DSHS Office In Chaos Over Sex-Harassment Case

A state office responsible for protecting children from abuse is being ripped apart by accusations of sexual harassment and intimidating conduct by a top manager.

At least 14 employees of the Department of Social and Health Services - including nine veteran supervisors - have accused Robert Matz of offenses that include stalking a former lover, humiliating women who spurned his attentions and bullying those who got on his wrong side.

Matz, 48, has denied wrongdoing. He was exonerated in December after a seven-month investigation by DSHS concluded that there was insufficient evidence to show Matz violated harassment laws and policies. The investigation has since been reopened.

As North Seattle area manager, Matz was responsible for the welfare of nearly 4,000 children through foster care and Child Protective Services.

The turmoil peaked with Matz's return last month to his old post.

Seventy-one employees - nearly half the office staff - have filed a union grievance demanding an end to harassment.

One of the office's best interviewers of sexually abused children, Shelley Haddow, obtained permission from her supervisor to work at home. She alleges Matz once baited her with a job offer to make a sexual advance.

One social-work supervisor hid behind a door when Matz passed through looking for her. Others requested escorts before walking the office halls.

Matz, in turn, has sued the state employees union, its shop

stewards and two of his accusers - including a woman he had a relationship with - alleging they conspired to deprive him of his job.

The investigation was reopened last month after employees came forward with information they say had been ignored, a charge supported by interviews and documents. For example, John George, a top DSHS administrator who formerly supervised Matz, stated in a six-page confidential memo that he had no doubt the primary accuser was harassed, and said Matz made numerous false statements to the state's investigator.

Two employees said in interviews that they approached agency investigators with similar concerns about Matz as far back as 1992, but with no results. In addition to the original 14 complainants, The Seattle Times has learned of seven more women alleging harassment or intimidation.

"I found it incredulous that after so many people filed complaints, they basically didn't believe us," says Ivana Rosekova, a community-resources manager who alleged that Matz made a suggestive comment to her. "The office is very tense."

Matz declined to be interviewed for this story. He has been transferred to headquarters in Olympia until the investigation is complete.

Acknowledging that many of Matz's accusers considered the initial findings a "whitewash," Daniel Lunsford, head of the agency's Office of Equal Opportunity, took the unusual step of hiring an outside attorney to conduct the new investigation.

Even the head of DSHS, Jean Soliz, expressed concern that administrators don't deal seriously enough with harassment complaints when they first come to light.

"We needed clearer policies to keep that office from turning into an armed camp," says Soliz. "There are a lot of very uncomfortable people working there. I'm concerned that this ever got to this point."

Soliz yesterday ordered a review of management actions in the case.

The initial investigation files, obtained through public-records requests, contain a variety of allegations, the most serious from a woman once romantically involved with Matz.

The woman, a supervisor who has worked for the agency 18 years, alleged that since she broke off their relationship in mid-1991, Matz has followed her, threatened her and attempted to ruin her professional reputation.

She brought a harassment complaint against Matz reluctantly, fearing she would be "victimized in the process and end up the loser," George wrote.

"We trusted the system to help us, and instead they discredited us," the woman said in an interview. "My reputation is ruined; my career is destroyed."

Paralegal and single mother Peggy Ridgeway, another accuser, told investigators that shortly after she started work in 1991, Matz began asking personal questions, hovered in her work area and repeatedly invited her to lunch.

When she refused, she said Matz humiliated her in a meeting by insulting her personally as he introduced her to staff.

Intern Maria Garnier, another single mother new to DSHS, wrote that Matz "cruised" her work station five to seven times a day, even though the two worked on different floors, behavior she called "predatory."

Much of the recent turmoil has resulted from DSHS' handling of the initial investigation. Interviews and documents show:

-- Some witnesses were not interviewed or asked to submit reports, including a male social worker who had met with Matz over allegations Matz had been brushing against women in elevators.

-- Accusers were never given a chance to respond to Matz's denials.

-- There is little evidence that the investigator attempted to verify statements regarding some accusers' work performance. In one case, Matz referred to a woman's "flaky" reputation. Performance evaluations ranked her as a top employee.

-- The investigation did not follow up with those who may have been too frightened to come forward. Rita Person, a foster mother for 11 years, said she spoke briefly with the investigator regarding Matz's allegedly lewd behavior but became afraid after a child was removed from her care. She said Matz told her, "I told you long ago I would get you." Two other children were subsequently removed from her care.

Mary Ruth Mann, a lawyer for some of the accusers, called the investigation a "cover-up" in a letter to Gov. Mike Lowry, alleging that "many people who had relevant knowledge about the perpetrator's history with staff and agency clientele were consciously excluded from the investigation."

However, even some accusers acknowledge that the case illustrates the minefields created by sexual-harassment charges.

Some of the charges against Matz, if substantiated, might clearly be labeled harassment. But a woman who said Matz made a suggestive comment to her at a softball game said that though she was offended, she did not consider it sexual harassment.

Most of the supervisors who complained didn't cite a specific incident but a pattern that left several women uncomfortable.

"He had created a reputation as a `man on the make' in the workplace. . . . I directed that he clean this up," wrote George, the former regional administrator for Seattle.

Matz's attorney, Linda Walton, said her client protests the transfer to Olympia. "We are aware of no reason, legitimate or otherwise, to reopen this case," Walton said. "This wasn't some two-week investigation. The investigator did a thorough job. She came to her conclusion after talking to lots of people."

Matz's previous lawyer, Tom Schmidt, characterized the allegations as personal vendettas against Matz by employees and union leaders for a style that admittedly offended some.

Bob Doupe, Matz's counterpart in South Seattle, said in documents in the investigation file that he believes the trouble stemmed, in part, from women in the office having a hard time working for a male manager. "I believe Mr. Matz is an eminently fair administrator," wrote Doupe. "The current issues, I believe (have) little to do with his or other's skills or expectations, but with his style."

Matz, who is divorced, joined DSHS in 1974 as a social worker and left in 1981. He later worked for the Seattle Human Rights Department four years, supervising civil-rights investigations, including sexual-harassment cases.

He returned to DSHS in January 1991. During that year, four staffers filed a grievance asking he be replaced because of heavy-handed management. It was dismissed.

One supervisor not involved in the grievance left the agency after a month because of Matz, according to her resignation letter.

Matz's personnel file contains no disciplinary actions, an agency spokesman said.

The stakes in this case are high for DSHS. Lawsuits alleging harassment and discrimination from state ferry workers have cost the state $1.5 million in recent years.

DSHS records indicate the agency has found "reasonable cause" for action in five of 34 sexual-harassment cases that have been fully investigated since 1990. The agency has about 17,000 employees.

Regardless of what happens in the Matz investigation, several employees said they believe the integrity of their agency - whose mission is to protect society's most vulnerable from abuse - has been irreparably damaged.

"This is not what we stand for," said one long-time supervisor.