A civil rights lawsuit brought by two Fresno city employees began in federal court this week over the city’s handling of alleged racist comments made in the code enforcement department.
Code enforcement employees La-Kebbia “Kiki” Wilson, who is Black, and Charles Smith, who is white, filed a lawsuit in 2019, arguing the city had forced them to continue to work with a supervisor known for racist remarks whom they’d butted heads with before.
The supervisor testified Tuesday he never used any of the language in question, and filed his own competing lawsuit in 2019 to try to halt what he described as repeated false accusations. His lawsuit failed the same year and never went to trial.
He testified Tuesday he felt mental anguish and embarrassment over the matter and tried to get transferred to another area, but his bosses at the city of Fresno did not allow him to move.
Two former city employees testified Tuesday they’d heard the supervisor speak about southwest Fresno residents in a racist manner, including calling them “pigs” and doing an impression of different groups of people of color.
The conflict among employees came to a head when Smith informed Wilson in June 2018 of racist remarks he’d heard the supervisor say, including calling her an “entitled (N-word)” and “lazy,” among other derogatory comments.
The supervisor tried to justify his use of the N-word by saying he was ending the word with an “A” and not an “ER,” according to the court filing. The supervisor denied saying the N-word.
Wilson was reprimanded after using the F-word in a City Hall hallway after she learned about the alleged derogatory statements, according to the lawsuit. Labor representative Tony Silva testified the city escalated the reprimand too quickly, not following their own policies.
Both Wilson and the supervisor were placed on administrative leave as the city conducted an investigation, according to testimony.
Then-City Attorney Doug Sloan, who now works as Fresno County counsel, testified Tuesday he brought the two back to work before the investigation by a third party was complete.
Sloan said he believed Wilson and the supervisor could avoid each other. Both of them continued to work for code enforcement on the same floor.
Sloan said he did not read the completed third-party investigation, but discussed the results with another employee of the City Attorney’s Office, which oversaw code enforcement. The report did not conclude the supervisor used the N-word.
“We can’t terminate somebody unless we know what happened,” he said. “Then he would have sued us. We have to take action based on the findings.”
Wilson’s lawsuit argues her mistreatment by the city went beyond the incident with the supervisor.
Wilson was also laid off with several other employees earlier in her career in 2013 as Fresno saw budget cuts, according to the lawsuit. All the other seven employees laid off, which included six white employees and one Hispanic employee, were rehired in subsequent years before she was, despite her time with the city, the lawsuit says.
The testimony was scheduled to continue on Wednesday and last about another two weeks.
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 9:26 AM.
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Reporter Thaddeus Miller has covered cities in the central San Joaquin Valley since 2010, writing about everything from breaking news to government and police accountability. A native of Fresno, he joined The Fresno Bee in 2019 after time in Merced and Los Banos.