County Executive Satpal Sidhu should step down for his handling of sexual harassment allegations against a former Public Works director, Whatcom Democrats executive board members said in an open letter issued Wednesday, April 24.
Sidhu kept Whatcom County Council members in the dark after former director Jon Hutchings resigned in the midst of a sexual harassment investigation by the county in October 2022. The council was not informed of a subsequent $225,000 settlement with a female employee in November 2023.
Sidhu, in a letter to council members Tuesday, accepted responsibility for the handling of the incident and confirmed he did not bring the issue before the council, but instead worked alongside the county’s human resources and legal teams to ensure policies and procedures were followed.
“We invite Democratic elected officials to weigh conscience and basic values against party loyalty and political expediency and join us in calling for a resignation,” the Democrats’ letter stated. “Apart from a courageous minority, the other party refuses to hold its own elected officials accountable. We can and must do better.”
The open letter issued Wednesday also stated hundreds of public employees have had to work in an environment that “fails to protect them from harassment because administrators — both appointed and elected — place their relationships with each other ahead of their duty to employees and the public.”
Whatcom County spokesperson Jed Holmes said Wednesday night the Whatcom Democrats Executive Board’s statement inaccurately reflects the information shared by the executive in his letter to the council.
“Sidhu made it clear that he has taken responsibility for how the process was handled,” he said.
Council members and the general public became aware of the county’s handling of Hutchings’ resignation — including a glowing letter of introduction for him to the City of Lynden, his new employer — in a Cascade PBS investigative story published last week. The story details the county’s actions before and after a third-party probe into allegations that Hutchings made sexual comments to one employee and inappropriately touched another in the workplace. The story said internal records revealed multiple women accused Hutchings of inappropriate conduct.
“We find these actions indefensible,” the letter from Whatcom Democrats stated. “The executive — who signed the key documents — was an active participant in covering up sexual harassment of employees. He is unwilling to acknowledge his own responsibility in hiding harassment and in moving a known sexual harasser to a different management job.”
The letter by the Democrats states that the executive’s actions “undermine trust in his ability to ensure the level of change needed to prevent this from happening in the future.”
It goes on to accuse the executive and his team of covering up the conduct that led to Hutchings’ departure and continued to do so by providing him with the letter of recommendation.
“These actions betray basic shared values,” the letter states. “Satpal Sidhu has sworn an oath to uphold the laws of Whatcom County. According to county code, settlements greater than $25,000 require approval of the County Council.”
The November settlement, paid with money in the county’s Tort fund, was authorized by the prosecuting attorney’s office, the county confirmed. The county manages liabilities with other counties through the Washington Counties Risk Pool, and the settlement was within Whatcom’s $250,000 deductible.
Speaking with Cascadia Daily News earlier today, Council Member Todd Donovan said that he was unsure of when / if such consultation for is required or discretionary, particularly with personnel matters that are not litigation.
“That’s a question for the attorneys,” he said.
Donovan raised the issue of the executive’s handling of the actions before and after Hutchings’ departure at the council’s meeting on Tuesday, April 23.
“What I’m seeing in the email that Satpal sent to us is not consistent with what we’ve been hearing from our attorney, who was the attorney on the settlement, which raises some awkward questions,” Donovan said.
He said that there might be a need to consider some things in the county’s charter with regards to where the council is liable for human resource issues.
“There was a failure here and I think we are in the dark about how this happened,” he said.
Isaac Stone Simonelli is CDN’s enterprise/investigations reporter; reach him at isaacsimonelli@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 127.
