PORT ANGELES — Dale Holiday settled her racial and sexual discrimination complaint against Clallam County at a mediation session in Seattle last week, county Administrator Jim Jones said Friday.
The terms of the settlement — including whether it involves a payment to Holiday, a county employee who is African-American — are confidential until a report is issued by the administrative law judge who oversaw the Thursday mediation session, Jones said Friday.
“It’s all confidential, and nobody can talk about it yet,” Jones said, adding that he could not estimate when the settlement will be made public.
Holiday and Tacoma lawyer Stephanie Bloomfield, who represented Holiday at the hearing Thursday, did not return calls for comment late Friday afternoon.
County Human Resources Director Rich Sill negotiated the settlement on behalf of the county at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in Seattle.
Earlier last week, county commissioners authorized Sill to settle Holiday’s claim and set an undisclosed cap if the payment of money became part of the settlement.
That authorization included allowing Sill to agree to pay Holiday an amount to settle the claim that was not to exceed the cap without any further action by the board.
“Rich was prohibited from saying anything to anybody until we get the status report from the administrative law judge, which comes in their own time,” Jones said.
“Until we get it, we’ve got nothing.”
County statement
On behalf of the county, Jones released the following statement, titled “Exhibit B,” that he was given by Sill, who did not return a call for comment late Friday afternoon:
“On August 1, 2013, the county and Dale Holiday engaged in a confidential mediation at the EEOC in Seattle resulting in a settlement agreement resolving all issues to the satisfaction of both parties.”
Holiday, the county’s Department of Health & Human Services grant coordinator, filed a charge of discrimination with the state Human Rights Commission and the federal EEOC earlier this year.
She said that because of her gender, race and “protests of race discrimination,” she received low job-performance evaluations and a warning letter, had to develop weekly task lists unlike other department employees and was denied approval to attend the Montana Summer Institute for 2013, held at Big Sky Resort in Montana.
Holiday is the wife of Port Angeles City Councilman Max Mania.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
