The lawsuit, which also names as defendants the state tax board and Schaefer\u2019s then-chief of staff Gary Gartner, accuses the two men of overseeing a sexually charged workplace and asking Rodriguez-Kennedy to influence the outcome of county Democratic Party votes. Gartner was Rodriguez-Kennedy\u2019s immediate supervisor.<\/p>\n
It also claims he was directed to perform personal tasks for Schaefer, such as picking up his laundry. The lawsuit says Gartner threatened Rodriguez-Kennedy with losing his job if he failed to comply.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen plaintiff expressed reluctance, Gartner stated: \u2018You know, you really should just do what I say, because people talk in the gay community and it would be unfortunate if I decided to bring up something negative about your personal life,\u2019\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Schaefer said he was unaware of most of the allegations in the lawsuit. \u201cI have no problems with Mr. Gartner or with Mr. Rodriguez-Kennedy,\u201d he said by email.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chief must have an assistant of his choice or acceptance who he can work well with to get our job done,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI would not hire independently of my chief\u2019s requests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither Gartner or the state Board of Equalization responded to requests for comment about the lawsuit or its allegations.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez-Kennedy, who now works as a field representative for Rep. Scott Peters<\/a>, D-San Diego, and also serves as a county civil service commissioner<\/a>, interviewed in late 2020 for a position with Schaefer, the 4th District representative on the state tax board.<\/p>\n By mid-December, he was offered the job and began working as an assistant to Schaefer, even though he was not placed onto the state payroll until Jan. 5, 2021, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n In the first weeks of his employment, Rodriguez-Kennedy said Schaefer told him to read \u201cFull Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and all the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars,\u201d<\/a> a 2012 tell-all by a man who claimed to arrange gay sex encounters for actors.<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, the same week, Gartner asked the plaintiff if he was \u201cinto S&M,\u201d an explicit reference to the sexual practice of sadomasochism.<\/p>\n \u201cBetween Jan. 18, 2021, and Feb. 26, 2021, Gartner repeatedly asked plaintiff about a Delano City Council member whom Gartner described as \u2018stunningly handsome,\u2019\u201d the complaint adds. \u201cGartner pressured plaintiff to provide him with the council member\u2019s contact information.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen plaintiff declined to provide the council member\u2019s contact information, Gartner said, \u2018Oh, I see how it is, you are trying to keep him for yourself,\u2019 implying a sexual relationship and telling plaintiff to \u2018loosen up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n On other occasions, Schaefer and Gartner made racist comments about other board members and staff, the claim said. In defending the subject of one such comment, the chief to Schaefer disparaged Rodriguez-Kennedy\u2019s own African ancestry, it added.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, after Schaefer posted a racist meme on his Facebook page, the lawsuit says, Rodriguez-Kennedy was directed to lie to a reporter about the post and say the account had been hacked.<\/p>\n \u201cGartner later suggested that plaintiff should \u2018take the fall\u2019 for the racist post because he was \u2018the only person of color on staff\u2019 and that would \u2018provide cover for the member,\u2019\u201d it added.<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, the defendants also directed Rodriguez-Kennedy to perform tasks outside his normal duties for Schaefer, including helping him move, picking up his dry cleaning and shuttling Schaefer to a driving appointment.<\/p>\n In April 2021, Rodriguez-Kennedy said his immediate supervisor told him to take advantage of his position as chair of the county Democratic Party to ensure a favorable outcome for a pending motion.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring this same conversation, Gartner threatened to fire the plaintiff if a political consideration did not go his way at the central committee,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n Early the following year, Rodriguez-Kennedy complained about the inappropriate behavior to the board\u2019s executive director, and soon after, he started facing more hostile treatment at work, his lawsuit says.<\/p>\n Rodriguez-Kennedy stepped away<\/a> from his position as San Diego County Democratic Party chair in early May 2022 after the District Attorney\u2019s Office said it was investigating sexual assault allegations made by a former boyfriend, which Rodriguez-Kennedy denied. No charges were ever filed, and a lawsuit<\/a> by his ex-boyfriend was later dropped<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rodriguez-Kennedy says he was fired from his Board of Equalization job on May 16,\u00a02022, in what his lawsuit says was retaliation for reporting his workplace conditions.<\/p>\n He sought and received a right-to-sue letter from the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing this past\u00a0April.<\/p>\n The lawsuit seeks general and special damages, back pay and other relief. Court records show a hearing is scheduled Aug. 29 to consider a motion to dismiss filed by Schaefer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A past chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party is accusing a member of the California State…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,356,1370,728,8629,50,80,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-41680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-local-politics","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-san-diego","18":"tag-sandiego","19":"tag-top-stories-sdut","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114802679132642477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Schaefer-A-16x9-2.jpeg\")
Michael Schaefer. (Courtesy of State Board of Equalization)<\/p>\n