Litigation
Aug. 31, 2016
Former staffer sues state Assembly for retaliation
The suit could shine a light on political activities by legislative employees.
Daily Journal Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO — A former legislative staffer has sued the State Assembly for retaliation and discrimination.
The suit could shine a light on political activities by legislative employees. Koszka v. California State Assembly, 00199407 (Sac. Super. Ct. filed Aug. 25, 2016).
The complaint alleges that legislative staffers are under pressure to volunteer for political campaigns and are compensated with time off from their regular duties.
It is one of a pair of lawsuits, filed by the same attorney, raising the issue of employees of the state Legislature being required to do campaign work.
Christian Koszka worked for the Assembly Republican Caucus from 2007 until being laid off in February 2015.
He alleges three years of harassment involving "anger and hostility" from a supervisor, a disability claim due to workplace anxiety, and duty changes and other punishments for speaking out about illegally campaigning and other activities.
The complaint states the plaintiff was told by a supervisor in 2012 that "staff members were required to work without pay and off the clock, to assist in candidate elections."
He also claims staff were required to "work five days," "hours were being tracked" and "comp time" would be given "under the table."
"State law does prohibit working on election campaigns during paid state time," said Scott Hallabrin, chief counsel with the Assembly Legislative Ethics Committee, but he added that there is a "minimal use of state resources" exception.
Hallabrin is the main instructor of the part-day ethics training class that Assembly members and staff must take during each two-year session.
"The courts have never defined at what point it is no longer 'minimal,'" Hallabrin said. "We advise that if it's more than just a couple minutes on campaign issues, then it really needs to be moved outside the workplace."
The suit is the third that attorney Mary-Alice Coleman has filed against the Legislature.
The founder and principal of the Law Offices of Mary Coleman PC in Davis said staff usually don't object to improper campaigning or other inappropriate behavior by supervisors because they lack union representation and aren't covered by the California Whistleblower Protection Act.
"Folks who work for the California Legislature don't have basic legal protections that other government employees have," Coleman said. "Many laws regarding liability and accountability have been imposed by the Legislature on the executive and judicial branches of California government but not upon the Legislature itself."
She said campaign-related conversations cited in the suit regularly took place inside a legislative office building across the street from the Capitol and employees openly said they were taking comp days related to the election.
Coleman said the suit met the six-month deadline for a general whistleblower protection in California legal code that legislative staff are allowed to utilize which states employers "shall not retaliate against an employee for refusing to participate in an activity that would result in a violation of state or federal statute."
She said she is set to go to trial on Nov. 14 in another case, Miller v. California State Senate, 00170071 (Sac. Super. Ct. filed Oct. 10, 2014).
Her plaintiff, Douglas Miller, alleges he was fired from a state Senate job in 2013 for complaints including campaign activities in a district office and being told to do campaign work during business hours using a state car.
Calls to the Legislative Counsel's office and to a defense attorney in the Miller case were not returned as of press time.
A bill that would have extended whistleblower protection to legislative employees, AB 1788, died in the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this month after an analysis warned of "cost pressures."
Similar bills died in Senate Appropriations in 2015 and 2014.
malcolm_maclachlan@dailyjournal.com
Malcolm Maclachlan
malcolm_maclachlan@dailyjournal.com
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