Tom Moulton, the former head of county attractions and tourism, announced his retirement in March, several months after workplace harassment allegations were made against him.
In early November, an employee left the office “in tears” after Moulton allegedly told her to “shut the ---- up,” according to a brief Nov. 3 human-resources report obtained by the Star through a public-records request.
Similar incidents were alleged to have occurred previously, during which employees in the office would shut their doors, according to the report. An unnamed employee made the complaints to Chief Deputy County Administrator Jan Lesher, Moulton’s direct supervisor, who then relayed them to HR, as required by county policy, according to Lesher.
The employee allegedly yelled at by Moulton, whose name is redacted from the document, appears to have told an unnamed colleague she feared she would lose her job if she reported the incident. Another unnamed person reported Moulton “aggressively yelling” at a city of Tucson employee after a December meeting, according to HR reports.
“Jan went on to say that Tom usually talks loudly,” a Dec. 12 human-resources report reads. “He does not appear to be happy with a recent move the department made from nice offices in the Bank of America building to ones that are not as nice.”
Moulton would not comment when contacted by the Star.
The Star requested any documents detailing the results of a subsequent investigation, but the county would not provide them, citing concerns about employee privacy, which were heightened because of the department’s small size. There are four full-time employees, according to recent budget documents.
A county spokesman said the brief summaries of allegations the Star was provided would also not have been released if they had been reviewed in the same way.
In response to questions about whether the investigation corroborated the allegations, fully or partially cleared Moulton or uncovered additional wrongdoing, county spokesman Mark Evans told the Star that “all we can say without violating the privacy rights of our employees or damaging the county’s extensive program to ensure a workplace free from inappropriate or wrongful behavior is that a complaint was made against Mr. Moulton and he was placed on paid leave while Human Resources investigated the claims.”
Moulton, who worked for the county for about 16 years, submitted retirement paperwork after the investigation was completed, according to Evans’ written comments. In a March 23 letter to Lesher announcing his May departure, Moulton wrote “I’ve enjoyed my employment with the county and will miss both work and the people.”
His decision came “before any final decisions had been made about what repercussions, if any, should result from the findings of the HR investigation,” Evans wrote in response to questions from the Star about whether the county had asked Moulton to retire or contemplated firing him.
The combined salary and benefits for Moulton’s position were worth $155,000, according to a recent budget document.
The county hired Diane Frisch, formerly a sales and marketing manager with the PGA Tour, in May to replace Moulton. Among other things, the attractions and tourism department manages the contracts to operate several county-owned facilities, including the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Colossal Cave Mountain Park.
