The Black woman at the center of a racial discrimination lawsuit against the city of Fresno took the stand Friday, describing accumulating mistreatment in the workplace that culminated in a racial slur.
The testimony of La-Kebbia “Kiki” Wilson, 55, focused on her poor treatment after rejoining the city’s code enforcement in 2016. She was among others laid off in 2013 as the city faced budget cuts.
She said she had faced racial adversity over the years in the city, but it intensified when she returned to work in 2016. She described the demeanor of a number of the higher-ranking city officials as being unwelcoming to her, but said it was her treatment by supervisor Howard Lacy that weighed on her.
“I’m still so angry about that,” she said.
A number of the issues she faced on their own may have individually seemed trivial, she testified, but the accumulation led to daily stress, and she said her complaints to higher ranking officials fell on deaf ears.
“Just simple things to do my job — any little thing — I got pushback,” she said. “I tried never to rock the boat if I didn’t have to.”
Wilson listed several indecencies in her testimony. She was assigned to use a truck in the field that had seats with exposed bars and given a filthy tool bag for work. Wilson also waited a month to get a cubicle and about six weeks to be issued a cellphone while there were unused cubicles in the building, she testified. Wilson said she made it known she needed the tools to do her job.
“I wanted to make sure no one could say they did not know, and start pointing fingers not wanting to take accountability,” she said.
Wilson also touted herself as a public servant, having worked in public sector jobs and volunteered in victim advocacy. Her husband and son are both police officers in Fresno.
The incident that brought the tensions to a head came on July 11, 2018, when co-plaintiff Charles Smith told Wilson about derogatory and racist remarks made by Lacy, according to testimony. Smith testified he considered Lacy a friend before that.
Smith testified he felt torn about his friendship with Lacy and the things the supervisor was saying about Wilson, including calling her an “entitled (N-word)” and claiming she played the race card to her benefit. On another occasion Lacy described her as “lazy and a piece of sh–.”
Lacy denied saying any of that during his own testimony. A couple of other code enforcement employees testified they’d heard him use other derogatory language though nothing specifically about Wilson, the only Black person in the department.
Wilson said learning what Lacy said caused her to cry, which led her to feel humiliated at work.
“I was so — and I know I’m not supposed to say this — I was f—— mad because all of this s— I’ve been through in this city,” she said during testimony. “None of you people could deal with what I’ve had to endure.”
She said she attempted to calm herself and report it to her managers. She eventually was able to speak to Jennifer Clark, who is now the city’s director of development. In that meeting, Wilson said she called Clark a “f—— liar.”
Wilson would be placed on leave for that outburst. Lacy was not disciplined after an investigation came back inconclusive, according to earlier testimony.
The testimony was scheduled to resume Tuesday in federal court. It was estimated to last another eight days.
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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.