Jonathan Portney, a former health services director who worked at the County of Lake’s Health Services Department for nearly two years, has sued the County alleging that he was fired in September 2023 in the wake of a letter written by employees in his department addressed to the Board of Supervisors where staff members expressed “no confidence” in his performance as agency director.
However, Portney, 37, alleges he was terminated because he exercised his First Amendment right to free speech pertaining to matters of public concern, including: complaining about race discrimination and harassment, illegal conduct in the workplace, including but not limited to: the local Fire Chiefs affecting and attempting to affect government business so they could get the contractor they wanted to be awarded a government contract; Portney repeatedly telling the new Public Health Officer that an investigation into an unreported jail death needed to occur; the Board of Supervisors violating the Brown Act by having Board of Supervisors’ Closed Sessions labeled as “Closed Session Public Employee Evaluations” for (Portney), when the BOS were in fact conducting government business behind closed doors.
Racial tension allegations
According to the 66-page civil complaint, around April 2022, Portney spoke to then Chief Administrative Officer Carol Hutchinson about “the racial tension he felt from Lake County staff.” Portney told Hutchinson that he had already learned that Black employees and contractors did not last in Lake County.
After consulting with then Lakeport Fire Chief Jeffrey Thomas, and according to the complaint, after Portney said he was “walking on eggshells working with the fire chiefs” and that they were not following the policies and procedures that he was required to have them follow, Thomas told Portney that he planned to resign in May due to similar problems (after one year on the job), and the other fire chiefs’ unwillingness to address the concerns Thomas was raising.
The complaint details that around mid-December 22, County of Lake employee Crystle Williams (then Staff Analyst for CA Children’s Services) told Portney that she heard he was having a problem with the fire chiefs, and she heard they were calling him “the hard ‘R'” word (Portney took this to mean the “N-” word), “boy,” and “monkey.”
Portney claims dispute over RFP leads to vote of no confidence
The complaint document details that in Portney’s capacity as Health Services Director, he was overseeing a Request for Service for Proposal (RFP) regarding the County’s Inter-facility ambulance services and local emergency system. Portney alleges that Fire Chiefs Mike Ciancio, Willie Sapeta and Paul Duncan contacted Portney by email protesting the contracting firm being selected for their own interests.
At a subsequent closed session employee evaluation meeting with the BOS in June, 2022, Portney told CAO Susan Parker, Supervisor Jessica Pyska and then county counsel Anita Grant, that in addition to a letter appealing the selection of a contractor by a five member panel including Portney, he told the BOS that the local fire chiefs were interfering with the RFP process by engaging with his Deputy Director Jeniffer Baker, who the complaint alleges “was very supportive of the Fire Department’s interests”, to seek information on the RFP outcome prior to a BOS presentation and review.
Portney told the BOS that the fire chiefs did not want the consultant he had helped select to receive the award because the fire chiefs knew that the consultant (EMS Consulting) was pushing to revamp the ambulance system because it was not compliant with the Lake County EMS Ordinance No. 2687, nor Ambulance Operation Standards.
Lake County Fire Protection District William Sapeta said he would not comment on the litigation. South Lake County Fire Protection/CALFire Chief Paul Duncan did not return a call from this news organization’s request for comment on the case, while Northshore Fire District Chief Mike Ciancio was currently on leave at press time.
Portney told the BOS that the Fire Departments’ interference was inappropriate, as they were attempting to influence government business and operations. He added that he needed a candidate like Marsh Consulting to hold the Fire EMS accountable for their inability to provide services to meet the community’s and hospitals’ needs for the County’s patients. He also told the BOS that he had asked the Fire Department several times for records pertaining to response times and transport times to no avail.
Further, according to the civil First Amendment complaint filed in California’s Northern District Court in Oakland, Portney is seeking general damages in the amount of $20 million, is suing for special damages and for all statutory attorney fees and costs, pre-judgement and post-judgment interest at the maximum legal rate on all sums.
The complaint filed on Jan.15 2025 summarized his allegations including but not limited to:
“Defendant County wrongfully terminated the employment of Mr. Portney, treating him differently in the termination process than any employee of a classification different from Mr. Portney. Defendant did not treat non-Black employees in such a disrespectful and malicious manner as Mr. Portney.”
It alleges Portney suffered the adverse employment actions and that his race, Black/African American, was a motivating factor for the adverse employment actions against him.
“Defendant County and its agents, servants, and/or employees, engaged in unlawful retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
“Defendant County retaliated against Mr. Portney because he reported and opposed racial discrimination and harassment, retaliation, harassment of others, and because Mr. Portney also reported what he believed to be violations of non-compliance with ordinances, local, state, or federal rules of regulations, including numerous health and safety violations, Brown Act violations, violations of RFP in public contracts, violations of California Penal Code 10008, Cal. Health and Safety Code 1241, in addition to numerous others.”
Recent legal settlement
After Pamela Nichols, the county’s former HR director filed a discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit in federal court in July 2020, the BOS announced that action was taken on June 14, 2022 in regard to the closed session item referencing that lawsuit and that the board approved by a 5-0 vote a settlement with Nichols in the amount of $500,000. “The county will accept Ms. Nichols’ resignation in lieu of prior action,” Supervisor Eddie Crandell stated at the time adding the County “will ensure training in the discrimination harassment complaint process, continue its ongoing process of implementing cultural awareness training and will pay the cost of mediation.”
“This case is about more than my experience—it’s about exposing systemic issues that hinder equity, accountability, and justice in the workplace,” Portney wrote in a recent post on his personal website. “While I am committed to transparency and will provide updates as I can, I must also uphold the integrity of the legal process.”
Portney is represented by Santa Rosa-based attorney Candice Clipner.
Clipner said the defense attorney has not responded to several emails as well as a voice mail she sent. “I sent a friendly email right after I filed the complaint and I learned who the defense attorney was. Before that time, but after I filed the First Amended Complaint, I emailed (County Counsel) Lloyd Guintivano asking who their counsel was representing Lake County in Mr. Portney’s civil action. However, Lloyd never responded to me,” she noted.
At the time Portney was originally hired, the health services director salary was $10,993 a month, consistent with Step 2 on the county’s salary scale.
According to Clipner, the next scheduled action is a case management conference scheduled for February 28.
