Federal agency finds probable cause Pueblo discriminated against former deputy clerk

A federal agency has found probable cause that the city of Pueblo discriminated against a former deputy city clerk.

Belinda Kimball has filed a lawsuit against the city claiming she was discriminated against and passed up for a promotion. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found “reasonable cause” that the city of Pueblo violated federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination “when it denied charging party (Kimball) a promotion to an open City Clerk position because of her protected class and in retaliation for engaging in protected activity.”

Determination letters that find probable cause from the EEOC are “very rare,” according to Kimball’s attorney Julie Yeagle.

“In my 15 years of practice, I've only gotten three probable cause claims. … You have to have overwhelming evidence that discrimination or retaliation occurred,” Yeagle said.

What are the next steps?

The federal letter follows a determination from the Colorado Civil Rights Division, which came in April 2022 and also found probable cause of some forms of discrimination.

Kimball filed a lawsuit against the city in district court in July 2022 regarding the alleged violations of state anti-discrimination law.

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The next step to resolve the federal claims is a conciliation process that could also resolve the state discriminatory claims. If a resolution is reached with the city on the state and federal discrimination claims, Yeagle said, then the ongoing state lawsuit would be dropped.

Yeagle said she does not know if the city will participate in the process to reach a resolution but hopes that Pueblo will engage in “good faith negotiations.”

Yeagle added that the additional finding on Kimball’s federal discrimination claims, as well as an ongoing controversy within city government — the former city attorney was asked to resign after he misinformed City Clerk Marisa Stoller and petitioners about an attempted initiated charter amendment — could incentivize the city to come to the table.

“You hire someone who's completely unqualified for the job and you pass over somebody who has 14 years of experience — the best qualified candidate — and then lo and behold, (Stoller) engages errors that impact the constituents. That's a big deal,” Yeagle said.

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The city’s director of public affairs, Haley Sue Robinson, was out of the office Friday. Mayor Nick Gradisar was out of town attending a conference and did not respond to a request for comment.

The city has hired attorney Sara Ludke Cook to represent them in the case. A receptionist at Cook's law office in Colorado Springs said she was "unavailable for comment" Friday.

Robinson previously said in an August 2022 statement that the city “normally has limited comment with regard to ongoing litigation” but that Pueblo “denies Ms. Kimball’s claims that it discriminated or retaliated against her during her employment with the city.”

Attorneys are in the discovery phase for the ongoing lawsuit in state court. A jury trial is scheduled to begin in July of this year in Pueblo District Court, but Yeagle said that date may be pushed back because of a scheduling conflict with the city’s attorney.

Here's why Kimball took action against the city

Kimball worked for the city for over 14 years and started as the deputy city clerk in October 2019, the Chieftain previously reported.

Kimball reported another employee in the clerk’s office, Daryl Payne, for what she characterized as consistent unfair treatment of non-white customers and co-colleagues multiple times between November 2019 and February 2021. She emailed Mayor Nick Gradisar in February 2021 about Payne’s alleged discriminatory actions and her previous attempts to report him to management. According to legal documents, Gradisar allegedly said he did not think Payne’s behavior, as reported by Kimball, was “inappropriate” and did not address her concerns.

Payne recently retired from the city and was honored with a proclamation at the March 13 city council meeting.

The previous city clerk, Brenda Armijo, resigned in March 2021 and Gradisar appointed Kimball to serve as the acting city clerk shortly after that. Gradisar appointed Stoller, who had not worked for the city of Pueblo before, to the role a week later without a competitive application process, according to the lawsuit.

Kimball would have applied for the job but Gradisar appointed Stoller directly. She filed a discrimination claim with the Colorado Civil Rights Division (CCRD) on April 29 and had to train Stoller during April and May, which she said caused significant stress and anxiety and led her to take medical leave.

In July, Kimball applied for a demotion for an open position in the human resources department but learned a week later she'd been denied. In the lawsuit, she claimed that the city’s decision to deny the demotion could have been retaliatory because she opposed discrimination, filed a complaint with the state and/or took medical leave.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Federal agency finds 'reasonable cause' city discriminated against Kimball