Inglewood’s elected treasurer has filed a $10 million claim against the city and its political leaders, alleging Mayor James T. Butts Jr. had her salary slashed and stripped her of her duties in retaliation for her critical reports on the city’s finances.
Butts and the City Council cut Treasurer Wanda Brown’s monthly income from $8,355 to $1,404 in late 2020, according to the claim filed January 27.
“He’s the kind of person where if you challenge him, he will attack you,” Brown said in an interview Friday.
In Brown’s claim, attorney Walter Lack alleges the mayor and City Council also excluded Brown, who previously managed a $200 million investment portfolio, from the city’s investment committee; reduced her investment authority to $50,000; barred her from attending City Council meetings; deactivated her computer; locked her and her staff out of City Hall; and revoked her access to the city’s financial records.
Lack described the changes to Brown’s job over the last year as a “wrongful discharge” and alleges the city is liable for $10 million in damages for her lost wages and emotional distress.
Restrictions weren’t retaliation, city says
Butts, in a response sent through a city spokesperson, acknowledged the restrictions placed on the treasurer, but denied the changes were an act of retaliation. Her wages were cut to reflect a reduction in her responsibilities, Butts said. She still has access to “the records necessary to complete her defined duties,” he said.
“The treasurer has not been attacked in any manner,” he wrote.
According to the city, Brown is not allowed to enter City Hall because she has not turned in a COVID-19 test since November. The same restrictions apply to all employees who fail to submit tests, Butts said. Her staffs’ badges were deactivated “as she was using their badges to gain entry after failing to provide COVID-19 test results,” he added.
He stated that Brown’s email access also was suspended temporarily, but has since been restored, due to a violation of a policy regarding offensive language and harassment.
‘Flimsy’ explanation
Brown called the city’s explanation “flimsy” and claimed the mayor has used “anything and everything” as a pretext to go after her for her criticisms. She did not provide a COVID-19 test because she said she was told it was only necessary for employees who were returning to work, whereas her visits to City Hall have been brief because of the health risks associated with a recent breast cancer diagnosis.
Brown’s claim refers to her as a whistleblower, and, in an interview, she said she has reported her concerns about possible malfeasance to other agencies. She would not disclose which agencies because one asked her not to speak publicly about the matter, she said.
Brown pointed to a recent lawsuit by Butts’ ex-girlfriend and former assistant, Melanie McDade-Dickens, as an example of the mayor’s alleged efforts to silence others who have challenged him.
“I’ve worked under three different mayors, it’s never been like this,” she said of her 32 years as treasurer. “It is a fearful atmosphere. I’m the only one he could not absolutely fire, but he did the closest thing to it.”
McDade-Dickens filed a lawsuit a day before Brown’s claim that alleges Butts harassed her and then had her fired for breaking up with him. The lawsuit does not list a figure for damages, but a previously rejected claim asked for $12 million. An attorney for the city vehemently denied McDade-Dickens’ allegations and said Inglewood would fight the “outrageous and unfounded allegations all the way to trial.”
How the fighting began
The mayor and the treasurer appeared to be allies for many years. The City Council honored her in April 2018 for her then 31 years with the city. At the meeting, Butts described the “great services provided by the city treasurer” and reflected on the “many accomplishments she attained for the City of Inglewood,” according to April 3, 2018 meeting minutes.
Brown alleges Butts at the time had asked her to push for a charter amendment that would increase the salaries for the mayor and City Council. In exchange, he promised to increase her salary to the same level as the city clerk, according to Brown. She said she agreed, but never acted on the arrangement. Butts denied the conversation ever happened.
Brown similarly praised the mayor at council meetings in 2015, 2017 and 2018, according to clips previously provided by the city. Butts alleges Brown’s tone turned negative only after he denied a demand to give her lifetime health benefits.
The soured relationship burst into the public arena in January 2020. At the time, Brown began using her three-minute period previously allotted to her by the City Council to publicly chastise the council’s fiscal management. She criticized the city’s debts, its negative $475 million net position, the qualifications of certain employees and a decision to award funds from a first-time homebuyers program to a city employee. Brown said she was asked to draw the names for the housing program and that it damaged her reputation when it was later revealed a city employee was placed at the front of the line. City officials said the employee was moved up because the city-owned home she already lived in was deemed uninhabitable.
“I put forth my best effort to work with Mayor Butts and get along with him,” Brown said Friday. “I got along with him almost nine years, until he simply did not like the kind of information I was providing to the public.”
Brown regularly cited a 2020 report by Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, that listed Inglewood as one of the worst in the state at managing its pension debt. But the mayor and council members scoffed at her reports, with Butts pointing to the city’s more than $50 million in reserves and its attraction of multibillion-dollar investments from major sports teams as evidence of Inglewood’s strong financial state.
Butts began cutting Brown’s microphone if she went over her allotted time and eventually removed her reports from the agendas altogether. Butts accused her of using the time granted to her by the council to attack employees and council members. She is now limited to addressing the council during public comment. She is not permitted to attend the meetings in person anymore, she said.
In October, council members stated they were taking away Brown’s duties because her fiscal criticisms allegedly were not grounded in reality, misled the public and signaled she was no longer qualified to handle the city’s investments. Butts suggested the city may consider a charter amendment in the future to turn the elected position into an appointed one. The council had considered taking her salary away completely.
“These were duties that were granted by the council over the years,” Butts said at the time. “What she did was show herself incompetent to perform these duties.”
Brown said her criticisms are based on the city’s own financial records and the reports released by other agencies and watchdogs like Moorlach.
A state audit in early 2020 found nearly a third of Inglewood’s financial controls were not properly functioning, leading to spending without adequate transparency in some instances and lost revenues in others. In September, Inglewood approved a proposed budget showing roughly $10 million deficits in both fiscal year 2019-20 and 2020-21. Butts attributed the declines to the same downturns experienced in other cities due to the pandemic and said the city’s $57 million in reserves would help it weather the crisis without making cuts to balance its budgets.
The City Council has turned to risky pension obligation bonds twice in recent years to shore up its finances and cut expenses. The council recently sought a $10 million line of credit that it says will be reimbursed through grants.
The blog, 2UrbanGirls, first reported the news that Brown had filed a claim against the city.