Dante King, who used to work for the San Francisco Department of Human Resources for four years, spoke out against his former employer at a rally Oct. 2. King now works for the city’s MTA department. “I will say this: During my time there I got to see people do things that undermined fairness, that undermined equality,” he said.
The Black Employee Alliance and Coalition Against Anti-Blackness called out HR Director Micki Callahan and Linda Simon, the director of Equal Employment Opportunity, which is part of the HR department. King alleged the Callahan and Simon were either complicit in an alleged forgery scheme committed by EEO manager Rachel Sherman or were incompetent for being unaware of the scheme.
“Ms. Simon had no knowledge of Sherman’s actions,” Simon’s attorney noted in a letter to the Black Employee Alliance and Coalition Against Anti-Blackness. “She did not condone Sherman’s actions or attempt to cover them up. For you to claim otherwise, and to assert, for example, that Ms. Simon was involved in ‘criminal activity,’ is defamatory.”
Organizers for the two groups shot back, writing that they “will not relent from our quest for change, accountability, and transparency.”