The strange case of an allegedly moonlighting City Hall director just got stranger, as she claims she wasn’t put on leave over a side gig, but because she was about to blow the whistle on “the sexual abuse of a minor in a city-funded foster care program.”
We reported last month that a City Hall director had been placed on leave over unauthorized moonlighting, and for directing contracts to companies that used to hire her consulting firm. That was SF Department on the Status of Women director Kimberly Ellis, who was accused of taking a $10,000 payment under the table in violation of conflict-of-interest guidelines, and of handing out contracts to firms that used to pay her consulting firm, often for costly events that looked more extravagant than they needed to be.
Mayor Lurie’s office placed Ellis on administrative leave on March 20, once the Chronicle started asking questions about it.
But now the Chronicle reports that Ellis is pushing back big-time, and with some explosive allegations that she was forced out. Per the Chron, Ellis has filed a lawsuit against the city for putting her on leave, and her lawsuit even claims the real reason she was forced out was because she was about to blow the whistle on “efforts to conceal the sexual abuse of a minor in a city-funded foster care program and document forgery.”
“Director Ellis was not forced out for poor performance or ethical misconduct,” according to the text of the lawsuit. “She was forced out for telling the truth, for defending the vulnerable and for refusing to quietly disappear. Her removal reflects not only unlawful retaliation but also a disturbing betrayal of the values San Francisco claims to champion.”
Wait, what’s this business about the sexual abuse of a minor? The real story here may be somewhat convoluted, but it sure appears that something happened.
According to Ellis’s version of events, her longtime spokesperson and deputy director Joe Macaluso, in the Chronicle’s words, “tried to cover up for his friend, whom he hired as a caregiver in the [foster care] program and who had allegedly taken steps that resulted in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl.” Ellis says she immediately reported this to the City Attorney’ Office on November 12 last year, and her lawsuit says that the City Attorney “launched an ethics investigation into her” just two days after she reported this.
But for their part, the City Attorney’s Office says Ellis never reached out to them on this matter, and it was one of her staffers who reported this to the state on February 10 of this year, after the the City Attorney’s office had already told that staffer they were investigating on their own.
“It is deeply disappointing that Ms. Ellis would blatantly lie in court documents to distract from the investigation into her misconduct,” a spokesperson for Chiu’s office, Jen Kwart, told the Chronicle. “The city attorney has thoroughly investigated the allegations in her complaint, and they are baseless.”
Ellis also claims that Lurie’s office was already looking to fire her for being too outspoken against Trump. That may be litigated in court, and it will likely draw little attention.
But if there’s a sex-abuse case of a 15-year-old in city-funded foster care, that will end up drawing attention. And it will probably draw even more attention when two sides are in a legal battle, both claiming that they were the whistleblowers, and other other party was the enabler.
Image: Kimberly Ellis via Facebook
