“This process appears to be rapidly coming to a conclusion.”

LEBANON. Missouri- Monday evening Lebanon Mayor Josh Ray made following announcement to those assembled during the city council meeting:

“Two weeks ago, I called for the termination of the city administrator. With the help and mediation of this city council and our legal counsel, I am pleased to announce to you all tonight that all parties involved on both sides of the city administrator issue are on board with the City of Lebanon moving beyond our current city administrator. Discussions and negotiations are in the process of being reduced to writing. Council and I have immediately instructed our city counselor to get this paperwork finalized.

Chris Heard, Facebook photo

Government moves slow, but the men and women here on the dais recognize the need to move forward and bring this matter to a swift close so that we can get on with doing other city business. I am at the table working with all concerned parties to have this situation reach the best conclusion possible. As such, I am working with city council and city attorney to finalize a separation agreement that is mutually agreeable and beneficial. This process appears to be rapidly coming to a conclusion.

THIS IS HAPPENING. You have my word that we are in one voice to move to a new city administrator and to put the community FIRST. That means more citizen involvement and a better reaction to citizen concerns from the governing body. Once elected, we should not suddenly cease conversations with the community. Walking door-to-door during a campaign is all well and good, but why stop that direct communication because we won what we wanted to win?

Obviously, I have no problem communicating with the public, so you continue to have my word that I will keep you all updated on this matter as the law allows. I just want you all to know that the governing body and I are on the same page with the separation and moving to a new city administrator, and it will happen as quickly as we can.

My authority is set by state statute, but it means absolutely nothing if the community doesn’t support me. I want to thank each and every person in attendance, because you are my strength. Without you, I could’ve never got us to this point. Once I was a lone voice, but now there are many others amplifying my soft, fragile nerd voice. Help me see this mission through to its completion with our community’s best interest in mind.”

John Joseph Boswell pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor sexual abuse in D.C. Superior Court. He was sentenced to 10 days incarceration and six months probation, although the jail time was suspended according to the Washington Post

Note: The WAPO article reprinted below is largely commentary and opinion by the Post writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Lebanon Link and editorial staff.

BY MICHAEL E. MILLER, The Washington Post

He was a millionaire, in Washington, D.C., to toast President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

She was a maid, tasked with cleaning rooms that cost more in a few days than her monthly rent.

On Jan. 19, as the nation’s capital swelled with tourists and protesters, the millionaire and the maid met on the 10th floor of the Mayflower Hotel downtown, in Room 1065.

“This is very nice stuff,” he said, according to the report. “I like that!”

See full report here

Such incidents are all too common in an industry where about half of employees say they have been sexually assaulted or harassed by a guest, union surveys have shown. Many go unreported because the housekeepers, often immigrants or women of color, fear losing their jobs.

In 2011, the plight of hotel housekeepers became international news when Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then the head of the International Monetary Fund, was accused of sexually assaulting a maid at a luxury hotel in New York. Criminal charges were dropped, but the incident spurred New York hotels to provide maids with panic buttons.

Six years later, the devices only now are reaching many other parts of the country, including the District, a city with 32,000 hotel rooms and about 3,000 maids.

More than 30 hotels in the Washington area have introduced panic buttons in the past year under an agreement with Unite Here Local 25, said John Boardman, the union’s executive secretary-treasurer. The Mayflower introduced the devices on April 1, he said.

The agreement was reached in 2012, but it has taken five years to put in place reliable technology, Boardman said. When pressed, the panic buttons send a maid’s location to hotel security. Hotels pay for the devices and monitoring systems, which generally cost between $40,000 and $50,000.

In November, voters in Seattle approved a measure providing hotel workers with panic buttons and other protections. And in Chicago, the city council is considering a measure that would require panic buttons.

“These women deal with a constant fear when they work by themselves,” said Alderman Michelle Harris, the ordinance’s sponsor. “Will they be next?”

Vanessa Sinders, a senior vice president for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, which represents most of the country’s biggest chains, said the industry is committed to using technology to keep its employees safe.

“Unfortunately, when it comes to sexual harassment,” she said, “no industry is immune.”

Perhaps the only thing unusual about what happened in Room 1065 was that the man was arrested.

John Joseph Boswell pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor sexual abuse in D.C. Superior Court. He was sentenced to 10 days incarceration and six months probation, although the jail time was suspended.

The maid declined to comment. The Washington Post generally does not name victims of sexual assault.

In an interview with The Post, Boswell maintained his innocence.

“I patted her on the lower back,” said Boswell, 70, who is married and has three young children. “It was just a friendly gesture.”

The prosecutor in the case saw things differently.

See full report here

“He took advantage of [her] while she was working, vulnerable, and alone,” Vivian Kim, an assistant U.S. attorney, wrote in an email to Boswell’s attorney.

Two different Americas collided at the Mayflower that afternoon.

The woman is an African immigrant who cleans strangers’ rooms for $20 an hour.

Boswell is the chief executive of Independent Stave Company, the world’s largest wine-and-whiskey barrel manufacturer. He lives in a 14,000-square-foot, $7 million mansion in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 20 miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Boswell – who has contributed more than $120,000 to Republican candidates and conservative groups over the past 25 years – wasn’t always a Trump backer. In the 2016 presidential election, he supported Ben Carson and Sen. Marco Rubio, Fla. But by the time of Trump’s inauguration, Boswell had embraced the new president and booked a room at the Mayflower.

On the morning of Jan. 19 – the day before the inauguration – the maid commuted from her modest apartment in Riverdale, Maryland, to the historic hotel, with its gilded ballrooms and crystal chandeliers.

It was about 2 p.m. when she entered Boswell’s room, and he began touching her.

She froze and, in shock, apologized to him, according to the police report. “Sorry sir,” she said. “Sorry sir!”

When another maid emerged from the bathroom, Boswell “immediately moved,” the report said. The first maid rushed out of the room, shaking, and told her co-worker that she would have to clean it by herself.

As the second maid attempted to make the bed, Boswell approached her, too, and “placed his hand on the top of her shoulder” until she ordered him to sit down, according to the police report.

Neither woman reported the incident. But the next day, when a co-worker told a manager what had happened, police were called.

At 6:20 p.m. – as the parade for the newly sworn-in president was winding down and supporters and protesters were still clashing in the District’s streets – police knocked on Boswell’s hotel room door. When he stepped out, the maid identified him to officers, and he was arrested.

He was jailed alongside more than 200 protesters, including black-clad anarchists accused of smashing Starbucks windows and torching a limousine.

When he was released the following afternoon, Boswell emerged from the D.C. Superior courthouse – less than a mile from where Trump had been sworn in – wearing a green flannel shirt, jeans and glasses.

At first, the crowd cheered, mistaking him for a protester. Then someone who had been in court when Boswell was charged shouted that he was a “sex offender.” Protesters began throwing things at him. An orange slice struck Boswell in the head.

“Well, that wasn’t very nice,” he told a Post reporter, wiping the fruit from his forehead before walking back toward his hotel.

Boswell’s attorney, Bernard Grimm, pushed prosecutors to grant his client a deferred sentencing agreement, or DSA, under which Boswell would have admitted guilt but then, after a short period of good behavior, could have withdrawn his guilty plea.

Kim refused, pointing out that Boswell “could have potentially faced an additional charge based on similar conduct with another hotel employee the same day.”

On April 11, Boswell pleaded guilty. Court documents show that Boswell earns $600,000 a month, but Judge Michael Ryan ordered him to pay $50 into the crime victims compensation fund – one-fifth of the maximum penalty for the offense.

The judge and the prosecutor also agreed that Boswell could travel overseas while on probation. Last month, he was allowed to fly to the Bahamas. At the end of this month, he is scheduled to spend two weeks in the Dominican Republic for a family reunion.

Meanwhile his victim was so frightened by a visit from Boswell’s defense team to her apartmentthat she moved, said a co-worker, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity.

Although the two women still work together at the Mayflower, they don’t talk about what happened in Room 1065.

“Whenever she would talk about it,” her co-worker said, “she would cry.”

See full story here