An investigation by Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington into what has come to be known as “Pottygate” has concluded that “investigators did not find evidence to substantiate the allegations of employees mistreatment due to systematic racism in the street department.”
Citizen complaints, as well as from Council Member Ivan Whitfield had alleged that street department employee had been subjected to systemic racism by the street department director, that black employees had been denied access to a restroom in the sign shop, that the street department director ordered the construction of a wall in the sign shop to potentially block black employees from accessing equipment in the sign shop.
Whitfield has made a point during the past few council meetings to devote time during his committee reports to call for action after two employees who worked in the area of the street department sign shop said they were unfairly denied access to the restroom.
By way of background, the sign shop is a building that consist of three rooms, an equipment room, rest room and office area. To reach the bathroom, employees had to walk through the equipment room where the department’s sign machine is located.
Before the investigation, the door was locked to adequately secure the sign machine, which was described as a “high value piece of equipment.” After the initial complaints, the Mayor’s Office ordered the door to be unlocked and after that, the street department director had a plywood wall built to block access to the machine.
The report went on to say that when the equipment room was locked in the past, it was locked for two reasons, first, there were two female employees who worked there, and the locked door gave them a restroom private from male employees. Second, the door was locked to protect the sign machine. Only employees who had training and authorization to use the machine were allowed in and anyone who wanted to use the restroom could knock on the door when the room was occupied, and they would be let in.
If the room was unoccupied, both black and white employees could not access the restroom, located behind the wall so the report said there is no evidence to suggest that access to the restroom or any equipment in the sign shop has been denied to individuals based on race.
The report said questionnaires were filed out anonymously by 29 employees and 30 follow up interviews were conducted. The street department director and assistant director were interviewed separately and allowed to respond to the allegations against them.
Results from those interviews including no evidence being found that black employees were subjected to unfair job assignments or duties, no evidence that black employees had been given more severe discipline than white employees when policy violations were identical, no evidence or report found to support that employees had been treated unfairly because of race and no evidence was found to support that employees had been denied promotions because of race.
