Carmel investigating 'offensive language' and 'off-color joke' by Mayor Steve Dallas.

Last month Kim Stemler, executive director of the Monterey County Vintners and Growers Association, accused Carmel Mayor Steve Dallas of sexual harassment over a period of almost four years at events where she was working and he was representing the city.

She told the Weekly she had endured "pervasive sexualization" in conversations with Dallas during numerous events starting when he was a council member in 2014 through last fall. (Dallas was elected mayor in 2016.)

At one event in October, Stemler says he noticed something on her blouse and leered at her chest, commenting, "I would get it off, but I can't do that." The encounter left her feeling "slimy."

Bolstered by the growing #MeToo movement, Stemler decided she had had enough, and complained to Carmel officials in November, who later announced they were hiring an independent investigator to look into the matter.

Dallas has not returned numerous calls and text messages about the allegations and the investigation. 

At a City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 9, City Attorney Glen Mozingo announced that the investigation will look into "the use of offensive language" and "reciting an off-color joke."

Stemler says the behavior she complained about was not just a one-time joke, but a long-term pattern.

"For me this is years of pervasive use of sexual language, which to me is against my civil rights," she says. "I deserve to be treated with basic respect. An elected official should be treating everyone with basic respect."

Stemler also claims it was not just language, but behavior that she complained about.

Mozingo also announced Jan. 9 the investigator will also look into a complaint about a "landlord-tenant dispute." (For his day job, Dallas manages rentals in Carmel and the surrounding area owned by him and his mother, Mitzi Dallas.)

One former tenant of his, Cathi Clay, says she started the process of requesting a restraining order against Dallas in 2013 in Monterey County Superior Court, but never completed it.

Clay says she rented a home from Dallas in an unincorporated part of Carmel in July 2012, and says he was "confrontational and combative" during a series of interactions throughout her one year lease.

She says Dallas watched the house—or had neighbors report to him—and would call to ask who was parked in her driveway or spending the night. 

"It was horrible," she says. "I didn't have any right to privacy."

Mozingo did not specify in his public announcement at the council meeting whether it was Clay's complaint the investigation will look into, but Clay has recently made public remarks about her time renting from Dallas.

In his remarks at the council meeting, Mozingo gave no further explanation about the scope of the investigation. He said no further statements would be made until it was complete.

The investigator will meet with four members of City Council—without Dallas—to discuss their findings. 

From there the council will discuss the matter privately, followed by a public statement. No date or timeline was provided.

In an email Jan. 9, Mozingo denied a request made by the Weekly, under the California Public Records Act, to view the contract for the investigation.