HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-08-20 Public Comment - J. Strout - Comments for the September 8th, 2020, City of Bozeman Commission Meeting AgendaFrom:Jan Strout
To:Agenda
Subject:Comments for the September 8th, 2020, City of Bozeman Commission Meeting Agenda
Date:Tuesday, September 8, 2020 10:16:43 AM
September 7, 2020
Labor Day
Members of the Bozeman City Commission,
Because I cannot remain silent if I deserve to have any claim to continue to careabout the rights, safety, equitable and fair treatment of women to advance gender and
all equity in our community, I will do this as an individual and not on behalf of any
organization. Preparing and sharing this Statement does not give me any pleasure
and I hated to have to go through the pain of these records and memories again in
order to respond.
These statements of harmful and harassing treatment toward Bozeman City
employees by our Mayor strongly influenced me that we who have suffered or
witnessed this must step forward. I strongly urge everyone who is reading or listening
to this - PLEASE review ALL the attached Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA)documents from our current and former City Employees – many from women, but not
all – to understand this: those leaders appearing to be women-supporting, liberal or
even progressive men who are in power can and in this case with the Mayor, have
profoundly harmed our City’s workforce including the 1st and only women City
Manager, many have said was our most successful ever. And most employees who
all want the Mayor removed.
From the Bozeman City Commission Agenda for September 8, 2020, the FOIA
Documents – open to read all 3 sections plus those from Commissioner Cunningham
(total of 4):
1. Discussion of Documents Related to Public Records Requests (Sullivan)
I am writing and speaking about my experiences with Chris Mehl, from andsince April 19, 2018.
This date is when a leader of a local women’s business organization and I had a
meeting with then Deputy Mayor Mehl (DM) to share and exchange around our City
for CEDAW women’s human rights campaign to create safe, equitable and fair
employment and living conditions in our community. Our meeting goal, quite simply
in the same manner of our successful Equal Pay for Equal Work Resolution adopted
by the City three years earlier, was to meet with each City Commissioner for an
opportunity to educate, exchange around and get their advice about our proposedpolicy to advance women’s human rights in the workplace, schools, and our overall
community through adoption of an Ordinance or Resolution. Over 70 Cities large and
small throughout the U.S. have done this.
Because at that time Mayor Andrus chose not to meet with any representatives of our
campaign, the DM indicated he would stand in for the Mayor and learn more himself.
I also indicated to the DM that there would be another representative from the local
women’s business organization - a part of our City for CEDAW Leadership team who
would join me. In our thorough preparation to meet with the DM – as with everycommunity leader - we reached out to other current and former City leaders about
how to approach and what best to say. At that time, I was warned by several f them
that the DM “had a temper” and then I also shared that with this leader accompanying
me, having no idea what that information could truly mean to each of us and our livesfollowing.
We spent an hour on April 19, 2018 from 4:00-5:00 pm at Sola Café, at the request of
the DM, with several other customers nearby in the back section. While we had a
carefully prepared outline of talking points of why we are requesting this now and howa policy to advance the human rights of all women and girls could benefit the City of
Bozeman, we of course wanted to hear and address the DM’s questions and
concerns. This meeting began by the DM with heated accusations made in anger
and outrage to us in a shouting communication style about the fact that we dared toask for this policy and goal – especially since the DM stated the Mayor already said
she wouldn’t meet with our Campaign and didn’t we already have an Equal Pay
Resolution.
He then moved into accusatory rapid talking points ranging from how adopting awomen’s human rights ordinance would cost at least $500,000 to conduct a City
needs assessment to identify and address evidence of measurable gender and other
discrimination and how could we waste the City’s tax dollars that way…..and the fact
that children in our City have food insecurity and why should we fund a study insteadof feeding the children? In trying to even answer or explore options we couldn’t get a
word in for the first 30-45 minutes of his berating, bulling, belittlement and harassing
“leadership style” that appeared to communicate his job was to intimidate and
diminish us to the point that we would never return to the Mayor or City nor continueto educate and advance for any further women’s human rights.
As we tried to both indicate that such a study was important to identify evidence of
where gender and other discrimination existed in the institutions and sectors of our
City and also recommend best practices to eradicate them – as recently welldemonstrated by the Bozeman United for Racial Justice which only required 2
Marches of thousands of Bozeman residents and we congratulate them! – would cost
from $10-20K and we already planned to ask other organizations for their support
including MSU, Women’s Foundations, donors and more! In addition, if there wasgreat concern about Bozeman children’s food security, our Campaign’s care as well -
the results of our study was intended to strategically focus scarce tax dollars on which
of our children and families needed assistance - and from lived experience - we know
many of them were likely from single parent underpaid, women-headed households. And that a gender analysis that included race/ethnicity, income, age and more would
benefit all city policies, strategic planning, budgeting and employee workplace
conditions beyond pay equity disparities to include prevention of sexual, racial
harassment and other corrosive behaviors.
But the DM couldn’t or wouldn’t listen until the final few minutes of this torturous hour
when we calmed him down and pointed out some of the less costly or free policies
other 70 Cities for CEDAW in the US have used to further women’s safety and
economic security in their communities. Meanwhile those Sola Café customers andstaff also witnessed the DM “leadership style” and more. After he left, we were
asked,” who was that?” We said, “that’s your upcoming Mayor.”
After the DM left, the volunteer leader and I tried to debrief this experience because
this was so shocking - this was way more than a “Temper” issue - and appeared to bea pattern if we needed to be forewarned before meeting with the DM.
In preparation for this Statement to the Commission, I needed to review and decided I
will share my notes exchanged with my colleague from that DM meeting - written a
day later, April 20, 2018:
Quite honestly I did not expect the level to which I felt he [DM] was bullying, belittling
and setting up so much opposition that he really didn't want to know any answers to
the questions; he simply wanted to use them as a chance to humiliate us.
I'm very, very angry and very unhappy about what he did; it was totally unnecessary
and it was not fitting for a Deputy Mayor and future Mayor of our community. I'm
going to be meeting with [another leader] today about their liaison with the School
Board and I'm going to let them know some of what happened and get advice.
I am drafting a letter this morning to Chris that follows up with Cyndy's email and why
the over 20 people that were consulted about this Campaign did not see it as he did,
because I don't think again he read this information very carefully. I'm going to ask
you to look at it if you don't mind and share it with [ ] when I meet her with her
tomorrow before I send it out. I don't want to do anything in anger.
So I'm venting a little but you were wonderful and honestly we didn't need to come in
with a bargaining position. We were there to learn what concerns he and the other
Commissioners have:
- I had asked Chris specifically in other emails if "you are able to generally support it",
or what exactly can you support and that was what I thought the basis of the meeting
was going to be about.
- And I am feeling at this moment including in the follow-up email that summarizes our
meeting content the question of:
Since you have so many objections to Our proposed [Bozeman for CEDAW]
Ordinance as a model to achieve gender equity in our city, what is a process or
framework that can allow the city to stand for gender equity and the health, dignity
and safety of women and girls that is of substance and can be acceptable to the city?
The ball is in his court or their court if he's really representing Cyndy Andrus as well.
But she would not behave this way - that is for sure.
You were great and I couldn't have done it; I couldn't have stoo it without you. I
honestly did not know that this is what his "temper" is about and it's bad for the City of
Bozeman.
Thank you again and so sorry we both had to put up with this and quite frankly it's
why we need a city ordinance when you have leadership or bosses who treat women
like this. It's called gender-based verbal violence and sexual harassment and we are
Me Too.
This is what happened, and now I’d like to add why this matters and why our
City leadership and community should care and act.
Even though I and the other leader have had to handle other very sexist and sexual
harassing situations as well as gender-based violence over our lives, much like every
woman – including death threats when I co-founded a program and shelter to address
gender-based violence now called The HAVEN – the harsh impacts of DM’s verbalabuse was compounded because of his power as the DM and as incoming Bozeman
Mayor. Having never received any apology or clarification about his “leadership
style” or any follow up whatsoever from the DM, we drafted several versions of our
own follow-up letter to the DM. This letter became so diplomatic to save ourwomen’s rights cause and thus did not adequately address his abuse of power in
order to avoid retaliation. Finally we resolved to focus our goal to create and
institutionalize policies advancing women’s rights and safety and, now ironically, we
decided not to send our letter to the DM. We never even thought this opportunitywould occur to address what we now know is a long-standing pattern of the DM’s
verbal form of gender-based violence.
Instead, what I did is reach out to other leaders in our community to get their advice
and felt afterwards that we were not taken seriously and always, in many waysspoken or by inaction, were told the DM’s contributions were more important than his
“temper.” But we also learned from other discussions that we were not the only
women affected by this pattern of abuse and fear of retaliation.
When Mayor Andrus did reach out to me to schedule a meeting in June, 2018, aboutour City for CEDAW women’s human rights campaign following a City Commission
meeting presentation earlier in May with over 100 supporters and nearly 1,000
signatures on our Petition, she wanted the DM to be present. I refused and told her
why (correspondence in the other documents) and, upon request, followed up withthe Mayor Andrus in a lengthy phone call to provide specific examples and details
from the meeting with the DM on April 19th. We were grateful she didn’t include him
in that meeting.
Another result both of us decided for ourselves and the Cities for CEDAW campaignat this April 19th meeting was either to not ever work or meet with the DM or at least
always have 3-5 people present to prevent his harmful behavior from bullying and
attempting to intimidate us again. Sadly, I also substantially reduced my and our
expectations of what could be achieved for the creation of an Ordinance or Resolutionto advance women’s human rights as Bozeman policy since that meeting. And as the
DM moved into the role of Mayor, this was another way to prevent his attacks. Again,
at the painful expense of the most vulnerable women we wanted this human rights
policy, education and research to serve. The other volunteer leader quit working with
the Equal Pay Resolution and this organization in order to not have to work with
Mayor Mehl. She has shared her own story to this effect.
Our lived experience as women, men and non-binary people of sexual, racial and/or
other harassment and related violence in paid or volunteer workplaces and
community leadership - along with the emerging research which is so badly needed
here for the City and other workplaces - is now becoming more understood about its
breadth and depth. We also know from the #ME TOO Movement that liberal White
men – especially when holding the most prominent positions - can present assupporters of women and progressive causes, but do NOT walk their talk.
After reading – and I so strong urge everyone who is reading or listening to this,
PLEASE review ALL the attached the FOIA documents from our current and former
City Employees – many from women, but not all – to understand this: those leadersappearing to be women-supporting, liberal or even progressive leaders who are in
power can, and in this case, the Mayor has profoundly harmed our City’s workforce
including the 1st and only women City Manager, who many have said was our most
successful top Administrator ever. And this “leadership style” has been experienced
by other current and previous Commissioners, members of Citizen Advisory Boards,
business owners and many more we will never hear from who are also afraid to come
forward because if the Mayor is not removed, they will be afraid of retaliation as am Iand my colleague.
Thinking about future City policies that advance gender and other equity, diversity
and inclusion in our community and its workplace, how can anyone feel secure, much
less “welcome” in their desire to contribute to our City, as a volunteer or employee,when they learn about this fully documented, unprofessional behavior of our Mayor in
violation of the City’s own policies - carefully demonstrated with extensive evidence in
the FOIA documents by former City Managers Andrea Surratt and Dennis Taylor - if
then no substantive action is taken?
Now my colleague and I know – the Mayor’s "leadership style" as he defines this –
was never only targeted at us, but directed widely, impacting a lot of women at all
levels of employment and in our community, including current and former
Commissioners, with all harmed in some way. I truly regret that we did not send ourfully detailed letter of DM’s bullying, abusive and gender-based harassing treatment
to the Mayor and other City leaders two years ago, or had been encouraged to file an
Ethics Board complaint, but we believed it would probably be used against us and the
organizations we cared about.
I ask the City Commissioners on behalf of all who have suffered, been diminished,
been humiliated, been afraid and been denied their ability to work in safety and
dignity, to change our City’s elected Mayoral leadership now.
Thank you,
Jan Strout (she/hers)
2322 W. Beall St
Bozeman, MT 59718