The longtime city administrator of Inver Grove Heights has been suspended for three days for making disrespectful and sexually suggestive comments toward a female employee he supervised.
A city-funded investigation by a law firm found that Joe Lynch, who has served as city administrator since 2006, violated the city's respectful workplace policy twice with the same employee, calling her a "child" and accusing her of acting like "a teenager" last April, and then making a suggestive joke about her dress months later in July.
On Monday, the City Council voted 4-0 in a closed-door meeting to approve a resolution that Lynch had twice violated the city's workplace policy and that discipline was warranted, including a three-day suspension from work without pay. Lynch may choose the days, though they must occur before Feb. 28.
Other allegations included in the complaint and the investigation report either were unsubstantiated or lacked appropriate evidence, a city memo said.
Lynch did not return a message seeking comment Thursday.
The investigation was conducted by the Rosemount law firm of Everett and VanderWiel and began August 20, a week after the council reviewed the complaint.
The first incident dated back to April 4 after the employee, who was reporting directly to Lynch, wrote a memo to him expressing concerns about a staffing issue involving another worker's reassignment. After she gave him the memo, he "likened her to a child," the report said. A day later, the employee recalled, Lynch called her a "teenager" and told her she should grow up, the report said.
The report concluded that the use of those terms was "disrespectful" and "violated the Respectful Workplace Policy's prohibition against engaging in 'offensive behavior.' " Calling an employee a child or teenager "is an insult — it is belittling because it implies that a person is immature or personally deficient," the report said.
