Opinion ID: 591862
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: 1988 Sexual Harassment Policy Procedures

Text: 7 Turner claims the City breached his employment contract by applying the 1988 sexual harassment policy procedures, rather than the 1982 sexual harassment policy procedures. Because the 1988 policy was promulgated by the City Manager, rather than the City Council, and because the 1988 policy procedures materially deviated from the 1982 policy procedures, Turner was robbed ... of the opportunity for the non-adversarial and impartial proceedings contemplated by Reno's 1982 procedure. Turner specifically complains of not being provided promptly with a copy of the sexual harassment complaint; not being allowed to prepare his own written statement; not being afforded an informal non-adversarial fact finding process; failure to use a three member panel for the fact finding; failure to allow him to challenge the choice of the fact finder; the participation of two City attorneys in the fact finding hearing; and the use of a peer review committee. 8 Regardless of the sexual harassment policy in place at the time in question, we find that Turner was not injured by the use of the 1988 policy. The application of either sexual harassment policy was only of borderline importance to the whole termination procedure. Only one of the six charges brought against Turner implicated the sexual harassment policy procedures, and that charge proved to be the least crucial to the termination determination. 9 Moreover, the application of the 1988 policy provided Turner with more procedural safeguards than the 1982 policy would have provided. For example, the 1988 policy gave Turner the right to have an attorney present at all times. Nowhere does Turner show how the use of the 1982 policy would have altered the outcome of the termination determination. He complains of not promptly receiving the complaint; the record shows, however, that he received the complaint three days after he was notified of the charges. The additional peer review committee and adversarial fact-finding hearing (in which he was represented by an attorney and was allowed to provide witnesses and cross-examine the City's witnesses) added to, not detracted from, his rights. The remaining complaints are equally frivolous. Turner does not justify his complaint with the presence of the City's attorneys at the fact-finding hearing. Nor does he explain how the use of a one-person fact finder, rather than a three-member panel, affected the proceedings; and the fact that the fact finder was the University of Nevada Director of Affirmative Action does not taint the proceedings. 10