A workplace misconduct investigation found a top Orange County elected official violated gender discrimination and retaliation policies and harassed a subordinate over her medical disability, according to a confidential county-commissioned report obtained by LAist.
According to the investigator’s findings, O.C. Assessor Claude Parrish:
- Downplayed the employee’s chronic medical condition as a “tummy ache”
- Shared her private medical information with coworkers
- Regularly commented on her diet
- Told her to stop taking her prescribed medication
- Made her “drink baking soda mixed with tap water to ‘fix’ her medical condition”
The investigator’s final report, filed in 2023, also found that Parrish retaliated against the subordinate because of her disability by moving her to a different department for taking time off for her disability and medical condition.
In addition, the investigator found Parrish regularly used language effectively casting women employees as subservient to their male colleagues.
“It is more likely than not that Parrish routinely refers to male employees as ‘Mr.’ and female employees by their first name, based on their gender,” the investigation found. “The cumulative effect of Parrish's practice of using formal, deferential means of addressing men, while using informal, casual means of addressing women serves to highlight a subservient relationship between such employees, based on their sex.”
While the investigator’s findings were disclosed to county human resources officials in the May 2023 report, they have not been publicly reported until now. LAist obtained the report — which is labeled “confidential” — via a public records request.
At least two Orange County supervisors did not know of the findings until this month — and only found out because the county was preparing to release the report to LAist, according to their offices. Under state law, the Board of Supervisors has an oversight role over Parrish, though it’s limited because voters elected him.
Parrish, who has been the county assessor for 10 years, has continued to serve since the findings against him nearly two years ago. In interviews with LAist, Parrish said he was not at fault, named the former employee and called her a “pathological liar.” According to the report, witnesses corroborated many of her claims and the investigator found she was “generally credible.”
LAist obtained the investigation report after citing court precedent requiring local governments to release such documents under the Public Records Act.
Parrish was told to cease and desist
Citing the investigation findings, the county’s HR director sent a letter to Parrish telling him to stop violating harassment policies.
“The investigator’s findings raise serious concerns about your treatment of Assessor employees,” wrote Collette Farnes, the county’s chief human resources officer. The December 2023 letter was also obtained by LAist in the public records request.
“As the County’s Chief Human Resources Officer, I am obligated to instruct you to cease and desist from any and all conduct that violates County policy.”
Farnes went on to “strongly recommend” Parrish to take a two-hour anti-harassment training.
Parrish told LAist that he does not remember if he did the requested training.
“ I honestly don't remember if I did. It was too long ago, so I don't remember,” he said.
A county spokesperson told LAist that Parrish completed the training recommended in the letter from Farnes.
When asked about what was done in response to the findings, a county spokesperson pointed to the letter’s demands. No further action was described.
Under county policy and state law, all county employees have to complete a workplace harassment prevention training every two years. A county spokesperson told LAist that the requirement applies twice a year to supervisory and management roles.
Parrish told LAist he does not remember if he’s ever done harassment prevention training.
Who oversees the assessor?
Parrish is responsible for overseeing about 250 staff. His department determines the value of billions of dollars of homes and other real estate in Orange County for tax purposes. Parrish first took office in January 2015, in an election that followed his predecessor being charged with (and later convicted of) filing false nomination papers for re-election.
As an elected official, Parrish operates largely independently. The power to hire and fire the assessor rests with the voters, who choose every four years whether to re-elect him. Parrish was most recently reelected in 2022 when he won the primary outright with nearly 71% of the vote.
Under state law, Orange County supervisors’ authority is constrained “to ensuring that the assessor faithfully performs the duties of the office,” according to a state Supreme Court ruling in a case out of Orange County. But the board is not allowed “to control, directly or indirectly, the manner in which the [assessor’s] duties are performed,” according to that same ruling.
“As a County officer, the Assessor is subject to supervision by the Board of Supervisors,” county spokesperson Molly Nichelson said in a written response to LAist’s questions. She pointed to state law.
Parrish responds: ‘Nobody's more employee-friendly than me’
Asked for his response to the HR investigation, Parrish told LAist he’s a kind boss. He said he’d been on the “best terms” with the former employee he later was found to have harassed, until the day he transferred her to a different department in July 2022.
“ Nobody's more employee-friendly than me,” he said, adding that he let the employee take off whatever time off she needed for her medical issues. “ I was like her best friend, for years.”
“We were on the best terms for the entire time she worked here, except for the last day,” he added. “To this day, to show you what a nice guy is, if she comes and says, ‘I’d like to work here,’ I'd hire her now. Even though she's said all those terrible things about me."
“She just lies, stabbed me in the back,” Parrish said, saying the former employee would “make up all sorts of stories.”
“I’m not mean to anybody,” he added.
While the initial complaint against Parrish did not include allegations of harassment based on gender, those allegations came up as employees were interviewed, according to the investigation report.
As for the findings about how he addressed male versus female employees, Parrish called that “a lie.” He said he referred to one high-ranking male executive — Neil Shah — as “Mr.” because they worked together at the State Board of Equalization.
“ Mr. Shah and I are old time friends from when I was on the Board of Equalization, so I have great respect for him. So that's the deal,” Parrish said.
Multiple employees told the investigator otherwise — saying that in the workplace, Parrish referred to all men as “Mr.” and all women by their first names, according to the report. The investigator found that Parrish’s practice was “gender-based rather than based on their role/title.”
The investigator determined that Parrish violated the county’s harassment policy based on gender.
Investigator found Parrish not credible
The investigator’s report, which redacted the name of the employee with the medical issue, found her to be “generally credible” — noting several witnesses corroborated her claims.
In contrast, the investigator wrote that they “did not find Parrish credible” for several reasons, including that he contradicted himself and “was at times evasive.”
“When the Investigator asked Parrish to respond to an allegation of race harassment and discrimination, his initial response was limited to, ‘Well, that's totally false. If anybody's a racist, it's [name redacted],’” the report states.
In addition, the report said in response to the investigator asking if there was anything Parrish wanted to say about the allegations against him, “he spoke for eight minutes about how he is ‘employee friendly’ as evidenced by his installation of air and ultraviolet filters, conducting air quality testing, and providing Dial soap at the Assessor’s Office.”
During his interview with LAist, Parrish also brought up the air filters and ultraviolet filters for employee computer screens.
In finding that he engaged in disability and gender harassment, the investigation report found that Parrish’s conduct “was not occasional, isolated, or sporadic.”
“Instead, the evidence shows that Parrish engaged in unwelcome conduct directly related to [redacted employee’s] medical condition on a continuous basis throughout her employment,” investigators wrote.
Unprompted, Parrish names employee he was found to have harassed
In the HR director’s 2023 letter, Parrish was instructed not to “ascertain the identity of any complainant or witness” and “not take adverse action, disparage, or otherwise retaliate against any County employee” because of their complaints or participation in the investigation.
The investigation records released to LAist blacked out the name of the former employee whom Parrish was found to have harassed, along with the names of witnesses. In responding to LAist’s records request, the county CEO’s office said they made the redactions because disclosing the names of reporting parties and witnesses “would constitute an unwarranted invasion of the right to privacy and would also have a chilling effect on an individual’s willingness to come forward.”
Parrish handled that differently in his interview with LAist.
Unprompted, Parrish repeatedly identified by first name the former employee he was found to have harassed. And he called her a liar.
“ Candace, bless her little heart, she's a pathological liar. She'd make up all sorts of stories,” he said.
Online records show only one employee in his office with that first name during a timeframe the investigation said the employee worked there.
During the interview with LAist, Parrish also brought up information about the employee’s medical condition.
“Candace was just sick all the time,” Parrish said. He went on to disclose, unprompted, a detail of her medical condition that was redacted from the investigation report.
What the former employee says
In interviews with LAist, Candace Jones confirmed she was the employee who filed the complaint that is the subject of the investigation and report. She gave LAist her account.
Jones said she had been a human resources employee under Parrish for years, until he transferred her out to a different county department in 2022.
Jones told LAist that when she started in her role at the department in 2015, she was in remission for Crohn’s disease, a chronic condition for inflammatory bowel disease. The following year, she said, she complained directly to Parrish and her supervisor alleging medical discrimination. She said they downplayed her complaints and forbade her from escalating the complaints to county-level HR.
When she did report issues within the Assessor’s department to county HR officials, Jones said, Parrish yelled at her “for going over his head.”
“ The stress got so bad where my intestines just completely got ruined, so now I've been left with a permanent ostomy bag, so that will be for the rest of my life,” Jones told LAist, referencing the redacted medical condition Parrish told LAist about. “I don't think I would be in my current situation if I didn't have to endure the stress at the assessor's office.”
County HR has long been aware of Claude's behavior towards numerous staff throughout the County, but they have consistently failed to intervene and protect its employees.
Asked about Parrish’s claim that she’s a liar who makes up stories, Jones noted the county-commissioned investigation substantiated her credibility about many of her claims, including that Parrish discriminated against her.
“County HR has long been aware of Claude's behavior towards numerous staff throughout the County, but they have consistently failed to intervene and protect its employees,” she added in a text message.
“I look forward to the County taking the necessary steps to implement meaningful safeguards that protect employees from elected officials who are unwilling or unable to adhere to EEO laws and policies,” referring to equal employment opportunity regulations.
Parrish responds to Jones’ allegations
When LAist asked Parrish about Jones' account, he said her first complaint was about two colleagues with whom she disagreed. He said he tried “to smooth everything down to make everybody happy.”
She's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's hard to believe.
Parrish said all employees can complain to HR and he couldn't stop them. He also said it was “an absolute lie” that he yelled at Jones for escalating to HR.
“ She's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's hard to believe. She's always so nice and always thanking me for everything I do,” he said. “She's having some second thoughts and fabricating stuff and twisting something and it just, it's never ending.”
In the interview, Parrish called himself “an innocent victim.”
Jones, he added, is “vindictive.”
Jones told LAist: “As an elected official, Claude can and will continue to cover up abuse and hostile working conditions without repercussions.”
Through the records request, LAist also obtained a log of when Parrish’s key card was used in his department’s headquarters. The log shows his badge was often swiped multiple days per month in 2021 and 2022, then dropped to only one day per month on average in 2023 and 2024.
In responding to the records request, the county said Parrish’s office “is accessible by physical key only and not through badge access. However, other floors within of the Assessor Department are accessible via badge access. Thus, the records…reflect whether Mr. Parrish’s badge was used to access the elevator or another floor.”
Asked about the drop in how often the log shows him swiping, Parrish told LAist he’s come in every day.
“ I pride myself, since I was elected, I came in — I come in here every day. Even when I'm sick, I come in and I spread the cold,” Parrish said. Asked about his employees, he said: “I don't touch them or sneeze.”
“I never miss. If I'm sick as a dog, I come in,” he said.
He also said he does not miss work except for holidays and official days off.
“ Under penalty of perjury, you could say that. I'm in here every single day,” Parrish said.
As for the badge log, Parrish said that “a lot of times I don't go upstairs. I just stay down [and employees] come to me.”
“ I'll swear on the Bible, I come in every — even when I'm sick,” he added.
He then asked a subordinate, “Would you swear under a Bible that I come in every day?”
The employee replied, “I would.”
“Even when I’m sick,” Parrish said.
“Even when you’re sick,” the employee responded.
OC supervisor says he’s ‘appalled’ by assessor’s conduct
LAist reached out to all five county supervisors for comment on the investigation’s findings.
In a statement, Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said he was “appalled by the issues that have been brought forward regarding the functioning of the Assessor’s office and his conduct in the office.”
“As shown in recent actions, this Board has not shied away from addressing these issues in our workplace and I hope that county employees and anyone working with the county will feel empowered and supported to bring concerns regarding ethical or discriminatory practices to our attention so they can be addressed,” he said.
The Board of Supervisors recently yanked the investment authority of O.C.’s elected Treasurer/Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich after numerous complaints of mismanagement, some of which was examined and substantiated in a county-commissioned investigation. That investment responsibility was the only power that the county CEO’s office said supervisors had authority to remove from the treasurer.
Asked about Parrish, Supervisor Katrina Foley said she takes allegations of misconduct against county employees seriously and is following up to make sure the findings of the investigation are dealt with properly.
“I will continue to work with County Human Resources to ensure the Assessor's Office addresses and corrects the sustained allegations,” the statement added.
Both Sarmiento and Foley only found out about the investigation findings this month because of LAist’s records request, according to their offices.
LAist asked the county CEO’s office, which central HR falls under, why the findings weren’t disclosed to the Board of Supervisors sooner. Nichelson declined to answer, saying communication between county attorneys and the board are confidential.
Supervisors Don Wagner and Doug Chaffee declined to comment, and Supervisor Janet Nguyen did not respond to requests.
After learning of the investigation's findings, Sarmiento is exploring options to address employee concerns with the county’s attorneys, according to his spokesperson. And Foley told LAist she is looking to implement in-person harassment training.
