County Executive Satpal Sidhu is refusing to resign following the Whatcom Democrats’ executive board demanding he step down for his handling of sexual harassment allegations against a former Public Works director.
“I have no intention of resigning in response to the Whatcom Democrats’ Executive Board’s letter, which is based on incomplete information and misrepresentation of the facts,” he said in a prepared statement Thursday, April 25.
“I welcome calls for more clarity and transparency around this situation, and if the County Council wants to conduct an inquiry, bring more light to the situation and assess the facts, I will fully support that,” Sidhu said in the statement.
Whatcom Democrats Executive Board issued its scathing open letter on Wednesday.
It accused Sidhu and his team of covering up the conduct that led to former Public Workers director Jon Hutchings’ departure and continuing to do so by providing him with a glowing letter of recommendation. Hutchings was confirmed by the Lynden City Council as public works director in May 2023.
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” sexual harassment in the future.
Jed Holmes, the executive’s spokesperson, said Sidhu was disappointed that the Democrats executive board adopted a statement with factual errors, noting such situations “are always nuanced and with many layers of complexity, and political rhetoric does not help bring clarity.”
Thursday’s statement said the Democrats’ letter was inaccurate in several ways, including the timeline of the harassment reporting.
“In 2021, one individual shared their concerns about unwelcome conduct, but the individuals who were aware of the situation failed to follow harassment reporting policy and share this information with their superiors,” Holmes said. “The Executive was not informed and could not act on this information in 2021.”
Sidhu learned of the harassment in October 2022, and Hutchings signed a separation agreement in November.
Council members and the general public became aware of the county’s handling of Hutchings’ resignation and a subsequent $225,000 settlement 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.
In the letter to council members, Sidhu confirmed on Tuesday that he did not bring the issue before the council but instead worked alongside the county’s human resources and legal teams to ensure county policies and procedures were followed.
At the Tuesday, April 23 county council meeting, Council Member Todd Donovan raised the issue of the executive’s handling of the actions before and after Hutchings’ departure.
“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 there might be a need to consider some things in the county’s charter with regard to where the council is liable for human resource issues.
A previous version of this story did not state Council Member Todd Donovan’s name and position in full. This story was updated to reflect this change on Friday, April 26 at 9:15 a.m.
Isaac Stone Simonelli is CDN’s enterprise/investigations reporter; reach him at isaacsimonelli@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 127.
