By Francisco Alvarado, FloridaBulldog.org
What started out as a close workplace friendship between two Miami Beach female finance department employees has devolved into a lurid sexual harassment lawsuit against the city.
Ginette Luxama, a former city financial analyst, recently sued Miami Beach in Miami federal court alleging her ex-boss, deputy finance director Allison Williams, regularly demeaned her by making lewd and inappropriate comments about her body in the months before she was fired on May 1, 2019. Luxama claims that on three occasions last year Williams also inappropriately touched her buttocks and her breasts, as well as instructing her not to bend over because her body was sexually arousing to other employees.
After she was fired, Luxama filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Florida Commission on Human Relations, the lawsuit states. The EEOC issued Luxama a right-to-sue notice.
According to the lawsuit, Williams allegedly told Luxama at various times in 2019: “Your ass is the devil,” “you look like a call girl,” “you must have been a stripper” and “if I looked like you, I would not work. I would just let a man f–k me and suck his d–k.”
Luxama claims Williams then threatened her. “I will fire your ass and the City of Miami Beach has lawyers to make sure you will not win any suit against the city,” Williams allegedly said. “No one will believe you because I have made a file on you.”
No harrassment, ‘simple teasing’
Williams was a key figure in a four-year-old scandal involving the theft of $3.6 million out of a Miami Beach city bank account that went undetected by the city’s finance department for six months. At the time, Williams was Miami Beach’s chief financial officer. A year later, in 2017, authorities arrested Syracuse, NY resident David J. Miller for allegedly stealing the money, but an internal city investigation determined the finance department was mismanaged, inadequately staffed and unprepared to use a new internal software system that Miller exploited. Since the crime occurred under her watch, Williams demoted herself to deputy finance director, according to The Miami Herald.
Williams and city lawyers declined comment regarding the sexual harassment lawsuit. In a June 11 motion to dismiss, Miami Beach claims Luxama was not sexually harassed because the deputy finance director didn’t seek out a sexual relationship with Luxama and that Williams’ alleged statements were “simple teasing, offhand comments and isolated incidents [that] do not rise to the level of actionable discrimination.”
The city also claims that Williams was adjusting Luxama’s clothing when she touched her buttocks and breasts, as well as cautioning her about wearing tight-fitting work attire. “Plaintiff’s remaining allegations of harassment are ludicrous because they demonstrate only an effort on the part of Williams to prevent sexual harassment claims in the workplace caused by the Plaintiff,” the city’s June 11 motion states.
The city attached a 297-page printout of text messages between the two women from 2011 through March 2019. The exchanges indicate Williams and Luxama developed a close friendship that involved conversations about hair and makeup, going out on dates with men, dealing with personal emergencies and comments that were sexual in nature.
‘Slut-shame’
In a June 24 response to the city’s motion, Luxama’s attorney Marc Burton accused Miami Beach of attempting to “slut-shame Ms. Luxama, and to intimidate her and cause her embarrassment.”
The judge has not yet ruled on the city’s motion.
In a phone interview, Burton told Florida Bulldog that the city terminated his client for alleged performance-based issues, but that Williams had her fired as a result of the harassment. Furthermore, the city’s motion to dismiss was an attempt to discredit Luxama in order to protect a high-ranking city executive, Burton said.
“I thought it was an inappropriate way to litigate a case with sensitive claims about sexual harassment,” Burton said. “Ms. Luxama was treated very poorly by the City of Miami Beach. The city would rather defend Ms. Williams against claims of inappropriate conduct, even despite reports Ms. Williams previously demoted herself because of her own performance deficiencies as CFO.”
Citing the pending lawsuit, Miami Beach’s Chief Deputy City Attorney Aleksandr Boksner said the city was “disinclined to acquiesce” to a list of questions from Florida Bulldog about salary figures for Williams and Luxama, how sexual harassment complaints are addressed by the city and what, if any, disciplinary actions the two women received. Boksner also declined to respond to Burton’s claims that the city is attempting to “slut-shame” his client.
“The City will not be providing any responses to these questions based upon the pending litigation,” Boksner said. A public-records request for personnel records, the city’s sexual harassment policy and any disciplinary actions for Williams and Luxama is still pending. According to the May 14, 2019 meeting minutes of the Miami Beach Pension Board, however, Luxama was granted a lump sum payment of $54,567 of her pension benefits for her eight years of employment.
Suggestive text messages
According to the printout of text messages, Williams and Luxama often shared photos of one another, regularly shared their opinions of how they looked to each other and discussed their leisure activities outside of work. For instance, on Aug 17, 2013, Luxama sent a photo of herself in a sports bra and tight-fitting shorts to Williams with the caption, “On my way to the strip club.”
“Hesus!” Williams responded. “Why am I not invited? Have fun! No sex in the champagne room.”
Later that year, on Dec. 22, Williams asked Luxama why she had a hangover. “Went out to Tootsies,” Luxama wrote. “I think I drank about 10 drinks. Can’t even remember.” Williams replied, “Aye! Tootsies! Can’t keep a good HO down!”
In her lawsuit, Luxama also included text message exchanges that she claims were harassing in nature. On Mother’s Day 2017, Williams sent her a message with an image that read, “IT’S
LIKE MY MOM ALWAYS SAID … ‘What the f–k is wrong with you?’ ”
Luxama also claimed that Williams tried to downplay comments from a March 2018 office conversation in which the deputy finance director allegedly compared her body to Secretariat, the Triple Crown-winning horse. “I meant that as a compliment to you,” Williams wrote on March 17, 2018.
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