A workplace misconduct investigation found a top Orange County elected official violated gender discrimination and retaliation policies and harassed a subordinate over her medical disability, according to a confidential county-commissioned report obtained by LAist.
According to the investigator’s findings, O.C. Assessor Claude Parrish:
- Downplayed the employee’s chronic medical condition as a “tummy ache”
- Shared her private medical information with coworkers
- Regularly commented on her diet
- Told her to stop taking her prescribed medication
- Made her “drink baking soda mixed with tap water to ‘fix’ her medical condition”
The investigator’s final report, filed in 2023, also found that Parrish retaliated against the subordinate because of her disability by moving her to a different department for taking time off for her disability and medical condition.
In addition, the investigator found Parrish regularly used language effectively casting women employees as subservient to their male colleagues.
“It is more likely than not that Parrish routinely refers to male employees as ‘Mr.’ and female employees by their first name, based on their gender,” the investigation found. “The cumulative effect of Parrish’s practice of using formal, deferential means of addressing men, while using informal, casual means of addressing women serves to highlight a subservient relationship between such employees, based on their sex.”
While the investigator’s findings were disclosed to county human resources officials in the May 2023 report, they have not been publicly reported until now. LAist obtained the report — which is labeled “confidential” — via a public records request.
At least two Orange County supervisors did not know of the findings…
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