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Gail Wilcox gets $180,000 to settle county lawsuit

February 2, 2010

San Luis Obispo County has decided to pay Gail Wilcox $180,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit she filed last summer.

The decision to make the settlement was announced by county counsel Warren Jensen late Tuesday afternoon. Wilcox, the former assistant county administrator, was fired by the county board of supervisors, as was county administrator David Edge, in 2009.

Wilcox originally filed the lawsuit, claiming sexual harassment by Edge over a period of time. If she accepts the settlement, Wilcox must drop all claims against the county. There has been no statement from Wilcox regarding the proposed settlement.

“The Board considered the financial implications to the County and the taxpayers and concluded that the settlement was fiscally responsible and in the public’s best interest,” Jensen said in his announcement. “To date, the cost of the Wilcox/Edge investigation and litigation defense is approximately $337,000.”

Jensen also indicated that he believed the cost of actually going to trial “could have exceeded $1,000,000.” The county will be reimbursed for all settlement costs and attorney fees in excess of $250,000 by its insurance carrier.


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Lets take a look at fiscal responsibility and in the public’s best interest in San Luis Obispo County when it comes to legal issues! I don’t recall the Law firm who was involved in this mess, however this is a good place to start.


The County’s financial implications to the County and the taxpayers and how this County handles lawsuits should be reviewed by our news media as $337,000 dollars is a lot of money.


How much has the Oceano Nursery Flooding Law suit cost this County with the County of San Luis Obispo withholding evidence from discovery as seen at http://www.oceanonursery.com ?


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what I meant to say was… if any other public officials had been compromised, these officials should not be voting on her settlement.


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Funny how institutions in this county fight to the last breath on issues they should walk away … but on others, they fight to the last public dollar.


I — like everyone here — would like to know why they are paying her off?


If public other public issues have been compromised they should not be voting on her settlement.


Roger Freberg


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Well we all knew Wilcox was sleeping around and now we know she must have done the whole board of supervisors and the leagal staff as well as the sheriffs department. I had hoped she was just a 2 bit whore but it would appear she can command much more than that. Too bad for the rest of us. At least the board of supervisors got kissed first. We taxpayers sure didnt. Thanks again to our elected officials. It surprises me that clowns like Katcho and Gibbons can even consider running for higher office. Katcho had a close personal relationship with Wilcox and certainly was part of the vote to award 180K. Gibbons should have forced him to recuse himself on the vote.


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Insert Gibson where i said Gibbons. I was thinking of the ape and not the moron.

I remain extremely disappointed in Bruce Gibsons performance over the past year or so. He and the other supervisors should be honorable enough to pay for their own party girls and not force the taxpayers to bear the cost. None of these “gentlemen” should have had a vote on whether or not they should pay off this prostitute. We should be charging her with criminal negligence and attempt to defraud the public, we should prosecute not appease. Gibson is now clearly motivated by self interest and the desire to help only his close buddies. (Mullholland, Copeland, Rossi and anyone else who will pay him off or in Wilcox’s case just get him off) AND I VOTED FOR HIM……THINK WHAT HIS OPPONENTS ARE SAYING


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I’m guessing that the reason to put this fiasco to bed so quickly is because the Board didn’t want Wilcox to have the opportunity to air some horribly dirty laundry that would drag in some other public officials, perhaps even some of the Supervisors themselves.


Undoubtedly their will be a confidentiality clause in the settlement so that Wilcox wont be able to write a tell all book and we citizens will be none the wiser.


As for the current Supervisors future. They sure wont ever get my vote again and that goes for Katcho’s hopes for State Assembly.


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Total agreement about Katcho “I only represent the people who vote for me” Achadjian.


And thus the reason for make sure we do NOT elect his buddy-old-pal and past supervisor Lenthall. Remember, he tried to get re-elected as supervisor and was completely and utterly defeated by the citizens of San Luis Obispo. His face showed shock when the results came in – he had no clue being so insulated by his payers. Lenthall and his cronies Achadjian and Ovitt voted often AGAINST the county’s recommendations and caused lawsuits. Lenthall is WRONG for the (city or the ) County in any capacity again. That includes, obviously, any position in the Sheriff’s Department.


WE vote to put these people in. Are WE going to make the mistake again by voting in this … person … into office of any kind?


WE know he makes bad decisions for all of us, but great decisions for those who have monied interests.


WE know he will not change his spots no matter what job he next takes.


WE are complaining about people who were in the past elected by us and now are gone.


Please do not make this a forum where in the future we are left to only complain about the actions of “Sheriff Lenthall”. He will make Sheriff- I-threaten-my-wife-and-scare-my-children-into-counseling-Hedges look like a marshmallow.


WE are strong and smart enough to vote collectively and carefully to Keep this Problem out of our city and county offices, public or private.


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The rumor mill that grinds in my neighborhood says that Katcho ain’t the supervisor with dirty laundry to hide in this fiasco.


(But I appreciate that his detractors never miss an opportunity to take a poke at him.)


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Perhaps instead of ‘fiscally responsible’ the County should say ‘$180K is the lesser of two evils.”


What blows me away is the last line of the story, indicating this person actually landed a job with another public entity. Did the HR people in Santa Maria not read news reports about this person’s LONG history of legal trouble? I hope they’ve set aside extra funds to cover their behinds when Hurricane Wilcox starts to blow.


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If I insured this county with all the corrupt employees, ie. Edge, Wilcox, Hedges and this list goes on, I would quadruple the rates. Very high risk with these idiots around.


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Oh fiscally responsible. What was it they paid to buy out Edge’s contract? I seem to remember over 200k?? MORONS is what we have here folks!!


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Wow. They settle for 180k and the board says, “that’s fiscally responsible”.


Then we are made to feel no big deal the insurance will pay.


Let’s see. They settled for 180k? Of course the last year between the cops around here and county higher ups, this may not be the last of the money train.


Oh and the insurance will pay? Yea and what about when all these other potential lawsuits come along? You will pay more in premiums.


And we should feel better because……………It’s fiscally responsible. That is ridiculus.


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