Report clears Simi mayor, two council members of racial allegations made by Latina council member

© MIKE HARRIS/THE STAR Simi council

An investigation has cleared Simi Valley Mayor Keith Mashburn and two other City Council members of allegations made by fellow council member Ruth Luevanos that they subjected her to a hostile work environment because of her race.

The allegations were made in a human resources complaint that Luevanos, the first Latina elected to the council, filed with the city in September.

The complaint stemmed largely from remarks that Mashburn and council members Mike Judge and Dee Dee Cavanaugh made to Luevanos last year on the dais or allegedly in closed session. The fifth and final council member, Elaine Litster, was not named in the complaint.

An investigation by a private attorney retained by the city to probe the allegations was not able to substantiate that any of the remarks were motivated by race. 

A report detailing the findings of the investigation by attorney Irma Rodriguez Moisa, with the Cerritos law firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Rudd & Romo, was made public Thursday.

Mashburn, Judge and Cavanaugh, all of whom were interviewed as part of the investigation, said Monday they feel vindicated by the report.

“There’s not a racist bone in my body,” Mashburn said.

Luevanos, a first-term council member elected in 2018, said that despite the report being released, she still considers her complaint “a confidential HR matter that would not be appropriate to discuss publicly.”

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Report’s findings

Based on an interview with Luevanos, Moisa examined whether various conduct by Judge, Mashburn and Cavanaugh had been directed at Luevanos because she is a Latina.

For instance, Moisa looked into two remarks Judge made to Luevanos during a heated City Council meeting Aug. 12.

The meeting was held during a controversy that had erupted over a video Luevanos had made in her City Hall office advising immigrants of their legal rights prior to nationwide raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The video was posted on Luevanos’ City Council Facebook page July 13.

In a remark directed at Luevanos at the Aug. 12 meeting, Judge said “lies” had been “perpetuated from the dais” about alleged ICE raids at the Simi Valley Vallarta Supermarket.

Luevanos said at the council’s July 29 meeting that there had been ICE raids at the supermarket.

Judge, who looked into Luevanos’ assertion, said there were no such raids.

Also at the council’s Aug. 12 meeting, after Luevanos said she had been receiving death threats, Judge said, “these are things you brought upon yourself.”

In her report, Moisa wrote, “the issue … therefore, is whether Mr. Judge was motivated to make these statements based on Ms. Luevanos’ gender and/or race or because she is a Latina woman.

“The investigator (Moisa) finds that Mr. Judge’s comments were not motivated by her gender and/or race,” she wrote.

Even so, Moisa found that Judge’s comment that Luevanos had brought the death threats upon herself was “cavalier and insensitive.”

Luevanos also told Moisa about an incident that followed a closed City Council session Aug. 26 in the council’s conference room, according to the report. A comment was made about an unnamed council member perhaps having to recuse oneself from a hearing, the report says.

Luevanos said Judge then got up out of his chair, leaned over a table toward her and angrily said in a “threatening and intimidating” manner, “Are you calling me unethical?” the report says.

“The investigator … finds that Mr. Judge’s conduct was not motivated by Ms. Luevanos’ race and/or gender as she (Moisa) credits his explanation for his stern response as he believed she was accusing him of being unethical,” the report states. 

Luevanos alleged Mashburn made an insensitive use of the word “lynch” during a closed council session in September and that “the only person Luevanos could imagine that the comment would be aimed at was herself,” the report says.

“Ms. Luevanos was appalled because she had been threatened with lynching,” Moisa’s report says. 

Luevanos said Mashburn’s remark was sparked by an agenda item where one of the names in a report was Lynch, Moisa wrote.

Mashburn and other council members did not recall any report with the name Lynch in it or where the word “lynch” was discussed, Moisa wrote.

But City Attorney Lonnie Eldridge recently located a report which had been provided to the council at the Sept. 9 closed session with a reference to “Lynch Syndrome,” according to Moisa’s report

Even so, Moisa said there was a “lack of corroboration for this allegation, (and thus) the investigator does not sustain it.”

Luevanos alleged Cavanaugh made two comments she believes were directed at her because she’s a Latina, the report says.

Luevanos said that at the end of a June 17 City Council meeting, Cavanaugh turned to her and said she had problems understanding her because her accent was so thick. Cavanaugh told Moisa the remark was made in a hallway after the meeting regarding Luevanos’ pronunciation of street names, the report says.

Moisa concluded Cavanaugh’s remark to Luevanos “was not motivated by racial bias.”

Luevanos also alleged that at the end of the Sept. 9 council meeting, Cavanaugh “turned to Ms. Luevanos and said with a very mean face, ‘You’re so stubborn,'” according to Moisa’s report.

The alleged remark was made following a contentious debate about possibly censuring Luevanos stemming from the video controversy, the report notes.

Luevanos “felt it was a stereotype of Latinos; you’re a stubborn people,” the report says.

Cavanaugh told Moisa she did call Luevanos a “stubborn woman,” but did so off the record, according to the report.

Cavanaugh said she made the remark after the council, rather than censuring Luevanos, adopted a formal statement that council members adhere to its Code of Ethics. Luevanos cast the lone dissenting vote.

Moisa concluded Cavanaugh “did not make the statement as a stereotype,” but out of “respect for the strength of Ms. Luevanos’ convictions and unwillingness to compromise.”

‘Completely vindicated’

Judge said Monday he feels “completely vindicated” by Moisa’s findings.

Moisa’s report “just goes to emphasize the point I’ve been making since the incident about Vallarta,” he said. “This woman (Luevanos) has zero integrity. She lacks all ethics. She couldn’t tell the truth if her life depended on it.

“And she should resign from the City Council and pay back the $50,000 it cost taxpayers to fund this worthless investigation.”

Mashburn too said Luevanos should pay for the cost of the investigation.

“You have someone (Luevanos) who loves playing the victim, yet she creates victims,” he said. “And in this case, I was the victim, in my opinion.

“I went several months not knowing what the charges were, just knowing that there was some kind of complaint against me,” he said. “And myself and my family had to suffer through that only to be exonerated after a six-month investigation, which was totally unnecessary.”

Cavanaugh said she’s glad “the investigation has been completed and that it confirmed my belief that the allegations were not true.”

She too said she’s “concerned with the amount of taxpayers’ money that was spent which could have been better used elsewhere.”

Mike Harris covers the East County cities of Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, as well as transportation countywide. You can contact him at mike.harris@vcstar.com or 805-437-0323.

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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Report clears Simi mayor, two council members of racial allegations made by Latina council member