Action on City Clerk Case Delayed Again : Government: Four months ago, Bradley called for the firing of Elias Martinez over alleged sex harassment. Critics say council members are stalling in hopes that a new mayor will be more lenient.

Four months after Mayor Tom Bradley called for the firing of City Clerk Elias (Lee) Martinez for the alleged sexual harassment of several women in his office, the Los Angeles City Council has yet to take action, prompting charges that some lawmakers are dragging their feet in the hope that Martinez will receive leniency from a new mayor.

The council this week again postponed a vote on the Martinez case--moving the matter to June 1, one month before Bradley leaves office.

“Clearly, there are some members of the council who don’t want to punish Mr. Martinez for his harassment of women workers,” said Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani. “Perhaps they are hoping Mr. Martinez will get a better deal from a new mayor.”

There are those who blame the delay on Martinez, who has steadfastly denied the allegations. The city attorney’s office has written to Martinez’s lawyer, accusing him of stalling the case “to your client’s benefit, as he remains on the city’s payroll.”

Martinez’s lawyer in turn blamed the city for the delays. But attorney Robert M. Dohrmann conceded that he will not object if the case is heard after Bradley’s term ends June 30. “I would just as soon wait until the mayor is gone and we have a new mayor,” Dohrmann said. “Maybe we can get a fair shake from somebody else.”

Martinez, 54, has held the $116,000-a-year job of city clerk for a decade, after a storybook rise that began 32 years ago when he hired on as an attendant in the City Hall garage.

The sexual harassment allegations became public last December, when Bradley recommended the firing of his onetime ally. A clerk-typist charged that Martinez had fondled or touched her on three occasions, and three other employees said they had been ogled or subjected to suggestive questioning.

Martinez argued that the mayor’s harsh punishment was in retaliation for what Bradley perceived as an act of political betrayal by Martinez. The clerk, ignoring Bradley’s objection, placed on the ballot a measure that reduced the mayor’s power over city commissions.

Since Bradley’s January recommendation to fire Martinez, the council has cited a variety of reasons for delaying its consideration of the matter.

Council President John Ferraro ordered many of the half-dozen or more postponements. He and other council members said the action was so serious it had to be considered by all of them, with the exception of Nate Holden, who has excused himself because he is also facing sexual harassment accusations. But gathering the entire council became a near impossibility this year, with most members too busy running for reelection or for mayor.

Other delays resulted from requests by Martinez, who said he needed time to compile a rebuttal. He also asked for two postponements so his lawyer could take vacations. Finally, council members Richard Alatorre and Mike Hernandez walked out of preliminary sessions on the Martinez matter. Some colleagues interpreted their actions as attempts to delay the case in support of a fellow Latino--one of just three who head city departments.

Alatorre on Wednesday denied that he had tried to stall the case, saying he left meetings to attend to other business and when it was obvious the council was not prepared to vote on Martinez’s firing.

But Hernandez conceded that he had walked out of an early closed-door hearing into the matter to slow the case down.

“It was just happening too fast,” said Hernandez. “I thought the process was being ramrodded and I called for additional testimony.”

Fabiani protested that the council has been overly attentive to Martinez’s demands but has forgotten about the women who had objected to his behavior.

“It’s unfortunate that these women who had the courage to come forward have been left dangling in the wind,” Fabiani said. “This is a case that sends a message to all women in the city about how the mayor and City Council handle sexual harassment rules. This (delay) does not provide a comforting answer.”

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, in an interview, also objected to the delays. “It’s shameful that the council has not been able to muster eight votes to deal with this issue,” Galanter said. “The council owes it to the people who filed the complaints and to the city clerk to reach a conclusion.”

Rejecting Bradley’s prescribed punishment now might be politically untenable for council members, because the mayor has declined requests to impose lesser punishment. With Bradley gone, though, the council could negotiate a lesser penalty with his replacement, Fabiani said.

The most serious charges against Martinez were raised in 1991, when the clerk-typist said the city clerk had touched her on three occasions. In one instance, Martinez allegedly rubbed his crotch against the woman’s leg while they were in his office. In another, she said that he caressed her thigh as they had drinks at a downtown bar. Finally, she said Martinez tried to “play footsie” with her during a management-staff luncheon.

Another employee said she was pressured to go to a Christmas party, still another said Martinez studied buttons on her blouse as a pretense for ogling her chest and a third said he routinely sat in his office and leered at female clerks.

Martinez offered a 20-page written response to the allegations. He said the woman who accused him of touching her was an untrustworthy employee with a drinking problem. In another defense, he said he could not have played “footsie” because his accuser was sitting too far away.

He said his interactions with other employees were friendly exchanges blown out of proportion.

But an investigator from the city Personnel Department concluded that clerical employees “have been made extremely uncomfortable by the behavior of Mr. Martinez, and its pervasiveness is generally acknowledged.”

In recommending that Martinez be fired, Bradley noted that the clerk was a department head who set the tone for dozens of other employees: “Mr. Martinez must be held to the highest standard of behavior and conduct.”

In his reply, Martinez said investigators had put the worst spin on the accusations and ignored mitigating evidence. His response ends with a quote from Othello:

“He that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed.”