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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWhen you get down to it, it\u2019s a waste of taxpayer dollars.\u201d \u2014 Mary Doidge, former attorney with the city of Fresno<\/p>\n
The city council establishes the pay range<\/a> for attorneys \u2014 classified as nonunion represented employees \u2014 allowing raises \u201cat the discretion of the city attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n Several attorneys signed new contracts in November that were posted\u00a0<\/a>on the city\u2019s website. Combined with data Doidge said she received through a Public Records Act request \u2014 and shared with GV Wire \u2014 the increased compensation totals at least $330,000 for 18 attorneys. The raises ranged from 4% to 29%. Most also received a promotion.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is all at the whim of the city attorney, which is fine if you have a city attorney with integrity, but that\u2019s not the case,\u201d Doidge said. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t pass the sniff test.\u201d<\/p>\n The Fresno City Council hired Janz in 2022. He previously worked as a prosecutor in the Fresno County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n Janz is one of two department heads directly controlled by the city council, with the city clerk being the other. The city council approved a 12% raise<\/a> for Janz to $285,000 in 2025.<\/p>\n At the time of Janz\u2019s raise in February, City Manager Georgeanne White told the council the upcoming budget \u201chas nothing for salary increases.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, Janz hired several former prosecutors from the district attorney\u2019s office, including Ashley Paulson. She was hired at a salary of $230,000, according to her contract<\/a> posted on the city\u2019s website.<\/p>\n The new attorneys from the DA\u2019s office, Doidge said, did not have adequate municipal law experience.<\/p>\n \u201cHe personally knew them and was paying them more than attorneys who had been at the office for years,\u201d Doidge said. \u201cWhen you get down to it, it\u2019s a waste of taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n The city council approved a $31.5 million budget in June for the City Attorney\u2019s Office. Of that total, $22 million is allocated for personnel, including a staff of 76 attorneys and legal support employees in the legal proceedings unit.<\/p>\n Attorneys are not represented by a union, but support staff are represented by the City of Fresno Professional Employees Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rick Steitz, a business agent for CFPEA, said legal secretaries and support staff recently received a 4.5% raise as negotiated with the city.<\/p>\n \u201cI would think any increase for the attorneys would be much higher. Any increase higher than a 2.5% cost-of-living increase will only breed discontent and resentment among support staff, as the cost of living is the same for all employees. However, the city could somewhat defend a larger increase as a salary adjustment,\u201d Steitz said.<\/p>\n Stermer the Last Straw<\/p>\n Doidge said she went public after City Clerk Todd Stermer left last month<\/a> for a similar job in Sacramento County. The city council appointed Amy Aller<\/a> as interim clerk in November.<\/p>\n Aller joined the City Attorney\u2019s Office in June after 10 years as a prosecutor in the Fresno County District Attorney\u2019s Office. Her initial pay was $191,000<\/a>. She now earns $230,000<\/a>\u00a0as interim clerk.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last straw for me was the city clerk. It\u2019s just so blatant and in your face and out there that Todd left to go to Sacramento County because the city council wouldn\u2019t give him a raise. And then they turn around and appoint Janz\u2019s friend for $80,000 more when she has no clerk experience. So it just disgusts me,\u201d Doidge said.<\/p>\n Stermer earned $153,716 prior to his departure. His new salary in Sacramento is $206,106.<\/p>\n Aller declined comment because of the pending litigation. Stermer did not return messages.<\/p>\n Doidge Files Lawsuit<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t comment on the pending litigation involving the disgruntled employee \u2014 the pleadings will speak for themselves.\u201d \u2014 City Attorney Andrew Janz<\/p>\n Doidge filed a lawsuit against the city in June 2024 in federal court, alleging the city discriminated against her based on her mental health disability and then retaliated after she complained.<\/p>\n The case is pending. The city filed a motion for summary judgment<\/a> on Dec. 22. An outside firm, Val Verde-based Sethi Orchid Miner<\/a>, is defending the city.<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t comment on the pending litigation involving the disgruntled employee \u2014 the pleadings will speak for themselves,\u201d Janz said.<\/p>\n Doidge explained why she filed the lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cI just wanted to file the lawsuit so that it\u2019s public. If anyone looks up or sees how Andrew Janz manages or runs an office \u2014 since this is his first time ever doing it \u2014 this will come up and people will know,\u201d Doidge said.<\/p>\n The city, in its legal filing, cited Doidge\u2019s deposition testimony that \u201cno one made a disparaging remark\u201d about her disability, taking leave, filing a complaint or her gender.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is simply a dearth of evidence to establish retaliatory animus,\u201d the city\u2019s response said.<\/p>\n Quit Voluntarily or Forced?<\/p>\n Doidge and the city have differing views on what led to her departure in December 2023. She said she was forced to quit \u2014 a constructive discharge. The city said she quit voluntarily to pursue a new job.<\/p>\n \u201cAcceptance of a voluntary resignation is not an adverse employment action,\u201d the city\u2019s filing said.<\/p>\n The city said Doidge was seeking a job elsewhere months before she quit.<\/p>\n Lawsuit: Retaliation for Medical Leave<\/p>\n The lawsuit centers on Doidge\u2019s relationship with her supervisor, Raj Badhesha, whom Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed as a Fresno County judge in 2024.<\/p>\n Both parties said Doidge and Badhesha initially had a positive relationship \u2014 he was invited to her wedding, and she provided hand-me-down baby clothes.<\/p>\n Things changed when Doidge returned from knee surgery in March 2023. She also had to switch offices because of a water leak.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a very different person,\u201d Doidge said.<\/p>\n The lawsuit described a phone call about her work situation as \u201chostile, rude and aggressive.\u201d She hung up on him. He later told her that was unprofessional behavior. Doidge then filed a harassment claim against Badhesha.<\/p>\n The two also clashed over new flex work and leave policies. Doidge claimed Badhesha applied policies to her but not others. She took a three-month medical leave for stress and anxiety.<\/p>\n Doidge said the city denied her requests for reasonable accommodations when she returned in July 2023. The city, in its legal response, said it allowed Doidge to take time off if her anxiety flared up and to seclude herself in her office without interruption when needed.<\/p>\n Following the denial, Doidge said the city retaliated by singling her out for policy violations and by awarding her a lower salary increase compared with her peers, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n Doidge said she was assigned lesser duties, such as covering night meetings for the planning commission \u2014 jobs usually assigned to attorneys with less experience. She refused because of child care issues, which she said the city used against her.<\/p>\n She said she received a negative performance review as retaliation and did not receive a raise in the 5% to 12% range. The city, in court filings, disagreed. In July 2023, she received a \u201cusually meets expectation\u201d rating and a $5,000 raise \u2014 approximately 3%.<\/p>\n Doidge took another three-month leave in August. She returned in November, but left for good on Dec. 1, 2023. During her time off, the city said she applied for 30 jobs, and actually accepted a job with the state.<\/p>\n She now works as an attorney for the state Housing and Community Development office and remains in Fresno.<\/p>\n Because of his position as a judge, Badhesha said he could not comment on the lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Government attorneys employed by the city of Fresno recently received raises \u2014 to the detriment of taxpayers, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-112864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n