[Updated] The Kansas City, Missouri, council today agreed upon a $550,000 offer to Ruth Bates, a former aide to Mayor Mark Funkhouser. The measure passed 7-3, with Funkhouser abstaining.
Bates filed an employment-discrimination in 2008. Her suit alleged racial discrimination and accused Funkhouser's wife and de facto chief of staff, Gloria Squitiro, of making a constant stream of crude sexual remarks.
Funkhouser said all along that he would have been vindicated if the case had gone to trial. He said Bates turned on him and Squitiro after they refused her request for a loan of $5,000.
Bates' allegations became public in late 2007, and from the beginning, Funkhouser
underestimated the political damage her complaint might wreak. Depositions were taken. A diary was made public. None of it flattered Funkhouser's decision to give his spouse, a woman of uneven temperment and startling unprofessionalism, such a prominent (if unpaid) role in the
administration.
Since he took office, Funkhouser insisted that he functioned better
with Squitiro at his side. Now, as a not-so-indirect result of that belief, the city will apparently function on $550,000 less.
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