WHATCOM COUNTY, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu is facing scrutiny following a report detailing the county’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against a former employee.

The Whatcom Democrats called for Sidhu’s resignation in an open letter released on Wednesday, April 24, in response to a recent story by Crosscut.com. It revealed that three different women reported being sexually harassed by Jon Hutchings between 2020 and 2022 while he served as director of Whatcom Public Works. The county ended up settling with one of the women for $225,000.

Crosscut’s story also said that county leaders never formally disciplined Hutchings and that Sidhu wrote a favorable “letter of introduction” to help him get a new job as Lynden’s Public Works director.

Whatcom County council member Todd Donovan said the council was not involved in the settlement.

“There was a failure here and I think we are in the dark about how this happened,” said Donavan at the council’s meeting on Tuesday, April 23.

Sidhu took responsibility for the revelations from Crosscut’s story in an email sent to members of the council on Tuesday and confirmed that the council had no role in the process. He said the Executive’s Office took “swift action” to address the complaints about Hutchings when they were first notified of them in October 2022 and placed him on administrative leave.

Sidhu added that the county then hired an independent investigator to look into the allegations, though Hutchings resigned before the investigation was complete.

However, council member Donovan still had questions after Sidhu’s response.

“What I’m seeing in the email that Satpal sent to us is not consistent with what we had been hearing from our attorney who was the attorney on the settlement, which raises some awkward questions,” Donovan said.

Sidhu asked to hold an executive session with the council on May 7 to discuss confidential information regarding the incident, saying “the unique facts of the situation and timing of decisions played a role in how it was ultimately handled.”

Sidhu is currently touring a new jail in Ohio along with Council Chairman Barry Buchanan to help plan for construction of Whatcom County’s new jail and was absent from Tuesday’s council meeting.

Executive board members with Whatcom Democrats called Sidhu’s actions to cover up the incident “indefensible” in their letter calling for his resignation and a public apology to Hutchings’ victims.

County Executive spokesperson Jed Holmes says Sidhu is disappointed with the Democrats’ statement that he says was made with “factual errors” regarding the timeline of events.

Sidhu says he will “welcome calls for more clarity and transparency around the situation,” but has no intention of resigning.