THE COWARD
As we've often written in the past, President Charles R. Wiggington, Sr. is a man who works in the shadows where he slyly orchestrates attacks against employees. He is too cowardly to ever face any of his targeted victims. Subsequently, the removal of his name is hardly a surprise and manipulating litigation using the excuse of his alleged cancer is just typical of the games employed by Charles R. Wiggington., Sr.
GIRL CRUSH
In late 2009, rumors circulated through all branches that COO, Beatrice Walker, was smitten by the beauty of the Valencia Branch Manager. Ms. Walker certainly made no pretense to camouflage her attentions to the manager.
In 2009, she was introduced to the Branch Manager and within days, Ms. Walker would leave her office in South Pasadena at about 1 p.m. on an almost daily basis, drive to the Valencia Branch where she would spend the remainder of the day sitting in the Branch Manager's office talking and laughing loudly.
By the end of the year, Ms. Walker who resides in the Santa Clarita Valley, submitted a request to the President asking if she could relocate her office to the Valencia branch, though the branch is small and had no physical space in which to build a new office. Was she hoping to share space within the Branch Manager's small office space? Ms. Walker used the excuse that relocating to Valencia would enable her to work closer to home. He rejected her request.
The lawsuit filed by the former Valencia Branch Manager suggests Ms. Walker may have tried to force a "relationship" with the Valencia Branch Manager. The allegations leave an indelible impression of a woman desperate for a relationship who exacted her will, irrelevant of the potential consequences to the credit union and with no regards to it's inappropriateness,
Ms. Walker's inability to control her emotions and abuse of authority have resulted in the filing of yet another lawsuit. As a result of her behaviors and the refusal by Board Chair, Diedra Harris-Brooks; President Wiggington; and the Human Resources Department to interceded and stop Ms. Walker's illegal acts, the credit union is again forced to dig into credit union resources to pay for legal representation, all of which was entirely avoidable had the credit union's executive sector chosen to cleave to ethics and abide to laws. Ironically, the credit union is now forced to pay for Ms. Walker's defense even though she was terminated on July 8, 2011. In 2010, while walking through the Credit Resolutions Department with Director, Yvonne Boutte, Ms. Walker exclaimed, "I love it when employee are afraid." We wonder if her opinion has changed.
NOT SO QUICK
Though the President's name as been removed as a defendant in the lawsuit filed by the former Valencia Branch Manager, it does preclude him from testifying and answering questions about how he chose to respond to the complaint filed in 2010 by the former Valencia Branch Manager. He will also have to answer questions as to why it was decided to terminate Ms. Walker. We hope he's rehearsing answers that will possess some semblance of believability.
The credit union's attorney, Paul F. Schimley, is being paid handsomely to concoct a defense that helps exonerate Ms. Walker because if she's found guilty of the egregious acts she's accused of committing, then Priority One may have to payout a hefty settlement. Of course, whatever defense is fabricated it will have to explain or at the very least, succeed in deterring attention away from the President's and Human Resource's refusal to bring an immediate end to Ms. Walker's very public attack on the Valencia Branch Manager. Here are excerpts of the latest lawsuit:
Unlike Ms. Walker, the Valencia Branch Manager was well-like and respected by staff and officers. She also consistently proved her competency and succeeded in creating new business throughout the Santa Clarita Valley.
Ms. Walker's attention towards the Branch Managers was witnessed by employees of several branches and sparked gossip about Ms. Walker's alleged intentions and about her sexuality. In 2009 and 2010, Ms. Walker boasted about visiting the Valencia Branch Manager’s home on weekends, during which the two would allegedly go out and have lunch and even insisting that the Branch Manager show her where she bought her clothes and had her hair done. Ms. Walker was being intrusive and even obsessive as she forced her way into the Branch Manager's personal life.
Ms. Walker lost sufficient control of her behavior that, as mentioned previously, requested that the President allow her to transfer her office to the small and not very spacious Valencia branch. If her request had been approved, she would have shared office space with the Valencia Branch Manager despite the fact Ms. Walker was hired to oversee all branches which at the time included the South Pasadena, Los Angeles, Redlands, Riverside, Airport, Van Nuys and Valencia branches. Her relocation to Valencia would have placed her physically, far away from where the majority of the credit union's other branches were located.
As also disclosed in the lawsuit and of course to no surprise, Senior Vice President, Rodger Smock, who is also the Director of Human Resources asked the Valencia Branch Manager to "get to know" Ms. Walker. This was his remedy to Ms. Walker's disturbing emotional and psychological behaviors. Interestingly, over the years, Mr. Smock periodically disclosed that in the mid-1960's, while attending the University of Cincinnati, he majored in psychology. Evidently, he learned nothing about human behaviors and how to contend with inappropriate behaviors in the workplace. Of course, time would prove his advice to be utterly worthless and preposterous.
What the lawsuit conveys, is an image of a socially inept and controlling female who doesn't possess the ability to discern between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and who believed retaliation was fully justified when she believed she had been chided.
As the lawsuit also discloses, the feckless Human Resources Department resorted to the use of a meaningless assurances to invalidate the Branch Manager’s concerns. Historically, Human Resources under Rodger Smock, is a department that conceals illegal committed by the executive sector who allows the vilification and abuse of victimized employees. Ms. Walker's erratic behavior and very public attacks on the Branch Manager are disturbing and bring into question Priority One's ability to protect the safety of it's employees.
Ms. Walker's erratic behaviors are also attested to that through the first half of 2010, she exerted tremendous effort to promote the Valencia Branch Manager and even transferred her temporarily to the South Pasadena that she could train her as a loan officer. So what caused Ms. Walker to turn against the Branch Manager and seek out her destruction?
Aside from the refusal of Human Resources to intercede and bring an end to Ms. Walker's scathing attacks, the President used the incident as an opportunity to regain the authority he had been losing to Ms. Walker since she was first hired on June 1, 2009. In September 2010, the President accompanied by Rodger Smock, drove to the Valencia branch to inform the Branch Manager that Beatrice Walker had marked her branch for closure and to ask about her complaint verbally filed with Human Resources "clerk", Esmeralda Sandoval, just a few days earlier. The President also informed the Branch Manager that after closure of hr office she could remain employed and served in the reduced capacity of Assistant Branch Manager of the struggling Burbank branch and informing her that there would be a "slight" reduction in pay.
After advising her of the scheduled closure, the President asked the Branch Manager questions about her complaint lodged against Ms. Walker. During the meeting he also listened to testimony from the Business Development Representative assigned to Santa Clarita who provided statements made by Ms. Walker disparaging the Branch Manager.
The President asked both women to provide him letters documenting their statements and turning to Mr. Smock, informed him he would immediately remove Human Resources from under Ms. Walker's authority. Before leaving, the President assured the Branch Manager and Business Development Representative that he would conduct a fair and unbiased investigation of their contentions and make sure the incident was resolved. At this point, we must remind readers that in 2008., President Wiggington was found guilty of having sexually harassed a former employee. Inarguably, this is not the person who should ever be involved in investigating alleged violations of policy or state and federal laws.
A few days later, the President received the letter which he used to expose Ms. Walker's character to Board Chair, Diedra Harris-Brooks. However, Mrs. Harris-Brooks was less concerned about allegations that Ms. Walker subjected the Branch Manager to a hostile work environment than she was about those regarding the COO's sexuality. The President was ordered to diffuse the complaint reminding him that it was he, who introduced Ms. Walker to the credit union.
The President never investigated the complaint. He informed Ms. Walker of the allegations and removed her authority over Human Resources. She was mystified by the removal of Human Resources from under her authority was readily assured by the cowardly President that no actions would be taken against her.
The President utilized Board Chair, Diedra Harris-Brooks, and COO, Beatrice Walker, to draft the letter which would serve to advise the Valencia Branch Manager that he concluded the conflict with the COO was due to a personality conflict. He also went on to express his genuine efforts to create a cohesive working environment. In other words, Charles R. Wiggington, Sr. lied.
He also informed the Branch Manager that if she wanted to transfer to Burbank to serve as Assistant Branch Manager, that her salary would be reduced by $24,000 per year. That hardly sounds like a slight reduction in salary.
The President also suggested the Branch Manager reach out to Ms. Walker to make amends. When one considers the gravity and illegality of Ms. Walker's acts, the President's advise is both idiocy and absurd.
The President used to the Branch Manager's complaint as an opportunity to regain his lost authority which Ms. Walker had all too easily stolen from him since her arrival in June 2009. Furthermore, since the investigation which found the President guilty of sexual harassment, the Board Chair, Diedra Harris-Brooks, has been sensitive to employee complaints alleging violations of policies and laws by members of the management sector. Mrs. Harris-Brooks has donned the attitude that employees who expose wrong doing must be expelled from the credit union. The Branch Manager, despite her excellent work record, had now been branded a trouble by Mrs. Harris-Brooks and her lackey, the President.
The alliance entered into in mid-2009 with Ms. Walker had deteriorated beyond repair by February 2010 however, her favor with the Board had provided her with stable positioning that the President was unable to impact. At least, not until the Valencia Branch Manager provided him with a letter containing allegations that constituted violations of federal and state laws and which he used in regaining an inroad to the ignorant Board of Directors.
And through the Branch Manager resigned at the end of October 2010, over the next nine months, the President would continue quietly exposing Ms. Walker's failures to the Board until July 8, 2011, when she was unceremoniously quietly escorted out of the credit union. She apparently arrived quietly and left quietly though her stay at the credit union was tumultuous, chaotic and destructive. And though she's currently forced to answer questions about her activities in 2010, we believe most employees wish she'd just go away and never return.
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