Doing dat Booty Pop at City Hall in NOLA

quote:

---

Calling it a "cesspool" where sexual harassment was allowed to flourish for years, Mayor LaToya Cantrell has swept out the leadership of the city's Property Management Department and said she hopes new city rules and training sessions on harassment will help prevent a repeat situation.

The allegations center on Herman Hogues, the department's longtime operations manager, who recently retired after being suspended without pay in May amid complaints of harassment by at least three women. Two of Hogues' bosses also have been terminated....

In a rambling interview with The Advocate, Hogues, 73, acknowledged he was unusually close with female colleagues, saying he would often lend a sympathetic ear to their complaints about workplace spats and low pay. Inside his office, he added, some would even pull up their dresses and dance for him, displays he said were “innocent horseplay.”

“One thing is, I am an older guy, but I play,” said Hogues. “Not sexually, but I do play. They come in and they ask me advice: ‘Do you know anybody that can help me? Help my children? I need a better job. I need some money, Mr. Herman.’

“They come in and they play, they do the booty pop, and show themselves, they would do that,” he said.

Hogues then changed course, saying he could recall only one woman who had ever actually exposed herself to him — the one whose sexual harassment claim got him suspended in May. He went on to say that she was the one doing the harassing, calling himself the victim of a plot by top city officials to protect the woman.

Patterson backed his former operations manager last week, claiming that none of the accusations against Hogues, who is married, were proven. Patterson said he and Sens were fired after investigators wrongfully accused them of ignoring complaints about Hogues’ behavior.

“At some point, they tried to claim that myself and the deputy had knowledge of it, and that’s certainly not true,” said Patterson, who had led the Property Management Department for 11 years. “I’m sure that may have gotten to the mayor, and (Cantrell) must have given them the benefit of the doubt without talking to me.”

But Sens, who was hired in 2010, said he was never comfortable with how Hogues treated the office’s female employees. He said he told Patterson and city Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Courtney Bagneris about the behavior, but nothing was done until recently. He believes he's a scapegoat and was fired unjustly.....

---