College District fighting release of investigation report on complaints made by current, former staff leaders
The issue dates back four years and more; board to hold special closed door meeting Wednesday to discuss lawsuits by the three staff members; judge to rule by Friday on release of report
By Allen D. Payton
The Contra Costa Community College District is fighting in court to prevent the release of an investigations report of complaints made by three employees in leadership of the District. Current members, Executive Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services Eugene Huff, Chief Human Resources Officer Diogenes “Dio” Shipp and former Chief Financial Officer Jonah Nicholas made California Public Records Act (CPRA) requests for the release of “Any and all investigation reports delivered to the District concerning complaints made by” them.
Huff and Shipp are currently on paid administrative leave and Nicholas now works for the Chabot Las Positas Community College District in Alameda County.
A “Notice of Intention to Produce Records and Court Documents” was sent Monday to former Governing Board Trustee Greg Enholm from Executive Vice Chancellor for Education and Technology Mojdeh Mehdizadeh. In it she wrote, “the District vigorously opposed the release of the requested records, namely the Investigation Report (‘Report’) prepared by Jessica Armijo, citing a variety of legal privileges including” the “right to privacy” of those mentioned in the Report. However, the letter continues, “In his Jan. 28, 2022 ruling…Judge Jerry Baskin found that none of the purported exemptions apply to the Report.”
The judge further “ordered the Report be submitted for an in-camera review for February 1, 2022” (today), the notice reads.
Mehdizadeh also informed Enholm that the release of the Report “would result in a public disclosure of records containing information related to your role as a Governing Board member”. She suggested if he also objected to the release of the information that he could use a “reverse-CPRA action” for judicial relief and obtain a court order preventing the disclosure.
However, Enholm said he doesn’t care if any information about him or the Report is released.
According to the notice, the District is required to provide a copy of the Report of the investigations by Wednesday, Feb. 2 and “the Court intends to issue its final ruling”, this Friday, February 4 11:15 am.
A special closed session board meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. during which the trustees will discuss litigation with their legal counsel. The cases are Huff et al. v. Contra Costa Community College District, CIV N21-1890 and Huff et al. v. Contra Costa Community College District, CIV C21-02408.
In addition, the board will again discuss the “Public employee discipline/dismissal/release/complaint (Government Code Section 54957)” of Chancellor Bryan Reece.
Huff Explains
“Because we are in litigation, I’m probably not going to answer all your questions,” Huff said when reached for comment. “But I’m happy to provide you with the facts.”
“We have the same attorney and we filed two lawsuits against the District,” he continued. “One is the writ Judge Baskin heard, last Friday, which resulted in our favor.” Regarding the other lawsuit, “we filed a claim against the district about employment discrimination and retaliation.”
The lawsuit filed in court is a public document, Huff pointed out.
“Dio, additionally, has stand-alone claims,” he added.
“We were contract administrators at the time,” Huff stated. Their contracts were not renewed. “We filed for documents related to complaints filed in 2020.”
Dio was put on paid administrative leave in June. Huff was placed on administrative leave in August.
Asked if there was a date certain to the end of his paid leave, Huff replied, “It’s unusual to have a person on paid administrative leave indefinitely. But my current contract runs through June 2022. So, maybe they’re going to just wait it out.”
