SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Treasurer Fiona Ma has frequently shared hotel rooms with her chief of staff during her tenure as California’s top banking official, a practice she said she engaged in “to save money,” according to expense reports.
A Sacramento Bee review of travel documents found that sharing lodging with staff was a common practice for Ma, who is facing a lawsuit filed by a different employee, who no longer works in the office. The worker accused her of sexual harassment when the two women shared hotel rooms.
Ma has called the allegations in the lawsuit “baseless.”
In the filing, Judith Blackwell, the former director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, said Ma had exposed herself and crawled into bed with her when the two shared rooms at a hotel and a rental property. In the lawsuit, Blackwell says Ma encouraged her to share rooms with her in Sacramento instead of driving back to her home in the Bay Area after work.
“During the time Ms. Ma shared a room with Plaintiff (Blackwell), she exposed her bare rear end directly to Plaintiff on multiple occasions,” according to the lawsuit. “Ms. Ma’s actions were intentional and not accidental, and it was done to get Plaintiff’s attention. Plaintiff was uncomfortable and was fearful to comment on Ms. Ma’s lewd behavior.”
Ma said she has repeatedly refused to settle with Blackwell and that she looks forward to “bringing the truth to light in court.”
Records obtained by The Sacramento Bee show Ma has a longstanding practice of sharing lodging on business trips with a different aide, chief of staff Genevieve Jopanda, usually for hotel rooms in Sacramento while they were living in the Bay Area.
Records show Ma and Jopanda shared hotel rooms on at least 13 of their trips to Sacramento during Ma’s first two years in office. On one trip, Ma rented a three-bedroom property in Citrus Heights, where she stayed with four unnamed aides, according to the expense report for the trip.
California’s Human Resources manual for state employees does not have any policies on whether managers should share hotel rooms with their subordinates.
Laura Kray, a professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, said Ma’s custom of sharing hotel rooms with subordinates “doesn’t seem to be a wise practice.”
“It crosses boundaries and puts subordinates in a very difficult position to say no, even in the most innocent of cases where we’re just trying to save money,” Kray said. “Because of the power dynamic, I don’t think people would feel free to say no, and would worry about retaliation.”
JoAnn Corley-Schwarzkopf, a consultant who trains executives and managers on leadership, said she was shocked when she heard a top elected official in California routinely shared rooms with her subordinates. She said that it may be natural for an official and a top aide to become best friends, but they should still maintain professional boundaries.
“It’s not what’s between you and that person, it’s what’s going to be perceived by the public,” she said. “What exacerbates that issue is that she got sued.”
When traveling with subordinates, executives and elected officials need to avoid putting themselves in situations where there could even be a claim of harassment because that could open them up to liability and potential lawsuits, she said.
“You have a responsibility as an elected leader to care about perception,” Corley-Schwarzkopf said. “It must be managed. It is the nature of the responsibility of the job.”
Ma did not respond to a question about whether she thought it was appropriate to share rooms with her subordinates.
In a statement, she touted her record as a good steward of taxpayer money, a reputation she has cultivated in her years as an elected official.
“I am a dedicated public servant who takes my responsibilities and stewardship of California’s dollars and resources seriously, and this will always be my highest priority,” Ma wrote in her statement.
In the lawsuit, Blackwell says Ma offered to let her stay in a Sacramento hotel when Ma noticed Blackwell was leaving work after 7 p.m. to make her one-hour commute home.
“Ms. Ma also would occasionally invite Plaintiff to dinner, and by the time dinner would end it would be impractical for Plaintiff to drive home and come back early the next day,” the lawsuit says. “Therefore, Ms. Ma invited Plaintiff to stay at the Westin hotel in Sacramento, CA where she would have her own room paid for by Ms. Ma.”
Blackwell also says Ma gave her jewelry, paintings and edible marijuana as gifts.
The lawsuit by Blackwell, an African-American woman, also alleges racial discrimination. Blackwell says “she felt her employment was contingent on her accepting Defendant Ma’s sexual advances” and that she was terminated for rejecting them.
Blackwell’s complaint alleges Ma invited Blackwell to stay at the Westin with her and Jopanda beginning in early 2020, although expense reports reviewed by The Bee show Ma was staying at the Best Western in Sacramento during that time.
Several weeks later, the complaint alleges Ma and Blackwell began staying at the Sheraton and rental properties, and that Ma decided to share rooms with Blackwell instead of Jopanda. Expense reports show that Ma booked rooms at the Sheraton and at short-term rental properties in Sacramento from late March through August 2020.
“Travel arrangements are made to maximize efficiency and minimize costs to taxpayers consistent with all ethical and legal requirements,” Jopanda said in a statement.
On one report filed by Jopanda and approved by Ma, for a room at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel in downtown Sacramento, is this notation: “The treasurer and the chief of staff stayed in the same room to save money.”
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