ONTARIO >> The racial discrimination lawsuit filed by the city’s former fire chief is one of at least five filed against Ontario in the past year.

Woodland Hills-based attorney Paul Tashnizi has filed four complaints on behalf of six employees who allege five upper- and midlevel managers have discriminated against them for various reasons, including race, disability and/or gender.

The complaints show Ontario fails to protect employees from their bosses, who retaliate against them for filing claims and create a hostile environment, Tashnizi said.

“It seems they don’t like it when a lower-level employee complains about management. Rather than address it, management retaliates just because you complained about them,” said Tashnizi, who mostly handles employment issues involving private companies.

If city management doesn’t like you, he said, they put you on the bad list.

Chief’s complaint came first

Former fire chief Floyd E. Clark’s complaints came to light after he was fired in June 2016. In a lawsuit filed just weeks later — the first of the five pending cases — he alleged his ouster was racially motivated because he had complained about the Fire Department’s hiring practices. He says that when he started as a fire inspector in 1986, he was the only black firefighter, and not a single black firefighter was hired since.

In an amended complaint filed May 31, Clark’s new attorney Bradley Mancuso, detailed further accusations.

In the legal documents, Mancuso says Councilman Jim Bowman referred to Clark using inflammatory racial slurs and an unnamed City Council member is willing to testify on Clark’s behalf.

Bowman, a former fire chief, said he was deeply saddened by Clark’s lawsuit.

He denied having made the references. Bowman said the alleged derogatory comments were overheard by an Ontario councilman who is not credible and will come to light in court.

“We treat all our employees fairly, they are like family and there’s no exception,” he said. “The factual matters will come out in court and I look forward to being totally exonerated.”

Bowman said he’s been involved in two of Clark’s promotions, including his appointment as the chief.

“It’s a shame he’s taken this position,” he said.

In response to questions by this publication, Ontario’s legal counsel for labor matters — whose comments were forwarded via City Manager Al Boling — said via email that employees may file a claim at any time with Human Resources, or with any supervisor throughout the city — verbally, in writing or anonymously. The city also offers an ethics hotline employees may use.

“The city prides itself on having an accessible and responsive Human Resources Department,” according to a statement from Los Angeles-based Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, the city’s legal counsel.

That hasn’t been the experience of Tashnizi’s clients, he said.

Tashnizi filed the first lawsuit on behalf of an Ontario employee, a month after Clark’s initial lawsuit. Since then, he has been contacted by five other employees. The latest claim was filed in March.

Among the accusations:

• Employees being tracked on a company vehicle GPS system

• One employee was required to report restroom breaks on time sheets

• Many claimed they were excluded from training opportunities

While most of the plaintiffs are still employees with the city, one is on leave and another has been fired.

According to Ontario’s attorneys, the city has a discrimination/harassment prevention policy, available online and in writing to all employees. The city also regularly provides anti-discrimination training.

In the process of conducting witness interviews, Tashnizi said he’s learned the Human Resources Department uses “administrative leave to scare you and other employees. I’ve talked to witnesses who say, ‘I don’t want to complain.’”

The city’s attorneys said they wouldn’t comment specifically on pending litigation, according to the email.

An unexplained leave of absence

Donna McKnight, a supervising code enforcement officer and 16-year Ontario city employee, has been on leave since July 2016, and the city can’t tell her why, Tashnizi said.

In 2014, McKnight, an African-American, applied for the code enforcement manager position. Despite being told by her then-supervisor Karen De Vrieze that she was the top candidate, she did not get the promotion. The then-deputy city manager, Jacob Green, a white male, told McKnight’s supervisor she did well in the second interview, but he was “looking for someone that looks more like him,” according to McKnight’s lawsuit.

“McKnight was appalled and reacted to Karen De Vrieze by telling her that she was never going to be white and was never going to turn into a man,” according to the lawsuit.

Green, who has since left the city, said he could not comment on the allegation and referred all questions to the city of Ontario.

Rather than promote McKnight, Tashnizi said, the city opted to eliminate the position.

Having done the work comparable to a manager since 2012, McKnight requested in 2014 that the city give her out-of-class pay, a temporary salary adjustment given to employees when they perform higher-level duties. She filed a grievance when the request was denied.

In May 2015, her supervisor retired and Robert Gluck was named code enforcement director. The new director, according to the lawsuit, offered to grant the out-of-class pay as long as she shared it with two other employees, who weren’t requesting the pay.

Her claim alleges that Gluck pulled McKnight — who previously worked for the Los Angeles Police Department — off assignments and forced her to do administrative work. She says she was not given the opportunity to grow like her peers.

“Routinely, as many as 10 times in a day, Gluck went to McKnight’s office door, openly directing her to his office. He did this in front of staff to embarrass, intimidate and harass McKnight and to intimidate her staff,” the claim states.

After being diagnosed with diabetes, McKnight said Gluck refused to allow her to adjust her schedule so that she could attend classes for her medical condition.

Gluck said he could not comment because the matter is in litigation. He referred all questions to Ontario’s management.

She was then put on administrative leave without explanation, Tashnizi said.

Seeing a pattern?

“It feels systematic,” Tashnizi said. “There’s a culture of white men controlling the management.” Ontario managers “treat and look at minorities differently.”

In its email, Ontario’s legal team said: “(T)he city of Ontario is committed to promoting and encouraging diversity, inclusiveness and equal opportunity. We are not going to try Ms. McKnight’s patently false claims in the media, and look forward to disproving them in court.”

Three of the complaints are in the discovery phase; attorneys are arguing which documents and testimony to allow in court for the last claim, he said.

All are seeking more than $25,000 each in damages.

The trial date for the first lawsuit Tashnizi filed is set for March 5, 2018. The trial date for McKnight is set for May 21, 2018. Dates have not been set for the other claims, he said.

Mancuso, Clark’s attorney, said it could be months or even years before that case goes to trial.