'I will not be silent': Sexual harassment complaint leads to $950,000 state board settlement
A state board that regulates construction is paying $950,000 to settle a lawsuit from a female employee who said her boss made sexually suggestive comments, touched her inappropriately and then retaliated against her when she rejected his advances.
Santosha Padfield’s lawsuit alleges escalating harassment from manager Steven Skogebo at the Contractors State License Board from 2014 through 2017. Skogebo and the board settled with Padfield in April without admitting any guilt.
The harassment started two months after she transferred to the Valencia office where Skogebo worked, according to a complaint Padfield filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Office at the Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the contractors board.
Padfield handed Skogebo a fork in a lunch room after he asked for one.
“Thank you. If you were not married, I would make you my wife,” he told her, according to the complaint.
Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article233638347.html