The number of women raising concerns about a sexually hostile work environment in the South Dakota Legislature, coupled with the sleazy behavior in which former Representative Mathew Wollmann engaged with interns under him without penalty for two years before publicity forced him to resign, suggests that our Legislative leaders are unable to police their own houses.
Perhaps the California State Senate, which has also been upset by allegations of rampant sexist behavior toward women, has a solution for the South Dakota Legislature to consider—hire outside investigators:
California Senate leader Kevin de León will hire two outside firms to look into allegations of a widespread culture of sexual harassment in the state Capitol.
De León announced Monday he has hired the law office of Amy Oppenheimer to conduct an external investigation into harassment and assault allegations, and the consulting firm CPS HR Consulting to review Senate policies on harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
De León also sent letters to lobbyists in the Capitol community detailing how existing rules protect non-employees.
“There’s always more employers can do to protect their employees,” De León said in a statement. “Everyone deserves a workplace free of fear, harassment and sexual misbehavior and I applaud the courage of women working in and around the Capitol who are coming forward and making their voices heard [Melanie Mason, “California Senate Hires Investigators to Look into Sexual Harassment Allegations,” Los Angeles Times, 2017.10.23].
It would be a challenge to find a South Dakota law firm that doesn’t have connections of some sort to sitting legislators or whose partners aren’t being bombarded with campaign fundraising letters from their Attorney General and thus might feel a little biased in any investigation of major political figures. If we brought in outside reviewers to review behavior and policies during Session, we’d need to find some lawyers or other legally smart investigators with no bills pending, no law school connections, no horse in any race on the 2018 ballot. I don’t know if such investigators exist in South Dakota, but finding such impartial investigators might be the only way to guarantee that victims who come forward with allegations of sexism in Pierre will get a fair hearing and be protected from retribution for blowing the whistle on the privileged partiarchs.
this is big! my thanks to pigs Weinstein and o’reiley for getting this needed discussion started to crush abusers and corporate abettors
Leslie, let’s hope we’re saying a change in the culture, a shift in fear and power that exposes more of these predators.
Can the SD Legislature root out its own predators, or do we need to bring in outside agents?
And hey, if we can’t find outside investigators, an we just hire new legislators next year?
This is needed in Pierre. When I was a lobbyist a lawmaker asked if he could watch me pee. Lobbyists are not given a crash course on procedure and certainly not told who to contact or file a report if harassed. I thought telling the speaker of the House would mean my harasser would be talked to by leadership. I was wrong, the speaker said he couldn’t do anything since it didn’t happen at the Capitol. He then asked what night it happened, when I told him he replied, “Yea, I heard he was pretty bad that night (I assumed he meant my harasser was really drunk). I know for a fact that the speaker never spoke to him.