OC Official, Ex-Anaheim Mayor Faces Sexual Misconduct Probe
SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — An Orange County public works official and former mayor of Anaheim was under investigation on Thursday on sexual misconduct charges involving female employees.
KNX 1070's Mike Landa reports the investigation was started after an anonymous letter accusing clerk-recorder Tom Daly was sent to county officials.
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Daly faces allegations of sexual misconduct and favoritism in recruitment involving four women named in the undated letter (PDF), including allegations of at least one employee spending up to two hours in Daly's office and coming out "nervous and without lipstick".
An attorney for Daly has called the charges "unfounded" and politically motivated.
Orange County Human Resources Director Steve Danley said the allegations against Daly will be aggressively investigated under a new procedure for handling this type of case in the wake of sexual assault charges against former O.C. Public Works official Carlos Bustamante.
An oversight committee comprised of Danley and two other officials, internal audit director Peter Hughes and county counsel Nick Chrisos, was formed after it took nearly a year to get law enforcement involved in the Bustamante case.
"Because we have three of us, there's a system of checks and balances in that process so that we do a much better job of seeing what the complaint is, who should do it, where it should go," said Danley.
County officials are expected to hire a law firm by Monday to handle the accusations against Daly under the new policy established in the wake of the Bustamante case.
Daly, the former mayor of Anaheim, is also considered the leading candidate for the Assembly seat representing Anaheim, Garden Grove and other cities in the 69th District.
