A woman has settled her lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles that alleged she was harassed and overworked by a member of a city commission on which the plaintiff serves as the panel's one-member support staff.
Bianca Swan's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleged gender discrimination and harassment, retaliation, failure to take corrective action, whistleblower protection and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit states that Swan is Black, but she is not alleging racial discrimination.
On Friday, Swan's attorney informed Judge Upinder S. Kalra that the case was resolved, but no terms were revealed.
In their previous court papers, lawyers for the City Attorney's Office denied all of Swan's allegations and stated that the lawsuit should be dismissed. The defense attorneys cited multiple defenses, including that the city had immunity from the allegations and that Swan's claims were "frivolous" and "without foundation in fact and law."
Swan, hired in 2015, is the project coordinator for the city's Innovation and Performance Commission and is the only staff member assigned to do support work for the commission, the suit stated.
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Swan requested that the city hire more staff members to assist her, but nothing was done, the suit alleged.
In 2017, Jason Seward, the founder and executive producer of Your Turn Intern Expo & Celebrity Fest, was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to serve on the commission, the suit stated.
Unlike the other commissioners, Seward placed unreasonable demands on Swan, demanding that she focus on his assignments, which were unreasonably time- consuming, prevented the plaintiff from working on other assignments and required her to work nights and weekends to get the work done, according to the suit.
From January 2020 through October 2021, Seward "engaged in a campaign of discrimination, harassment and retaliation" against Swan, the suit stated.
At one point, a Your Turn intern contacted Swan alleging nonpayment of money owed, the suit states. Swan forwarded the email to Seward, who did not respond to the plaintiff, the suits states. Other intern inquiries followed, the suit stated.
Swan later told Seward that she did not feel comfortable communicating with his interns since it was beyond the scope of her job duties, so she reported the communications to her direct supervisor and the commission president, then also asked Seward to tell the interns to stop contacting her directly, the suit stated.
Seward falsely blamed Swan when his agenda items were not scheduled or his projects not timely completed, and he berated the plaintiff before the commission and her colleagues, according to the suit.
Swan made a formal complaint against the city regarding Seward's alleged misconduct, but nothing was done, according to the suit.
"It appeared that Seward's harassing conduct was intended to cause plaintiff to quit," according to the suit, which further stated without being specific that the use of racial slurs and racist and segregationist attitudes "has been condoned and ratified by defendants for several years now."
The defendants "have a history of harassment" and there is a "pattern and practice of condoning, ratifying or authorizing harassment of female employees that the city was on notice about but did not take action to stop," the suit stated.
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