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Two fired employees, who received a total of $800,000 legal settlement from the Los Angeles Department of Homeless Services, accused fellow chief executives of “very drunk” at out-of-state meetings, purported to have their records destroyed due to top jobs.
Deputy Chief Information Officer Emily Vaughn Henry said in a May 2024 settlement request that she was fired after she issued multiple complaints about Va Lecia Adams Kellum, the top executive of a homeless agency, also known as Lahasa.
Christina Dixon, formerly the agency’s chief financial officer, characterized her firing as part of last year’s “witch hunt.” In her request sent to Rahasa in June 2024, her lawyer accused Adams Kellam of “hiring inexperienced key staff into important positions simply because they had previously worked in previous jobs.”
A Lahasa official said he “ve been “hardly denied the allegations” contained in the two requests, and in a statement he “has made a business decision to resolve these issues with the advice of an outside lawyer.”
In an interview Wednesday, Adams Kellam described the staff hired during his tenure as “highly qualified.” She refused to provide details of the two end cases, and instead provided a broader assessment of the administrative decision.
“I came to Rahasa to try and try to make it better and instead of making excuses, I put it on the path to improvement,” she said. “We had to make tough decisions. We had to pursue changes.”
Vaughn Henry’s lawyers requested an $3.5 million settlement last year. He said the financial resolution will help to avoid “long and expensive litigation.” That same lawyer made the first offer for Dixon to receive $1.5 million.
“The recent layoffs in Lahasa already have a high level of public and media interest, and public litigation will undoubtedly have a widespread impact on many city and county officials,” the two letters said.
Lahsa’s board of directors resolved the claim in March, agreeing to pay Dixon $450,000 and Vaughn Henry $350,000. Lahsa paid $200,000 for the settlement and the insurance covered the rest.
The settlement request, and the settlement amount, were first reported by LAIST, but significant details have been compiled. Under continued pressure from public radio outlets, Lahsa released a more complete version of the demand letter on Wednesday, with much less editing.
In a newly unedited claim, Vaughn Henry claimed that Adams Kellam attempted without success in deleting two emails sent by Mayor Karen Bass. Vaughn Henry also claimed that while attending a conference in Washington, D.C., Adams Kellam “gets ‘lap dance’ from a female consultant who was very drunk and just hired to do her job in Lahasa.”
In a statement, Lahsa said in her interview that the complaints relating to Washington, DC Adams Kellum’s inappropriate behavior issues were not true.
“I didn’t,” she said. “And that’s not the way I carry myself as an expert.”
The release of the letter comes at a turbulent time for Rahasa. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted last month to withdraw more than $300 million from agents after undermining financial oversight audits. A few days later, Adams Kellum announced that she would resign from her post and offered to stay for 120 days.
Now, with her departure imminent, Adams Kellam had to contest allegations from staff members who were fired from the agency more than a year ago.
Vaughn Henry, a former Lahsa data management expert, accused Adams Kellum of asking Bass to delete two emails sent from her personal email account in October 2023. Vaughn Henry refused and told Adams Kellum that the agency has a seven-year retention policy for every email.
“Vaughn Henry believes [Adams] Kellum ultimately violated its retention policy and “ends her in retaliation for refusing to delete the email,” the claim says.
In a letter of demand, Dixon said that Adams Kellam had hired unqualified “Croneys” at high-level positions, including seven staff members at St. Joseph’s Centre, led by Venice-based homeless services agency Adams Kellam.
Dixon said her decision to challenge Adams Kellam’s employment practices has led her to be a target for “adverse treatment and retaliation.”
Adams Kellum said he asked four of St. Joseph’s colleagues to come to Rahasa when they were hired by the agency in 2022. The agreement was approved by the Rahasa board of directors.
“When I was in Rahasa, we knew we had a big job first,” she said. “And without a team that could help us succeed, I didn’t think we’d have enough time to do it on our own.”
Adams Kellam also said he would not request the removal of messages from the mayor.
Base spokesman Clara Kerger said in an email that the mayor “don’t know” about allegations of deleting Lahasa staff.
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