Nav Gill, Sacramento County CEO, put on paid leave after ‘toxic culture’ accusations

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors has unanimously agreed to put county executive Navdeep Gill on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into several allegations of misconduct and mismanagement.

Several public health officials recently have called for the Board of Supervisors to fire Gill, accusing him of creating a culture where sexism, racism and intimidation tactics were used to silence dissent. He also was accused of undermining the public health department’s work amid the coronavirus pandemic, and refusing to pay overtime for public health staff.

At their closed-session meeting on Tuesday, the supervisors also voted 3-2 to “express no confidence in Mr. Gill’s abilities as County CEO,” according to a statement from Supervisor Phil Serna. Despite the no-confidence vote, it would take a supermajority of at least four board members to remove Gill from the top administrative job.

The no-confidence vote and the decision to place Gill on paid administrative leave were announced at a brief public meeting Wednesday. Gill was asked to leave his post effective immediately and remain on leave until the end of “an active personnel investigation involving Mr. Gill,” Serna said.

Gill has been under increasing pressure to resign after Serna and Supervisor Patrick Kennedy said they no longer had confidence in his leadership ability after he flouted COVID-19 rules on mask-wearing at an indoor meeting with top managers. The episode was embarrassing for the county which is ordering many businesses and schools to follow stringent rules to contain the virus.

County workers and residents phoned in during a regular meeting Tuesday to criticize his management decisions related to the coronavirus pandemic, echoing complaints that were communicated to the supervisors in a letter last week. The grievances focused on Gill’s demeanor as a manager and his leadership as an administrator over the county’s more than 12,000 employees.

It’s unclear how each supervisor voted on the no-confidence decision. Attempts to reach Supervisor Don Nottoli was unsuccessful late Wednesday. Supervisor Susan Peters declined to comment in an email message, referring all questions to Board Chairman Serna who spoke on behalf of the board.

Serna, when reached, said the recent issues were not the sole reason for placing Gill on leave.

“With regard to Nav, it’s not just a personnel matter which of course are extremely important to get to the bottom of,” Serna said. “But this is also about his history of behavior and how he treats the board. For me, he’s been dismissive, unwilling to perform follow through when he commits to it.”

Serna said Gill had also become a distraction that loomed over the county’s response to the pandemic.

“The focus right now is to take out of the picture, at least for the time being, someone who does not have the confidence of a majority of the board to lead the organization,” Serna said, “so that we can hopefully begin to get back to the business of addressing the pandemic without the distraction of his presence.”

The supervisors did not name a replacement during the closed session meeting. Kennedy said they will have to hold another meeting to determine if someone will serve in Gill’s job in the interim.

“The vote of no-confidence was to show the community and our employees that his conduct was unacceptable and that we have lost confidence in him as a leader,” Kennedy said. “The administrative leave was to extricate him from the county while we sort things out.”

‘A toxic culture rife with sexism, intimidation, racism’

The allegations against Gill were spelled out in a two-page letter sent to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. It was signed by Dr. Olivia Kasirye, the county’s public health officer who leads the coronavirus pandemic response, and other women who currently or previously worked for the county.

“Over the years, County Executive Gill has created a toxic culture rife with sexism, intimidation, racism, and a blatant disregard for public health,” the letter begins. “We can no longer stand by and allow Nav Gill to operate with impunity as he has done for years as such behavior only hurts the residents of our beloved county.”

The document summarizes instances in which women, particularly women of color, felt they were singled out for abuse. The letter said women leaders in the agency have abruptly resigned because of sexist behavior, and some staff members were retaliated against after speaking up about their experiences.

What’s more, the letter says, county staff members were ridiculed for wearing masks during department meetings. The letter also accused Gill of making disparaging remarks about people of color and using racial slurs during department head meetings.

Supervisor Sue Frost said in an email that the allegations have not yet been proven true.

“There have been unsubstantiated claims made against the CEO,” Frost said, “and the County has initiated an independent investigation to find out how truthful those claims are.”

The personnel issues are just one of the missteps weighing on Gill. More notable was his handling of federal dollars designed to aid communities during the pandemic which sparked a wave of criticism from the community.

Gill has defended his decision to use Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security money to cover $104 million in expenses for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. Gill recently sent a statement to explain the heavily criticized decision, saying the sheriff’s department did not receive additional money and no public health requests for funding were denied.

“This allowed the county to maximize its Coronavirus Relief Fund allocation and use other federal program grants appropriately to address the pandemic,” Gill said in the statement.

During the board’s regular meeting Tuesday, health services staff refuted Gill’s statement in a defiant display of opposition. Some said that Gill had given the supervisors a false impression of what was actually happening in the county administration.

“On Aug. 11, Nav said regardless of the color of money if it was something that was needed it was there. He said we will suspend all the controls for submitting contracts as we go forward,” said Liz Gomez, who oversees the 11 COVID-19 test sites in the Department of Health Services.

‘As the person submitting all Coronavirus Relief Fund submissions for health services and a manager of several of those contracts, I can tell you that is not true. The money was not there and there are still substantial barriers to contracts and purchasing, even after Aug. 11.”