The city administrator of Inver Grove Heights has been suspended for three days without pay for insulting a co-worker and making an offensive comment about her dress.
Joe Lynch, city administrator since 2006, has been at the center of an investigation since August, when the city worker filed a complaint that contained several allegations.
The city council handed down the suspension Monday, on a unanimous vote after a closed-door meeting. A week earlier council members reviewed the report by a law firm hired to investigate the allegations.
Lynch did not return calls this week for comment. As the city’s top worker, Lynch oversees 165 full-time employees, including six department heads, and numerous part-time employees.
The investigation by Everett & VanderWielm, a Rosemount law firm, found that Lynch violated the city’s Respectful Workplace Policy on two occasions.
The council determined other allegations that either were in the complaint or were addressed in the 65-page report were “not substantiated” or had “insufficient evidence.”
Lynch’s three-day suspension must happen before Feb. 28, with the exact dates to be determined by Lynch.
WHAT HAPPENED
According to a redacted copy of the report released to the Pioneer Press, the first violation happened shortly after Lynch gave the co-worker a private memo on March 30 about reassigning a member of her staff. She told the investigator that when she gave Lynch her own memo on April 4 to convey her concerns he called her a “child” and told her to “grow up.”
The next day, she said, Lynch came to her office and told her he was sorry she was emotional. She told him she did not understand why he was unhappy with her.
She told the investigator that Lynch’s “anger came out of nowhere again” and that he again told her to “grow up” and called her a “teenager” before “stubbornly” walking out of the office.
Lynch told an investigator that he was frustrated with her because for several days she had been “complaining that she did not feel supported and that he was being unfair,” the report read. He admitted to telling her that she was acting “like a child” and a “teenager” and to “grow up.”
Lynch’s use of “child” and “teenager” was “disrespectful” and violated the city’s policy, which prohibits offensive behavior — defined as inappropriate comments, name calling and disrespectful language, according to the report.
“Calling an employee a ‘child’ and a ‘teenager’ is an insult — it is belittling because it implies that a person is immature or personally deficient,” the report read. “Telling an employee that he or she needs to grow up is also disrespectful.”
THE SECOND VIOLATION
Lynch’s second violation was a “sexual innuendo” he made to the co-worker, according to the report.
On July 9, shortly before a council meeting, Lynch approached the co-worker in the presence of another co-worker and complimented her on a dress she was wearing. He asked her if she was going on a date that night. She said she did have a date, but was going to take the dress off — meaning that she planned to change beforehand, according to the report.
Although Lynch admitted he knew what she meant, the report said, he responded with “something along the lines of ‘You’re going to take your dress off for your date already?'”
According to Lynch, she said, “That’s not what I meant” and he countered with, “I know, but that’s what you said.” After another co-worker approached the group, Lynch repeated that the woman intended to take her dress off for the date.
She told an investigator she was “completely mortified. He sexually harassed me and to make it worse he included another male co-worker. He made me feel disrespected because I wore a dress. And he twisted my words to make them sound sexual.”
According to the report, the comments were “objectively offensive” and “carried the unmistakable implication that (she) intended to engage in sexual activities while on her date.”
HIRED IN 2006
Lynch’s career in city administration spans three decades.
Lynch came to Inver Grove Heights in November 2006 from North Branch, where he had been the city administrator for three years. Before that, he was the city administrator in Arden Hills for three years. He was fired from that position after a change in council leadership, a fairly common occurrence for administrators.
Lynch also was the city administrator in Long Lake for five years and in Chisago City for three years, and the administrator of White Bear Township.
Lynch has one other complaint in his work file, Inver Grove Heights City Attorney Tim Kuntz said Wednesday. A complaint was filed against Lynch in May 2014, but the council voted 5-0 that discipline was not warranted.
Lynch is being paid a little more than $153,000 this year. His salary for 2019 is yet to be determined, Kuntz said.
Lynch is also the girls basketball coach at Hastings High School. He joined the program in November after coaching Cretin-Derham Hall to the consolation trophy in the Class 4A state tournament.