Email us for help
Loading...
Premium support
Log Out
Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy have changed. We think you'll like them better this way.
Join the Back Story at 846 - 1814 and/or 93.3 FM
JoinThe Modesto City Council’s Tuesday evening meeting included two seemingly routine items: approving the mayor’s pick to a new countywide homeless panel and council members’ assignments to the various committees and boards they serve on.
But the discussion was anything but routine. It included acrimony and accusations and revisiting the November departure of City Auditor Monica Houston, who left after less than eight months on the job after accepting a $225,000 settlement that was approved by council members on a 4-3 vote.
Houston is African American and had been subject to a series of job evaluations. She claimed that there was an undertone of racism and sexism that resulted in the call for those evaluations. But Councilman Bill Zoslocki at Tuesday’s meeting read from Houston’s settlement agreement, which stated she was making “no claim of discrimination or harassment” and did not support any such claims made on her behalf.
The flashpoints from Tuesday’s meeting included:
