August 13, 2010 9:03 AM
Brooke Edwards
VICTORVILLE • The No. 2 employee in charge of the city’s Water District has filed a claim against Victorville, alleging he was retaliated against for reporting possible investment fraud and other “financial improprieties” to his bosses and to the San Bernardino County Grand Jury.
Steve Borrowman claims the city responded by stripping him of his ability to perform his job, creating a hostile work environment and constituting an adverse job action.
The city declined to comment on the potential litigation, spokeswoman Yvonne Hester said by phone Thursday.
Borrowman was an employee of the Victor Valley Water District when the city took it over in 2007. He was hired on as a city employee then, taking the title of chief financial officer in charge of the district’s budget and responsible for interacting with Victorville’s auditors.
According to the claim included in the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting, Borrowman approached Water District Director Reggie Lamson on Dec. 14 reporting his “reasonable belief” that the city was “engaged in financial improprieties.” He made this same report to Deputy City Manager Doug Robertson on Dec. 16, the claim states, also notifying Robertson that he intended to report his findings to the San Bernardino County Grand Jury.
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Pure and simple retaliation against a whistle-blower, SOP for SBCo. Maybe reporting something on the Grand Jury complaint form should come with some kind of disclaimer like, “Notice to Users: Retaliation will result, please be aware, the County DA’s office takes no responsibility in this matter, you have just torpedoed your own career.”
From the complaint form “The CONFIDENTIAL Grand Jury citizen complaint form should be prepared and filed with the Grand Jury only after all attempts to resolve the complaint have been exhausted. Ordinarily, the County Grand Jury has no jurisdiction over State or Federal agencies, the courts, judicial officers, or most companies in the private sector”.
Whistle blower laws should cover complainants, but how hard is that to implement? Looks like a system put in place to not really do much but give some community wanna be’s the feeling of importance.
As for the individual trying to do the right thing, well, you really are putting it on the line to take this route.