SACRAMENTO, California — A senior official at the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services has been accused in a lawsuit of sexual harassment and retaliation against a senior employee.
Kendra Bowyer, a former Cal OES employee who helped manage the state’s response efforts after wildfires and other disasters, alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Sacramento County Superior Court that Deputy Director Ryan Buras, a Gov. Gavin Newsom appointee, had sexually harassed her for a period that lasted about a year beginning in 2020.
His actions occurred despite the fact that four other women had previously made similar allegations made to the agency’s management in 2019, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit alleges the agency failed to respond appropriately.
“Our goal is to hold the government accountable for allowing this to happen for so long,” said Tanya Gomerman, an attorney representing Bowyer.
Gomerman said the agency should conduct a comprehensive investigation into the allegations against Buras. The lawsuit seeks compensation from Buras and Cal OES for allegations including sexual harassment, retaliation and a hostile work environment.
Buras did not respond to emails seeking comment on the allegations.
Agency spokesman Brian Ferguson said in a statement that Cal OES does not comment on personnel matters or active litigation, but said “nothing is more important” than the safety and well-being of staff and the broader public.
“Sexual harassment in the workplace is an affront to our values as an organization,” he wrote. “It has no place in Cal OES and it will not be tolerated in any form.”
The accusations against Buras range from making inappropriate comments about how Bowyer should dress “more like a woman” to trying to get her alone in hotel rooms to grabbing her hand in public. During another incident, Buras invited Bowyer and a co-worker to his apartment for dinner and drinks, asked them to stay the night and crawled into the bed Bowyer was sleeping in, the lawsuit alleges. She woke up with Buras’ “body wrapped around the back of her body,” it said.
Newsom appointed Buras as deputy director of recovery operations in 2019 after Buras spent more than a decade working in various roles at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In Buras’ role at Cal OES, he leads the state’s disaster recovery efforts.
Bowyer said she repeatedly told Buras to stop his behavior, Gomerman said. Ultimately, after rejecting his advances, Bowyer faced retaliation from Buras, including restricting her access to the resources needed to do her job, the lawsuit said.
Buras’ actions prevented Bowyer from providing essential services to disaster survivors and caused her so much stress, anxiety and depression that a doctor determined she was “completely disabled” in 2021, the lawsuit alleges.
“When I finally stood up to him and said this had to stop, he denied me all the resources I needed to do my job,” Bowyer said.
Cal OES conducted an investigation after receiving a medical evaluation as part of Bowyer’s leave of absence. She received a letter later that year stating that Buras had not acted inappropriately, the lawsuit said.
Bowyer decided to take legal action after learning of similar allegations against Buras from a colleague she had confided in. ___ Austin is a corps member of The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: @sophieadanna