Hazel Park city manager still on the job amid federal lawsuit

Hazel Park City Manager still on the job tonight. Good evening, I'm Ruth Barrage. One day after news broke of a federal lawsuit accusing him of sexually harassing a former staffer, he was handling official city business at tonight's council meeting. Fox 2's Dave Kinchin was at that meeting in Hazel Park tonight. He joins us to tell us what happened at that meeting. Dave. Yeah, Rup, the city council here in Hazel Park scheduled this meeting actually before news of this scandal broke. They scheduled this meeting to replace one of their own after a council member left, moved away. But they couldn't even choose between one of two candidates tonight, just to give you an idea of how tense things are around here. Take a look at video, because the meeting started with this. It was this woman holding a sign in the audience that said, me too. It was held up the entire time. I'm pledging support for Linda Murado, the former staffer suing City Hall, alleging city manager Ed Klobuchar, her former boss, sexually harassed her for years. Her lawsuit accuses him of hugging and kissing her nearly every day, calling her his, quote, beautiful Disney princess, and talking about his genitals in front of her and other co-workers. That's what the lawsuit alleges. The complaint also alleges a series of detailed cover-ups at City Hall here in Hazel Park, stating the city... City's HR coordinator avoided punishment for allegedly sending pictures of his genitals to police and fire staff by threatening to expose the city manager. It says another city official told Murado, the former employee suing here, that the city manager was in love with her, prompting her to fall to the floor while hyperventilating, unable to breathe. The city and its manager denied the allegations in the complaint. In a statement released through its law firm yesterday, but we've pressed the city manager for comment during public comment. Mr. City Manager, I don't know if you had a comment on this by chance. It is not a question and answer, Faith. It is not a question and answer. We have provided a press release from the city's attorney, and you're welcome to have that. We do have that. Do you have any denial or any statement? Anything else? Does anyone else need a comment this time? There's no comments. Okay. All right. Thank you. Now the city went on to say in that statement yesterday they will vigorously defend the allegations, defend against the allegations in court. Now tonight on the edge you're going to hear from someone else, one of two citizens vying to be appointed to a seat on city council replacing a member who moved away. One of those people looking to be on the city council and serve had some specific words about this scandal, the situation. You'll hear from her. Tonight at 11, reporting live in Hazel Park, Dave Kinchin, Fox 2 News. Yeah, Dave, in your reporting, I heard you mention the HR director. Unpack that for us for a moment. What exactly happened there? Usually when people have an issue, even whether it's a big boss, you go to HR, they're supposed to be able to handle it. But in this case, something else unfolded. Yeah, this is an allegation. We want to stress that in the lawsuit filed by Linda Murado, her attorney. Basically, it says that the HR coordinator allegedly sent photos of his genitals to Staff members on the police and fire department and that somehow that came up when the city manager was talking about disciplining the HR coordinator over that issue. The allegations are that the coordinator said, well, you're going to go down with me. Words to that effect in the document in that legal filing. So yet another alleged scandal here at City Hall in Hazel Park. Yeah, of course, allegations were keeping tabs on here. Of course, we'll keep our eyes on this story. Dave Kinchin for us live tonight. Dave, thank you.