The Calista Regional Corporation denies its CEO mishandled a sexual harassment complaint.
Calista’s Board of Directors alleges in a press release that ousted chairman Wayne Don is deliberately spreading misinformation about the company.
Don and his attorney said in interviews with KYUK that Calista CEO Andrew Guy failed to properly respond to a sexual harassment complaint against a former employee.
Tthe woman never made even one complaint to Mr. Andrew Guy that she had been sexually harassed,” the board claimed in their statement Friday.
“The woman who was harassed did not approach Andrew Guy,” Calista Communications Manager Thom Leonard reiterated in an interview Friday with KYUK.
The board’s new chairman Paul George Guy released the statement, which further claims that Wayne Don made “incorrect and misleading” statements to both KYUK and the Delta Discovery and violated his “fiduciary duties.”
Friday’s press release is the latest in a series of allegations that Calista has made against Don, who is refusing to resign from the corporation’s board.
His fellow board members already have stripped Don of his chairmanship and voted to publicly censure him.
An unnamed former Calista employee is accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a woman.
According to Don and his attorney, the woman told CEO Andrew Guy what was happening, but Guy failed to respond to her complaint.
The harassment claim eventually made its way to Calista’s Human Resources Department, and Calista investigated and fired the offending employee.
In their statement Friday, the Board denied the woman ever told Andrew Guy about sexual harassment. It also cast doubt on whether she was harassed at all.
The board said that Calista’s former employee had not, in fact, repeatedly sexually harassed the woman and that “this highly inflammatory statement is completely false.”
However, the press release then says an attorney who reviewed the allegations concluded that it was “likely” that the employee’s conduct violated Calista’s sexual harassment policies.
The release further says that the employee was fired as a result of an investigation, apparent contradictions in the corporation’s press release.
“Yeah, I don’t have any further light I can shed on that,” Leonard said.
Attorney Sam Fortier said Don tried to address Andrew Guy’s alleged failure to respond to the sexual harassment, but that Calista’s Board of Directors shut him down.
Fortier said that the board is now pushing Don out of the corporation.
Calista claims that they publicly censured Don for different reasons.
The board’s press release states that Don committed at least 14 instances of misconduct while serving as Calista’s chair, though Leonard didn’t know what any of that misconduct actually was.
“The specific details on that have not been shared by the board at this time,” Leonard said.
Fortier said that he and Don stick by what they said in KYUK’s previous coverage.
“Everything we told you is true,” Fortier said. “And we have the evidence to back it up.”
The board also previously claimed that Don had threatened CEO Andrew Guy, interfered with an internal investigation, and improperly issued orders to other employees.
Neither Andrew Guy nor the current Calista Board chair Paul George Guy could be reached for comment Friday.
Wayne Don still refuses to resign from Calista’s board and says that the board has called a special meeting.
