California official ousted for Covid remarks now accused of putting employee's desk on roof
A Northern California school administrator who lost a city post four years ago over controversial Covid remarks was accused of workplace bullying for putting a subordinate's desk on a roof, officials said Thursday.
The allegations against Kenneth Turnage II, director of maintenance, operations and facilities at the Antioch Unified School District, could end up costing his boss, Superintendent Stephanie Anello, her job.
The incident happened last year when Turnage allegedly had subordinate Jim Kesser’s desk moved on top of a maintenance yard structure, NBC Bay Area reported.
Kesser told the station the incident was meant to humiliate him because he questioned his own qualifications to perform a task that Turnage had assigned.
Several other district employees told NBC Bay Area that Turnage is a well-known bully who benefits from being close friends with Anello, the superintendent, and her husband, the city’s former police chief.
School board President Antonio Hernandez said he’ll call for a special trustees meeting as early as Friday night to seek Anello’s removal.
“I do not support the superintendent,” Hernandez told NBC News on Thursday. “I think this incident and the stories of these brave maintenance workers, who stood up in public to share their stories and trauma, shows the poor judgment of our superintendent to keep this person in place.”
Another school board member, Jag Lathan, declined to reveal Thursday whether she wants Anello out. But she made it clear that Turnage’s alleged action was beyond the pale.
“When I found out, I was horrified. That was unacceptable,” Lathan said. “What I can tell you is that school district culture and climate matter. If our staff feels unsafe, that’s unacceptable.”
Turnage, Anello and Anello's husband — former Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando — did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment Thursday.
When an NBC Bay Area reporter questioned Anello during the public comments part of a board meeting this month, she remained awkwardly silent for a minute and did not answer any queries about Turnage.
Four years ago, when he was chairman of Antioch's planning commission, Turnage made national headlines with Facebook comments about Covid-19 at the peak of the pandemic.
He said permitting illness to spread "allows the sick, the old, the injured to meet its natural course in nature.”
And if the virus had an impact on homeless people, at least that would "fix what is a significant burden on our society and resources that can be used,” he said.
Turnage deleted the Facebook post after public outcry but refused to resign. The Antioch City Council voted unanimously to remove his as planning commission chairman over the remarks.
Turnage made $78,741 in base pay in his current job with the school district in 2022, the latest data reported by Transparent California, a database of public employees’ compensation. Anello made $307,094.82 in base pay in 2022, according to the database.
