Former Arizona Senate staffer to get job back, plus $353,000
A former policy adviser to Democratic state senators will not get the $1 million payout a jury recommended in July, when it found lawmakers and staffers discriminated against her based on race and sex and fired her for asking about it.
But Talonya Adams will get more than $353,000 worth of back pay, lost earnings, vacation time and other damages — as well as her job back, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The Senate must reinstate Adams as a policy adviser by Oct. 31, according to the order.
“It’s great to have some finality around this ordeal,” Adams said Thursday, nearly three years after she filed suit against the Arizona Senate.
She had been fired from her position advising the Democratic caucus in February 2015 after learning she was being paid less than some male policy advisers and repeatedly pushing for a raise.
“I sought reinstatement when I first filed the claim, because I did want the option of having my job back and being treated in an equitable and fair manner — economically and otherwise,” said Adams, who is African-American.
“How confident am I that that I will return to a non-hostile, non-retaliatory environment? I suppose we’re going to find out shortly.”
Case involved Katie Hobbs, other key officials
In her lawsuit, Adams argued she was the only policy adviser who hadn’t received a pay raise during her tenure and wasn’t allowed to pick which committee she staffed, among other inequities.
She said those inequities persisted despite Adams being “a strong performer who did not receive any negative criticisms during her employment.”
When Adams emailed Democratic leadership and staffers to discuss her concerns, then-Senate Minority Leader — now Secretary of State — Katie Hobbs called the email “inappropriate,” saying staff members already had addressed the issues Adams was raising.
Adams then requested a raise directly, citing the higher salaries of white men in equivalent positions, and received no response, court records show.
Days later, when Adams had to travel to Seattle to deal with a family medical emergency, Senate staff members instructed her to use annual leave. Adams stayed in touch with supervisors while she was out of state and “performed some of her work duties” while in Seattle, the complaint says, then abruptly found out she’d been “terminated for insubordination and abandonment of her job.”
Hobbs supervised Adams’ boss and was part of the group that decided to fire the policy adviser. Court transcripts show Adams won her case in part by raising doubts about Hobbs’ ability to trust black women. Current Democratic leadership in the Senate has dismissed that idea.
But at an evidentiary hearing held in August, Senate Chief of Staff Wendy Baldo also pointed a finger at Hobbs, testifying that she believed Hobbs and Democratic Chief of Staff Jeff Winkler had discriminated against Adams based on her sex.
At that hearing, Adams and the Senate’s attorney spent hours outlining their arguments regarding reasonable damages.
Jury awards in cases involving intentional employment discrimination are capped based on employer size. The cap is $300,000 for an employer the size of the state of Arizona, so it seemed clear even then Adams would not receive the $1 million award.
But the Senate’s lawyer contended damages should be capped further, at $100,000, because the Senate was Adams’ employer, not the entire state government.
In his Wednesday order, U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes rejected that argument. He also denied Adams’ request for attorneys’ fees and lost retirement fund contributions, writing that she had not put forward enough proof for her calculations of each sum.
He agreed Adams was entitled to 18 months of $38,693 in back pay, $10,000 in lost earnings, and vacation time and interest, for a total award of $353,617.88.
And he ordered the Senate to give her job back to her by the end of the month.
Aaron Latham, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said he could not comment on the ruling Thursday because the terms of Adams’ return were “still being negotiated.”
Adams said she’d “sent opposing counsel an email about the next steps in the process” and was waiting to see “what their first offer is, because I know there have been substantial salary increases in the Senate since the July verdict.”
The Senate did issue raises to staff over the summer, with employees in Adams’ former position given more than the standard 3% increase in pay.
Democratic policy advisers received the largest raises in proportion to previous salaries, with annual pay rising from the range of $50,000 to $74,000 last year to $61,000 to $103,000. But they are still generally paid less than their Republican counterparts.
“The Arizona Senate should be a beacon of what it means to operate in a lawful fashion that is equitable and fair to everyone,” Adams said. “That’s why I felt so strongly about the way I was treated and the way others were treated.”
Hobbs apologizes
Adams received one more form of redress Friday: a public apology from Hobbs.
Hobbs began her statement by saying the “fight for equality is something I think about every day.”
“I have long recognized the inequities that women and people of color face, and because of that I should have been a stronger ally in this instance,” Hobbs continued. “I apologize to Ms. Adams.”