On the eighth day of Elias Georgopoulos’ trial against the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency for the alleged harassment and discrimination he endured while working there, the court heard the testimony of one of the very people Georgopoulos has accused of harassment and discrimination: Former fellow parking enforcement officer and chief shop steward Sterling Haywood.
“He’s a dick,” Haywood said, matter-of-factly, to the jury, when asked by Georgopoulos’ lawyer, Eduardo Roy, if he had ever called Georgopoulos an asshole.
That said, Haywood also testified that many of his other co-workers weren’t great, either. “I have dealt with so much racist stuff at this department. It is sad,” said Haywood, who is Black, after he took the stand on Friday. “It is disrespectful how sad it is. I never thought I would have this experience working for the MTA.”
Georgopoulos alleges that the SFMTA fostered a culture of racism and discrimination. Georgopoulos, who is Latino, alleges that the current director of parking enforcement, Shawn McCormick, called him a “spic” during a heated argument, and told Georgopoulos that he deliberately drove to the Mission, Bayview, and Excelsior and ticketed cars there because “those people don’t know how to fight City Hall.”
On the stand, Haywood appeared bewildered that Georgopulos had accused him of any bullying and intimidation. Haywood denied any wrongdoing and alleged that Georgopoulos himself routinely yelled at subordinates and created a hostile work environment for staff, particularly if they were Black.
“A lot of people didn’t like [Georgopoulos],” said Haywood. “It was a dark time for our department when he was there.”
Haywood added that Georgopoulos would use his position “to take advantage” of subordinates. Haywood says he would often step in to defend other parking-enforcement officers as a union representative, creating a rift between him and Georgopoulos. “Everyone had a story of abuse when it came to [Georgopoulos],” said Haywood. He feared for his coworkers — one of whom, he says, suggested that Georgopoulos sexually harassed her.
Court records dovetail with Haywood’s recollections. In 2010, Georgopoulos was sued for sexually harassing another parking-enforcement officer. The next year, he was again sued for assaulting a tow-truck driver. In 2012, a limousine driver accused Georgopoulos of spraying him with pepper spray and punching him in the head. Georgopoulos remained employed by the agency for another nine years.
Haywood vehemently denied Georgopoulos’ claims on the stand Friday, and said that he never heard McCormick utter an ethnic slur in the workplace. But his testimony, along with that provided by other SFMTA employees earlier in the trial, supported Georgopoulos’ portrayal of SMTA as a workplace where harassment and discrimination were a common occurrence. The primary difference between their accounts is that, in Haywood’s version, Georgopoulos was a major perpetrator of it.
“For years, there had been complaints against [Georgopoulos] and nothing happened. In fact, the behavior got worse.”
Haywood testified that, like Georgopoulos, he made numerous complaints to management, human resources, and even to the Equal Employment Opportunity office, and that no one responded.
Last week, former SFMTA deputy director James Lee testified that he received many complaints of harassment form both Georgopoulos and Haywood about each other. Lee was instructed to provide mitigation and anger management resources, but did not know how to respond; SFMTA did not provide conflict-resolution classes. When Lee finally found a class for employees to take, he was told that participation was voluntary.
“Maybe he needed anger management, maybe he needed a sensitivity class, something he had never been provided to solve these issues. … What is being done to curb his behavior?” Haywood mused, about Georgopoulos’ (alleged) reign of terror. “Nothing is being done. It kept getting worse and worse and worse and worse.”
When asked if he was aware that Georgopoulos formerly taught a course in conflict resolution to parking-enforcement trainees, Haywood retrained a chuckle. “Excuse me,” managed Haywood, his hand over his mouth, “I had no idea.”
MTA continues to be the cesspool of our city’s agencies and nothing is done to curb them.