Brooks sued by ex-aide — claim of abuse
Official accused of getting cash from market
Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks ordered an aide to collect money from vendors of a farmers’ market she helped establish and deliver the cash payments directly to her and her sister’s boyfriend with no proper accounting, a new lawsuit claims.
The complaint filed Monday in Alameda County Superior Court by ex-staff member Sidney Wilson also alleges that Brooks verbally and physically abused Wilson throughout his tenure in her office, from July 2016 until he resigned in October 2017.
“Where is the money bag? Make sure you drop at my house no later than 3:30 today,” Brooks texted Wilson in August 2017, according to the complaint. Screenshots of text messages were included as exhibits.
Dan Siegel, an attorney for Brooks, called the suit “complete garbage.”
It’s unclear what, if anything, Brooks did with the proceeds from the Millsmont Farmers’ Market, which was supposed to be run solely by a nonprofit — not city officials or their staff — according to the City Council resolution that created the event.
But Brooks had long been involved in the farmers’ market. She said in a Facebook post in June that it would cease operations because “it has required a significant amount of work by my staff and myself.”
“Not enough people attended to make the market profitable for the farmers, competition from other year-round farmers markets and the need for far more resources to enable the Millsmont Farmers Market to continue,” she wrote in the Facebook post.
Wilson raised concerns about the legality of his managing the farmers’ market —
rather than the director of the nonprofit — and giving the vendors’ cash to Brooks and her sister’s boyfriend, according to the suit. When he tried to discuss the matter with Brooks, she released a “barrage of toxic hostility, including cursing, criticisms and personal attacks,” the suit claims.
Wilson named the city as a defendant alongside Brooks, alleging that officials in the human resources department failed to protect him — or discipline Brooks — after he alerted them to the council member’s abuse and his six-day workweek.
A member of human resources, Kip Walsh, told Wilson that “his options were to get fired and seek other employment, or to transfer,” the suit said.
Alex Katz, spokesman for the city attorney, said Tuesday he could not comment because the city had not been served with the complaint or reviewed the allegations.
The complaint describes a string of alleged tirades, threats and assaults by Brooks. It claims that Wilson, hired as a legislative aide, became a “go-fetch-it boy” for Brooks, bringing her takeout food and doing personal errands for her. She chewed him out in public and in front of his family, regularly shoved him around, and once made him wait outside in the rain for a school tour to arrive at City Hall, the complaint said.
When Wilson reported incidents to the human resources department, the suit says, Brooks began an intimidation campaign.
“If you tell anyone what goes on in my office, you will regret it!” she told Wilson during a phone call, according to the suit.
The allegations are the latest case involving Brooks, who was first elected to the City Council in 2002 and is facing four challengers this November hoping to unseat her.
Her 2015 physical altercation with former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown, then 72, cost the city $2.2 million. Charles Bonner, the lawyer who represented Brown in the lawsuit against the city — which accused Brooks of elder abuse — is now representing Wilson.
This month, Brooks filed a claim against the city, saying the city attorney’s office failed to adequately represent her in the Elaine Brown case.
Brooks has also drawn criticism recently from city and budget watchdogs for trying to divert a portion of public works funds to private job training centers.
Wilson’s suit asks for $3 million in punitive damages from Brooks, in addition to compensatory damages and other remedies.