The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s parking division is awash in racial and disability discrimination, sexual harassment, and worker retaliation, according to a former SFMTA worker whose allegations against the agency went to trial on Friday.
Elias Georgopoulos, who is half-Mexican and filed suit against the transit agency in January 2022, has alleged that multiple members of the parking enforcement division, including its current director, Shawn McCormick, fostered a culture of discrimination.
McCormick was accused of targeting the Mission, Bayview-Hunters Point and Excelsior for parking citations in a deposition unearthed last year, as part of the trial. The deposition was given by James Lee, former deputy director at the agency, who said McCormick regularly patrolled those neighborhoods to write up tickets, sometimes outside of work hours, even though issuing citations and patrolling the streets is not part of his job.
“Those people don’t know how to fight City Hall,” McCormick allegedly told Georgopoulos, speaking of the minority-heavy neighborhoods he is accused of targeting. That’s according to opening statements given by Georgepoloulos’ attorney, Eduardo Roy, in San Francisco Superior Court today.
Discrimination entered the workplace, too, Georgopoulos alleged. The former senior parking control office says that when he confronted McCormack over harassment at work, he was told, “Shut up, spick.”
When Georgopoulos spoke Spanish with another colleague, his attorneys said, he was shouted at by a coworker to speak English. Georgopoulos, who sufferers from rheumatoid arthritis and walks with a limp, says another parking enforcement officer called him a “crippled faggot” and told coworkers that he “identified as a woman,” took drugs at work, and had sex with his superiors.
The SFMTA has denied any wrongdoing. The agency argued on Friday that Georgopoulos was not harassed, and alleged that Georgeopoulos, himself, regularly yelled at his subordinates, treated employees unfairly, and wore a body camera in the workplace, against city policy.
The SFMTA said Georgopoulos received a written warning both for “yelling at a subordinate” and wearing a body camera in the office. McCormick denies ever calling Georgopulos a “spick.”
McCormick sat behind his attorneys on Friday morning, wearing his SFMTA uniform decorated with stars on his lapel. He is scheduled to take the stand later in the trial.
On Friday, attorneys for both Georgopoulos and the SFMTA gave their opening statements in what is expected to be a days-long trial.
Though Georgopoulos was a supervisor himself and knew the rules “inside and out,” his attorney Roy said, “he was subject to a different set of rules: Elias’s rules.”
Georgeopoulos’ wife was allegedly subject to harassment, too. She worked alongside Georgeopoulos at the SFMTA, and Roy alleged that one coworker, who Georgeopoulos had disciplined for being late, told her “I know where you live, and I’m going to come get you.”
Georgopoulos and his wife were allegedly so worried for their safety that they upgraded their home security system and bought a gun. Roy said Georgopoulos was afraid to go into work each day, and would often stay home to avoid further harassment.
When Georgopoulos emailed his superiors, including McCormick and human resources, that he felt he was being discriminated against, he said they did not provide a response.
Lee, the since-retired deputy director who alleged McCormick was targeting minority neighborhoods, testified on Friday briefly, before Roy had to recess for the day after the attorney fell ill.
The testimony was uneventul. Lee was asked to read the SFMTA’s policies against discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation. All, expectedly, are widely prohibited.
Despite Roy’s strong cough, the trial is expected to resume on Monday, when Lee will take the stand again.
Eli is the racist and the person who harassed everyone. He was known as the bully of the dept. He has previous lawsuits against him for his behavior.. this is a joke.
SFMTA is probably in violation of State and Federal Laws against discrimination, statistically speaking in a state where blacks and asians make less than 20%, no reason why SFMTA would hire over 60% black and asians.
Targeted DPW enforcement along with a preponderance of fare inspector enforcement actions is how SFMTA extracts resources from the colony. Our colonized neighborhoods are viewed as infinite sources and infinite sinks.
Next up, a higher regressive sales tax (The Mission ranks 3d amongst neighborhoods for sales taxes generated) for Muni and BART that the state used to fund.
DPT, not DPW.
It is sales tax per capita that matters. The Mission is a huge neighborhood.
FYI there is nothing inherently wrong or bad about regressive taxes. Most jurisdictions try for a balance of progressive and regressive taxes, so that the rich pay more but also so that everyone pays something.
When was the last time that San Francisco Democrats proposed a progressive tax? Of the few progressive taxes passed by the voters over the past few decades, most have been opposed by the City’s Democrat establishment that’s quick to jump on regressive taxes. Take Oakland as an example. The sales tax just jumped to > 10%. Interesting how the conservative pro-biz tax whiners never complain that high regressive taxes are a drag on the economy.
Most all of the sales taxes in the Mission are generated from four corridors: Mission, Valencia, 16th and 24th. These sales taxes are a proxy for intensity of commercial land use. The are the corridors where the City takes sales taxes and does not spend those dollars to mitigate the impacts of more intense commercial land use. It is not like Florida and 23d is facing the downsides of the Mission District subsidizing the rest of the city with our taxes. It is the BART stations, the commercial corridors and adjacent residential blocks, where the sales taxes are generated.