Hobbs’ trust in black women was questioned
A former legislative adviser who won a $1 million discrimination lawsuit against the Arizona Senate in July did so in part by raising doubts about thenMinority Leader Katie Hobbs’ ability to trust black women, court transcripts show.
Talonya Adams, who is African American, lost her position advising the Senate’s Democratic caucus in February 2015, shortly after she learned she was being paid less than some male policy advisers and asked leadership to boost her compensation.
She was fired while out of town handling a family medical emergency, according to court records.
Hobbs, who currently serves as Arizona secretary of state, supervised Ad
ams’ boss and was part of the group that decided to fire Adams. Transcripts show Hobbs testified July 11 that Adams had repeatedly complained about her pay and benefits and looped in lawmakers and staff beyond her supervisors, implying the policy adviser had been insubordinate.
Hobbs also said she and other leadership felt Adams had abandoned her job after she left for Seattle to take care of her son during his medical emergency. Adams didn’t give sufficient notice before failing to show up or hand off pending projects, Hobbs said.
“I think we all agreed that we had lost trust and confidence in Ms. Adams, and that was why that decision (to fire her) was made,” Hobbs said.
Adams, who represented herself in court, asked Hobbs if she had “a hard time trusting African-American women” in general.
“Absolutely not,” Hobbs responded.
“Are there African-American women that you trust?” Adams said. “Yes,” Hobbs replied. “Are there African-American women in your administration (the Secretary of State’s Office)?” Adams continued.
“Yes, there are,” Hobbs said, though she faltered when asked to list their names. She said she’d been “put … on the spot.”
Hobbs confirmed she hadn’t personally hired any of the women.
Adams, who insisted she’d alerted leadership to her family emergency and called the office the first morning she missed work, also drew a parallel between Hobbs’ role in her firing and Hobbs’ part in ousting former Senate Minority Leader Leah Landrum Taylor.
Hobbs testified that Landrum Taylor — a Phoenix Democrat and the first black woman to lead the Senate’s Democratic caucus — was removed from her leadership position in 2013 because she’d “misled the caucus on a really important issue.”
Hobbs indicated she’d supported the removal because Landrum Taylor had misrepresented the caucus’ intentions in conversations with Republican leadership, and senators could no longer trust her to accurately convey their wishes.
Landrum Taylor felt she’d been discriminated against, according to testimony from Sen. David Bradley, D-Tucson.
Current Democratic leader defends Hobbs
At an evidentiary hearing held Wednesday to determine whether the state should award Adams further damages, Senate Chief of Staff Wendy Baldo also pointed the finger at Hobbs.
Pressed on the stand, Baldo said she did not believe Hobbs and Democratic Chief of Staff Jeff Winkler, Adams’ former boss, had discriminated based on race. She said she thought they had discriminated against Adams based on sex, however.
Baldo was involved in the personnel conversations that led up to Adams’ firing. But she said Wednesday she’d come to the discrimination conclusion only after the July trial, which presented details previously unknown to her.
Baldo said neither Winkler nor herself was disciplined in any way after the jury ruled against the Senate in July.
Bradley, the current minority leader in the Senate, issued a statement Wednesday challenging Baldo’s testimony, saying her claims were “patently false.”
“Ms. Baldo was involved in this personnel matter every step of the way,” he said. “In fact, she and the President of the Senate are the only people in the building who have the power to hire or fire Senate employees, and determine salaries.”
During the trial, Bradley had testified that despite informally serving as the Senate Democrats’ liaison on personnel issues at the time of Adams’ firing, he didn’t learn of her dismissal until after she’d been let go.
“This lawsuit is a direct result of years of inadequate personnel practices at the Senate, including direct orders from Ms. Baldo that ban employee evaluations,” he said in Wednesday’s statement.
“In that void of documentation, any termination leaves itself open to claims of discrimination.”
He said Senate Democrats “are committed to a non-discriminatory workplace environment and always have been.”
Neither Hobbs nor Baldo responded to requests for further comment Wednesday.
Damages still being finalized
Adams first learned she was paid less than certain policy advisers from a media report detailing the salaries of public employees.
“Although the job responsibilities were the same, Plaintiff had a heavier workload and the more challenging committee assignments,” she wrote in her legal complaint.
Adams said she was the only policy adviser who didn’t receive a pay raise during her tenure and wasn’t allowed to pick which committee she staffed. Court transcripts also mention differences in vacation-accrual rates.
Inequities persisted despite Adams being “a strong performer who did not receive any negative criticisms during her employment,“according to the lawsuit.
Hobbs disputed that on the witness stand, saying Adams’ professionalism had faltered after she didn’t get another Senate job she’d sought, but Bradley and others testified that they hadn’t had any problems with Adams.
In February 2015, days after Adams had raised the pay issue, she left for Seattle.
In court filings and on the stand, she said she’d stayed in touch with supervisors while she was out of state and worked on what she could while out of town. She said she then abruptly found out she’d been “terminated for insubordination and abandonment of her job.”
A Senate lawyer argued it wasn’t appropriate to compare the compensation of Adams, a Democratic policy adviser, with that of Republican policy advisers even if they had the same job title and responsibilities because “the majority caucus pays differently than the minority caucus.”
The jury in Adams’ trial disagreed, finding in favor of Adams on all counts and awarding her $1 million in compensatory damages. A judge will determine how much of that she’ll actually receive, given caps on lawsuits filed under the federal statute that prohibits discrimination based on protected classes.
Adams also has requested reimbursement for about $34,000 in wages lost prior to her firing, about $81,000 in wages lost post-termination and about $68,000 in accrued vacation and sick time, among other damages.
The judge is expected to issue a ruling after Aug. 31.