Former Director of Facilities Charlotte Zolezzi is the latest employee terminated over the college’s handling of charges of racial discrimination by three former custodians.
Zolezzi was formally terminated in June nearly three-and-a-half years after being placed on paid administrative leave for alleged violations of conduct. An investigation by The Titan Group produced a damning 245-page report that concluded Zolezzi was guilty of a litany of violations, including inappropriate workplace behavior, retaliation and uploading unauthorized software to college devices to spy on employees.
Titan investigator Kathryn Johnson concluded that Zolezzi engaged in workplace behavior that was “intimidating,” “threatening,” “harassing” and “unethical.”
“Shortly after her hire employees and supervisors became disillusioned by her rudeness and
discourteous communication, as well as her total lack of flexibility, calmness and patience,” read the report. “She was vindictive and vengeful.”
Zolezzi was found guilty of multiple board policy and conduct violations.
“(Zolezzi) engaged in unethical and dishonest behavior of intimidation and retaliation to smear the reputation of employees specifically to get rid of employees,” read the report.
College President Dr. Kindred Murillo ordered an investigation after Zolezzi was put on administrative leave in February 2017. She was accused of retaliatory harassment following the filing of a racial discrimination complaint and 2016 lawsuit by former custodians Thaao Streeter, Mark Gutierrez and Roderick Curry. The suit was dismissed in October 2019 after the custodians agreed to a financial settlement with the college.
Southwestern’s investigation, which concluded Sept. 21, 2018, explored 10 allegations of inappropriate workplace conduct and unethical behavior by Zolezzi and sustained eight.
Sustained allegations include:
• confidentiality breaches and interference in Equal Employment Opportunity investigations and workplace climate surveys.
• retaliating against subordinates who refused to improperly fire employees.
• retaliation against Streeter, Gutierrez and Curry for filing discrimination complaints.
• uploading unauthorized software to college devices.
Titan’s heavily-redacted investigation report consisted of about 20 confidential interviews with employees that worked with Zolezzi. Many portrayed her as unethical and vindictive.
One 20-year employee described Zolezzi’s intense desire to be rid of “troublemakers” and her frustration with what she considered the HR department’s unwillingness to fire subpar employees.
“(Zolezzi) felt she was not being supported by HR,” read the testimony. “The custodian’s behavior was not being held accountable nor was punishment being delivered. Regrettably, (Zolezzi’s) resentment intensified, along with the attitude of, ‘I’m going to get them.’”
A witness described Zolezzi using “inappropriate and unprincipled tactics against the custodians,” the report read. “She would attack the employee maliciously and if necessary fabricate the behavior to suit her own narrative.”
Zolezzi attempted to include an employee in the manipulation of workplace climate surveys and EEO investigations, according to the report.
“(Zolezzi) instructed her, and (REDACTED) to ‘snoop’ and gather information from employees interviewed to include the length of time each employee was in (an EEO) interview,” read the report. “(She) believed (Zolezzi) intended to use the information to write up or terminate disruptive employees.”
Zolezzi’s tactics caused “an intense climate of fear” during employee observations, according to the report, and employees expressed fear of cooperating with the Titan investigation.
“(She) said in her 19 years of working at the District she had never experienced the amount of fear she had observed by the employees,” read the report.
An employee whose name was redacted described Zolezzi’s “obsession” with the three custodians. Witnesses said Zolezzi listened in on the night custodians’ radio conversations from her home and borrowed a friend’s car so she could secretly observe them from the parking lot at 3 a.m. (Asked by The Sun about this incident prior to her suspension, Zolezzi denied spying and said she was delivering home-baked cookies to the custodians.)
Facilities staff outlined a series of retaliatory incidents that led to the destruction of essential facilities documents in June 2017 that forced a massive, college-wide re-keying effort that affected hundreds of employees.
Witnesses told Titan’s Johnson that a group of employees planned to reorganize a storage unit managed by the Civic Center office, which is in charge of leasing college facilities to the public. At the time the college was hosting a stream of large graduation ceremonies for Sweetwater Union High School District campuses in the stadium. Some college employees who were to help with the storage shed reorganization were busy with graduation ceremonies. One of these employees claimed to have received a phone call from Zolezzi demanding that the clean-out of the storage unit happen immediately. The employee said she told Zolezzi she and the other employees were tied up with graduations and asked her not to reorganize the storage unit without the employees that most use it.
Zolezzi refused.
“(Zolezzi) told her, ‘You’re not the boss, I am. And this is what I’m doing,’” the report read.
Zolezzi and her crew threw out boxes of important documents—including the college’s key records. The employee said she believed Zolezzi did it intentionally.
An employee told the investigator she feared for her safety after finding a threatening note on her car windshield during this period in 2016.
“(She)…observed a note written on a Domino’s Pizza napkin,” according to the report. “This note said, ‘You better check your tires shithead bitch.’”
A custodial supervisor said he was ordered by Zolezzi to manufacture “malarkey” write-ups for “problem employees” rather than initiate district-approved re-training and corrective measures.
Zolezzi said she was prevented from speaking in detail to The Sun about the investigation under the terms of her separation settlement. She said the Titan investigation was one-sided and there were several SC employees who offered testimony that she was a good boss and good employee. She said she was not able to provide details due to the settlement.
