Page One

SAN FRANCISCO — A city affirmative action officer says he was discriminated against, demoted and harassed on the job after testifying before a federal grand jury about alleged wrongdoing in the city’s minority contracting program. 

In a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court, Kevin Williams, 46, alleges he was demoted from his managerial position at the San Francisco International Airport and harassed after the grand jury indicted a Human Rights Commission official earlier this year. 

Williams said the day after Zula Jones, 53, was indicted on 16 counts of defrauding the minority contracting program, she called him at home. 

“She asked me, what did I say to the grand jury?” Williams told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I was really taken aback. She accused me of turning state’s evidence on her.” 

Williams, a black man who has worked 15 years for the city, also alleges racial discrimination in his lawsuit because a white woman, Virginia Harmon, who has worked for the commission less than five years, was appointed acting director. The appointment was made after the former executive director told Williams he would be the obvious choice for the job, said Stephen Gorski, Williams’ lawyer. 

Harmon declined comment. The city’s chief labor attorney, Linda Ross, said she was not prepared to comment because the city had not yet been served with the lawsuit. 

“She’s someone who Kevin has to report to, and Zula Jones is still working there,” Gorski said. “We think there’s some sort of conspiracy going on among various people at the commission. ... There were certainly no problems until after his testimony.” 

Jones’ lawyer John Keker says Williams’ allegations are unfounded. 

“It is an absurd and false charge that Zula Jones had any effect on his employment status,” he said. “It’s just plain wrong.” 

Jones’ indictment is part of an ongoing FBI investigation probing suspected corruption in the awarding of city contracts. 

The indictment accuses Jones and four executives of a San Francisco construction firm of conspiring to receive public contracts set aside for minority-owned firms. The grand jury charged Jones with knowing the Scott-Norman Mechanical company set up a phony company to win the contracts. 

Gorski said Williams returned to work after about two weeks of medical leave to find someone else doing his job as lead compliance officer overseeing an airport expansion project. 

From there, he was moved to the downtown office and later to various positions where he had no experience, including handling obesity discrimination and disability issues. He also was given unrealistic deadlines and reprimanded for not meeting them, Gorski said. 

Williams then went on disability following an exacerbated back injury. His doctor ordered him back to work, but only after his office ergonomics were changed. Those changes took three months – instead of three weeks – to complete. Williams earned about $500 a week in disability pay, compared to his usual $1,500 a week, Gorski said. His salary, however, was not cut when he moved to the downtown office. 

“That’s an excessive amount of time to redo a desk and get a chair,” Gorski said. 

In the lawsuit, Williams is requesting back pay and reinstatement to his old job at the airport. Williams is also asking for an unspecified amount of money for damages.