Irvine water district employee’s lawsuit accuses boss of race and gender discrimination

An employee has sued the Irvine Ranch Water District and her boss, claiming that she was harassed and discriminated against based on her race and gender.

Karen Bonecki, an analyst with the district, alleged in a court filing last week that she was forced to do menial and sexist tasks — such as cleaning her supervisor’s desk — that were not required of white male employees. Bonecki is Asian American.

Bonecki’s lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, accuses Patrick Sheilds, the district’s executive director of operations, of repeatedly disrespecting her and treating her “like his own personal servant.”

Sheilds and a spokesman for the district — which provides water to Irvine and portions of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa — declined to comment. Both said they were unaware of the lawsuit.

According to the court filing, the district hired Bonecki in 2007 as an engineering technician. She was promoted to executive secretary four months later and to analyst in 2008, the filing states.

Sheilds was hired in 2013 and became Bonecki’s supervisor, according to the lawsuit.

“Ms. Bonecki was one of only two women in her entire office department of 150 employees,” the lawsuit states. “Mr. Sheilds treated Ms. Bonecki with extreme disrespect because she is a woman and because she is … Asian-American.”

The lawsuit claims Bonecki was forced into demeaning assignments outside the scope of her job, including entering contacts in Sheilds’ personal cellphone and reminding him to buy gifts for people.

“IRWD and Mr. Sheilds also unreasonably and relentlessly required Ms. Bonecki to provide Mr. Sheilds with electronic reminders of his appointments, and because he consistently disregarded those reminders, IRWD and Mr. Sheilds required Ms. Bonecki to provide him reminders of the reminders,” the lawsuit states. “None of Mr. Sheilds’ male subordinates had such meaningless, insulting tasks imposed on them.”

The lawsuit also claims that Bonecki was denied a promotion in 2013 as retaliation for complaining to human resources about Sheilds’ behavior.

“The only other female employee in the same department, who is also a woman of color, also made complaints about Mr. Sheilds’ behavior and actions toward her,” according to the lawsuit.

The same year, Bonecki took a medical leave of absence because the stress of her work environment was affecting her health, according to the filing.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley, a lawyer who specializes in employment litigation, is representing Bonecki.