Careers ruined or at risk from accusations of sexual misconduct

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No names named,  but this involves what looks like a culture  of sexual harassment. Second-most  populous state, and involving state legislators and the lobbyists who pull the strings on some of them. No partisan connection noted, as if that matters. 

Austin American-Statesman, Austin, Texas. This looks like a story about to explode. 

Quote:A forced kiss by a male colleague. A catcall by a state trooper assigned to guard the Capitol. Late-night texts. A work meeting hijacked by a male legislative staffer: You are my ideal woman, he told his female interlocutor.

The episodes illustrate what many women say is the biggest open secret at the Texas Capitol: That a culture of harassment persists despite repeated efforts to stamp it out.

In interviews with the American-Statesman, multiple women described a work environment in which they are objectified and made to feel uncomfortable in their daily interactions with male counterparts.

“Being a female staffer in the Capitol is uniquely and distinctly different than being a male staffer,” said one woman who works for a House member. “Women are treated differently. It is just a question of in what way we’ll be treated differently by our male colleagues, male members or male lobbyists.”


What's more, women said they fear career-ending repercussions if they complain, instead turning to a whisper network to warn each other of the powerful predators to avoid. House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, said on the House floor Monday that the system for reporting misconduct is lacking and that the culture reinforces a code of silence, an extraordinary admission three years after legislative leaders ostensibly addressed a sexist work environment amid the #MeToo movement.


An investigation into an allegation that a lobbyist slipped a drug into the cocktail of a legislative staffer thrust the workplace harassment into the daylight, with legislative leaders working to improve avenues for women to report mistreatment and legislation filed to require sexual misconduct training for lobbyists.*

Hours after law enforcement authorities announced Thursday there was not enough evidence to pursue charges against the lobbyist, Phelan, Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, and Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, issued a joint statement vowing to "create a safer work environment and culture for our entire Capitol community."

"The conversation about how to best keep our Capitol family protected must continue," they said.

But the proclamations echo promises made by legislative leaders in 2017 after an explosive Daily Beast story revealed a predatory environment at the Capitol. Lawmakers then moved to require sexual misconduct training and overhaul the reporting process.

House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, made it easier for women to report misconduct at the Capitol and decried a culture that silences women who are victims of harassment.
More than three years later, female staffers say the requirements did little to upend a culture of silence that protects harassers.

Seven women who work at the Capitol or recently left legislative jobs, as well as numerous female lawmakers, shared experiences of sexism, harassment and fear of speaking up born of a culture of silence that protects men accused of wrongdoing.

Most of the current and former legislative staffers discussed their experiences on condition of anonymity because they said they feared retribution in their current jobs, some going so far as to request that the Statesman not identify which legislative chamber they work in. One woman retracted her comments after the authorities announced they would not press charges in the case of the lobbyist accused of drugging a female legislative staffer.

Lawmakers reacted swiftly after the drugging allegation came to light, first reported April 24 by the Statesman.

Phelan on Monday directed the House General Investigating Committee, one venue for Capitol workers to report misconduct allegations, to set up an email hotline for submitting reports of harassment. He also moved to make sexual harassment prevention training in person rather than virtual.

“For too long, the culture of the House has made victims of harassment feel like they can’t or shouldn’t come forward because it might ruin their reputation or ruin their career,” he said. “This is just a start. We’ve come a long way, but we haven’t gone far enough. We will continue to examine paths to protect our own.”

The Senate does not have a similar investigating committee for sexual harassment allegations, but Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the chamber has a “zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy,” which includes lobbyists.

Every senator and staff member receives in-person sexual harassment training, and the Senate “has a robust protocol for reporting and response to allegations,” he added.

But the women, who have worked in both Republican and Democratic offices in recent legislative sessions, say current training and reporting procedures aren’t enough.

'Political suicide’ to come forward

The culture in the Capitol makes it impossible for women to see any advantage in reporting sexual misconduct allegations, current and former female staffers told the Statesman.

Instead, they said, women continue to use buddy systems and a whisper network of lists of members, staffers and lobbyists to watch out for.


“Your success is so specifically driven by your good relationships and good reputation that you form,” said a staffer-turned-lobbyist. “It’s political suicide to be involved in any incident that makes the papers or anything like that, regardless of whether you were at fault or not at fault.”

Another female lobbyist, who recalled several instances of unprofessional behavior while working in a senator’s office in 2019, remembered splitting an Uber home with a young male staffer who was headed in the same direction. As they sat in the car, the man leaned over and started touching her hair and trying to kiss her neck. She had to physically push him away to stop his advances — and now she has to work with him in her new role as a lobbyist.

Multiple times after giving out her cell phone for professional use, she said male staffers have texted her late at night. As a lobbyist, she recalled a meeting with a lawmaker's senior aide in which she was planning to discuss priority items for the session. Instead, he focused the meeting on her, telling her that she's his ideal woman.

“I was constantly finding that I would need to be very careful and filter myself ... to somehow balance being friendly and not risk it coming off as flirting,” she said of receptions and after-hours meetings. “I do feel like if I ever blatantly call out when they’re flirting or being inappropriate that cuts off access or they’ll stop talking to me."


Stephanie Chiarello, who has worked in and around the Capitol for 14 years, said the culture of unwanted sexual aggression has changed little — even in the post #MeToo age.

"Why do we have to tell women, 'Don't drink too much’ and ‘Be careful about who you are with and where you go?’" she said. "Why can't we tell men, ‘Don't be a (sexual predator)?’"

She also said the Legislature's approach to unwanted sexual aggression is woefully inadequate. Unlike large organizations in the private sector with corporate-wide policies to combat such behavior and hold violators accountable, policies often vary depending on the lawmaker inside the Capitol, she said.

"When people stand up for themselves, they get fired," said Chiarello, who currently works as chief of staff for Rep. Bobby Guerra, D-Mission. "There's no accountability.”

One former legislative aide said she had multiple encounters with the male chief of staff who worked for the same lawmaker that made her feel uncomfortable.



"He did a whole body scan," she recalled. "It was disgusting and horrible having to go to work every day.”

But she said the lawmaker “relied on him and trusted him” and she feared that her story would not have been believed, or at best would be minimized.

“When it comes to who was more valuable in the office, legislative aides are pretty replaceable,” she said.

Besides, she said, she did not want to be branded as a troublemaker because, at the time, she was building her resume and forging relationships she hoped would help as her career continued.


She sought advice from an older female colleague who she considered a friend and mentor, and was told that similar things had happened for as long as anyone could remember, so she just had to deal with it.

Even withsensitivity training about sexual misconduct, people in the building tend to protect their own political careers and those of their allies above all else, according to one longtime staffer.

“There are so many people that are keeping quiet and protecting each other because they don’t want their bill to fail and they don’t want something to happen with their reelection,” she said. “This place is about relationships, unfortunately. And how long you’ve been in the building. The longer you’ve been here, the tighter the groups are that you have and they tend to close ranks.”

'House cannot police itself'

More than 30 women House members signed a letter Monday to urge the chamber to “change the culture of silence and victim blaming.” There are 38 women who serve in the 150-member chamber.

Rep. Celia Israel, an Austin Democrat who started her public service career as a staff member to then-Gov. Ann Richards and is serving her fourth full term, said the increasing number of women in the House helps somewhat. But, she added, change has been too slow in coming and too incremental.

"The House cannot police itself on this," said Israel, who signed onto the letter from female lawmakers. "We need help from the outside. It's not going to change until we have women at the top — a woman governor, a woman speaker."


Howard, the Austin Democrat, was co-chair of a House work group created in 2018 to address sexual misconduct in the Capitol, and agreed that more needs to be done.

Howard said the work group found that in-person sexual harassment training would be more beneficial and recommended that if a complaint was made against an outside person, such as a lobbyist, that information should be reported to the lobbyist's employer.


Capitol workers can report sexual harassment allegations to the House General Investigating Committee. If they prefer not to go through an internal process, victims of sexual harassment can report incidents to the Texas Workforce Commission or the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The House General Investigating Committee, which is made up of five House members — three men and two women — investigates complaints made by members or their staff and makes recommendations for any discipline or remedial action. But complaints and the report of the resulting investigation remain confidential unless ordered by two-thirds of the committee.

In the Senate, complaints can be made to Secretary of the Senate Patsy Spaw or Delicia Sams, director of Senate Human Resources. Like the House, staff and members can report complaints externally to the Workforce Commission or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The Statesman has submitted requests under the Texas Public Information Act seeking information about complaints that have been filed in both chamber and details about subsequent investigations or actions taken by leadership.

The longtime staffer said the internal investigations into allegations of harassment make it harder for women to come forward, especially to the House General Investigating Committee.

“This is a conflict of interest,” she said. “It should never be something that is internal, it should be something that has nothing to do with the members. Members should be working on policy and law on the floor. They aren’t HR experts, they aren’t therapists.”

Another roadblock to change is the divided nature of the Capitol. One female staffer said across the Senate and House, “it is kind of like 181 startup companies or small businesses. We have some overarching HR and overarching systems but, at the end of the day, we’re our own little bubble.”

That means behavior that isn’t permitted in one office may be tolerated in another; it all depends on the lawmaker.

Howard said she’s heard of recent complaints of sexual misconduct in the Legislature, although no staffers have come to her directly.

“I don’t know where we’re going to go from here,” she said, adding that revisiting the working group could be helpful in determining other changes. “Are there things that we need to do that will more aggressively address what is reportedly continuing to be a problem?”

Harassment in the age of COVID

The coronavirus has further complicated lawmakers’ understanding of the extent of harassment in the Capitol, as multiple staffers described how safety protocols at the Capitol have led to more after-hours meetings outside the building.

“That doesn’t mean things haven’t been going on, but it’s less obvious,” Howard said.

One current female staffer said the practice of social distancing has made individual violations of personal space that much more glaring. She described a recent meeting with a lobbyist in her office at the Capitol who was “towering over me” during the conversation.

“I backed up two paces, trying to be cognizant of COVID spacing and he continued to walk up to me,” she said. “I kept backing up and ended up walking into a desk because he kept approaching me. It was all the more violating because of the threat of transmission.”

Heightened law-enforcement presence at the Capitol after the January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol also has created another level of discomfort for some women in the building, the staffer said.

“For the amount of DPS troopers, they don’t have enough to do," she said. “They’re literally just staring at you as you’re walking around. The word of the day is just feeling leered at by DPS troopers as I’m walking around doing a job.”

She described one incident in the underground parking garage at the Capitol after arriving for work in the morning, where multiple troopers are typically stationed. One made comments about her appearance and her clothing.

“I was so startled and uncomfortable,” she said. “I’m just trying to go to work and start my job.”

Ericka Miller, press secretary for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the agency has not received complaints related to troopers present at the Capitol.

"The Texas Department of Public Safety has received many compliments for our work at the Capitol over the past few months and no complaints," Miller said in a statement. "We would encourage this person to file their complaint with the Office of the Inspector General for an independent investigation regarding any alleged misconduct."

The former staffer, who worked at the Capitol as recently as 2019 and now works as a lobbyist, said incidents of sexual harassment likely have “just been pushed into darker corners.”

“One reason why this was so shocking and disturbing to a lot of us is that with COVID, the opportunities — if you will — for the harassment and the assaults to happen have in some ways been narrowed,” she said. “There haven’t been these huge legislative receptions. There hasn’t been as much wining and dining.”

As a female staff member, male lobbyists visiting her office and legislators she did not work for would ask her to do administrative tasks or favors. One lawmaker would frequently ask female staff on hand to go get him a soda or do other errands.

“There are definitely two really systemic issues within the Capitol building,” she told the American-Statesman. “It’s two parts: It’s the sexual discrimination and the sexual harassment.”

'It has to end now'

In 1973, Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, was a 34-year-old rookie and one of only six women in the House, which was dominated by white men. After one of her colleagues in the chamber publicly referred to her as his "Black mistress," she was told to keep quiet, as speaking out would not only end her political career, but it could jeopardize her personal safety.

She ignored the warning and called out the offender in a speech from the well of the House chamber.

"I never remain silent," Thompson recalled 48 years later. "I can assure you that after my personal privilege speech, nobody ever said those things to me again."

Needless to say, Thompson's refusal to quietly accept sexually charged statements and actions did not end her career. She's now in her 25th term at age 82 and the longest-serving woman in the history of the Texas Legislature.

But the attitudes of some of the men who work in and around the Legislature still endure, she said.

Thompson said it's time to finally — and forever — put an end to the culture that condones, excuses and sometimes promotes the sexual abuse of women who serve in state government.

"All of this sexual harassment culture has to end, and it has to end now," she said.

About this story

The American-Statesman has agreed not to name the seven women who spoke to us about harassment at the Texas Capitol because of their fear of repercussions for going public. We are also not naming any men referred to by the women because it would identify the women who spoke to us about their experiences. We always strive to name individuals in stories but, in this instance, we believe that telling the story is critically important at this moment when the problem of sexual harassment at the Capitol is being debated by the Legislature.

Share your story

We've set up a private hotline for anyone who would like to share their story about harassment or discrimination at the Texas Capitol. We will honor requests for anonymity, and tips shared will not be published unless we receive express permission from you. To share your tip, leave a voicemail or send a text message to (512) 910-5368‬. Please also note if you're comfortable having a reporter contact you privately to learn more.

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/pol...872464001/

*Comment: such is a felony in most states.