SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — Sacramento County employees railed against their former boss, Nav Gill, in a report prepared by an outside investigator.
The report summary was prepared by Kramer Workplace Investigations with interviews from 45 former and current employees. The investigation addressed allegations that Gill created a “toxic work environment” and included accusations of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.
Gill worked in the county since 2007, serving as County Executive Officer (CEO) for the past five years. He ultimately resigned on Feb. 13, 2021. Ann Edwards is currently serving as the Sacramento County's acting CEO.
According to the seven-page summary, some witnesses in the investigation described Gill as “uncontrollable,” “disrespectful,” “demeaning,” “verbally abusive,” retaliatory,” and “punitive.” Employees also described Gill’s management style as authoritarian and Gill himself as vindictive and retaliatory against those who publicly challenged him, questioned his decisions, and didn’t obey him.
In the report, Gill told investigators that he was stunned by the bullying allegations, claiming that he was blunt with people but didn’t act with malice. He even described his management style as “democratic.”
"An overriding theme from witnesses was a culture in the County in which employees do not feel comfortable disagreeing with the CEO due to a fear of retaliation," Karen Kramer, of Kramer Investigations, wrote in the report. "The majority of the witnesses interviewed described Gill as having an 'oppressive management style.' Some witnesses described his style as 'authoritarian.'"
One department head said an interaction with Gill had him “yelling uncontrollably,” but Gill described the same scenario as a “very spirited conversation” to investigators. He denied yelling or raising his voice at any employee but admitted to showing frustration during meetings with employees.
However, the report said Gill was not a credible witness due to contradictions from multiple witnesses.
"One reason for this assessment is that the statements Gill made during his interview were contradicted by multiple witnesses with firsthand knowledge of the incidents reported," Kramer wrote.
The report also said that Gill didn’t take the coronavirus pandemic seriously, noting that many witnesses reported that Gill referred to it as a “shamdemic.” Two employees told investigators that Gill laughed at them for wearing a mask during a one-on-one meeting and during an agenda review meeting.
According to the report, Gill told others that he wanted to fire Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye early on in the pandemic. Despite Gill denying those reports to investigators, the multiple witnesses corroborated hearing Gill say that he wanted her fired.
In November 2020, Dr. Kasirye claimed that Gill created a hostile work environment for any woman in the workplace who didn’t obey his orders. She added that she was left out of meetings, off of press releases, and was not given opportunities to give media interviews about the pandemic.
“He was not happy with me requesting a health emergency and I know that there have been other women in leadership that have had mistreatment because they spoke out,” Kasirye told ABC10 in November.
Other accusations included delaying an employee's pay raise for about one and a half years by not putting it on the Board of Supervisors' agenda. According to the report, the move came after the employee disagreed with Gill regarding decisions he made.
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