Essential Estrogen

There are simply times when a writer has so much to discuss that she doesn't quite know where to start. As I peer over my shoulder into the latest Missouri happenings, I do well to allow my lips to form "wow" much less try to make sense out of it all.

It seems that last spring a Missouri State employee - Heather Elder - brought to Gov. Matt Blunt's attention a complaint of sexual harassment against Agriculture Director Fred Ferrell (her boss). In Missouri, the Director of Agriculture is a gubernatorial appointed position.

Gov. Blunt decides to keep the whole mess hush-hush and instructed the state police to quietly investigate. When that investigation provided validity to the original complaint, the state agency (with the Governor's blessing?) cut a check for $70,000 for the complainer. She, however, refused the payoff.

Ten months later (Feb. 23) -- after the complainer had been placed on leave and other such nonsense happened -- the complainer filed official court papers and half the state of Missouri exploded. (Well, not literally of course.)

The blushing and apologetic governor requested his appointee resign while the state treasurer and state auditor caught a whiff of possibly misappropriated monies.

In midst of all the uproar, state legislators in Jefferson City are considering a bill to legalize sexual harassment in Missouri. (Yup, you read that correctly.) The legislation in question currently resides in state committee and would have made it much more difficult for Elder to sue Ferrell. Basically the bill changes the state definition of discrimination by deleting "any unfair treatment based on" such things as race, religion, gender or disability and inserting "an adverse action motivated by" those factors. Repeated words would mean nothing under the new law since an action such as demotion or firing would be required to prove the case.

The bill is actually so bad the Missouri Commission on Human Rights has come out in opposition, claiming the proposed changes could put the state in violation of federal law and cause the agency to lose federal funding.

Republican Sen. John Loudon, author of the bill, says he wrote it in response to a age discrimination suit against the University of Missouri - St. Louis and that it had nothing to do with the current mess. The university was found guilty in the discrimination case and was ordered to pay stiff compensation to former baseball coach James Brady (well over $1 million). The university argued they should not have been forced to pay punitive damages since those would come from taxpayer pocketbooks. The appeals court allowed the verdict and damages to stand.

The legislation addresses the definition of harassment, refuses punitive damages to a taxpayer-based entity, and would allow an employer already facing a discrimination lawsuit from a fired employee to come up with new evidence explaining why the employee was fired.

In a further plot twist today, state veterinarian Shane Brookshire submitted his resignation. Brookshire went with Elder to the governor's office to report the sexual harassment complaints, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol's report.

Also according to the MHP's report, Ferrell referred to his secretary as a "show dog" and told Elder he'd be the first in line to see her in a wet t-shirt contest. He also told another department head not to promote Elder since "we shouldn't have women supervising men."

But as disgusting as all of this is, perhaps the most telling thing about it is Gov. Blunt's own double-standards. While keeping the charges against his male appointee on the low-down, Blunt quickly and publicly ousted Dept. of Health and Senior Services Director Julie Eckstein for essentially making payments out of the wrong checkbook -- and then named his own lawyer as Missouri's new health director.

I don't care how much warmer the winters might be in Missouri, this girl would rather freeze to death in Iowa than join Missouri's sexist circus.