In a perfect world, assessors like Cathy Rinehart would only have to do one thing: calculate the values of local property. But this isn't a perfect world, and so Cathy gets stuck with mundane tasks like making sure her employees aren't sexually harassing each other. Apparently, this heavy burden was just too much to handle.
Sexual harassment lawsuits within Cathy Rinehart’s office have cost Clay County more than $1,000,000. The lawsuits reveal a startling pattern of incompetence and poor judgment, going back as far as 2003.
It's beyond question that Cathy is personally culpable for permitting this to happen. One lawsuit might be an isolated event - but FOUR? It has been repeatedly asserted that she tolerated gender discrimination and sexual harassment, to the point of refusing to discipline clearly inappropriate and illegal behavior.
When the county’s insurance carrier required all officeholders and department heads attend employment law training – thanks to, who would have guessed, Cathy – she complained and tried to get out of it.
She must have been busy doing things like bungling property assessments and costing Clay County millions, voting for illegal pay raises, telling her political opponents she hopes their two year olds will grow up to be drug addicts, or searching for other new and interesting ways to screw things up.
The financial consequences for Clay County are unacceptable - but they also represent the real misery that has been inflicted on innocent individuals while Cathy Rinehart sat by and watched.
As KCWebGuides has pointed out, this sort of behavior would be the kiss of death in the private sector. Yet for some strange reason, the details of these events have sat by in near obscurity. With only a few mentions of the events, the presses have been all but silent. How many victims will have to stand up to Cathy Rinehart before they start paying attention?
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