Mr. Elliott was the issue-de-jure, sexual harassment, a fixation recurrent within the national media of late. Not terribly imaginative, if you ask me, and perhaps too predictable. But such accusations were made. One of Mr. Elliott’s accusers alleges that over her protests Mr. Elliott prevailed upon her to accompany him to his home in Rancho Cucamonga following a civic event in that city in September. Mr. Elliott held her by the arm, she claimed. She managed to leave, she maintains, after Mr. Elliott discovered his son was present in the home. Mr. Elliott subsequently made inappropriate comments to her while she was in his office during a discussion of a sexual harassment investigation involving another employee, she said, and Mr. Elliott sent her texts inviting her to go dancing with him. A former intern in the city’s finance department alleges she accompanied the city manager to lunch on one occasion so she could air her complaint about a co-worker and that Mr. Elliott repeatedly asked her to lunch thereafter, all of which she refused, and that she was subsequently terminated. Another woman, a secretary in the city manager’s office, maintained that Mr. Elliott attempted to kiss her while she was telling him about her mistreatment by the city clerk…
On December 20, the city council met in closed session and, without any announcement, put Mr. Elliott on administrative leave as a result of the complaints. The following day, December 21, another Adelanto intern, one learning the ropes in the city’s animal control and code enforcement divisions, came forward with charges that Mayor Kerr has been pressuring her inappropriately, making her uncomfortable in her work environment, and creating an air of intimidation in which she was afraid to say “No.” Mr. Kerr sent her text messages on her private phone, the number for which he reportedly obtained by improperly accessing her confidential file at City Hall, according to the complaint. It is also alleged the mayor provided her with an unsolicited gift, put both hands on her shoulders, and at one point stroked her neck…
News Flash!!! Men chase women!!! Alert!!! Alert!!!
I know, all of this is different from simple man-woman stuff because it happened, or is alleged to have happened, in the work environment and was perpetrated, or allegedly perpetrated, by someone in authority over those subjected to these unwanted advances, and those so approached were put in a position where their jobs may have been on the line if they did not submit to those advances. I get that. But, did what was said to have happened really occur? Or are the allegations against the city manager falsified claims of someone being pressured by the mayor to assist him in his effort to discredit the city manager? And is the claim against the mayor bona fide? Or is it something concocted by the city manager to strike back at the mayor? In this supersensitive atmosphere in which any man at any level, even internally, acknowledging that a woman is attractive is now considered to have behaved impermissibly, it is very difficult to discern…