# Borenstein: A Bay Area mayor sexually harassed City Hall workers. For one, it triggered something even darker. > Source: > Published: 2026-07-01 11:00:01+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...In 1992, an investigator hired by the city of Concord found that [Mayor Byron Campbell sexually harassed, racially harassed and threatened retaliation against women working in City Hall](https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/CCT_19920119_Report-faults-Campbell.pdf). The story had been front-page news for months. Campbell maintained his innocence, [claimed he was the victim of a political vendetta](https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/CCT_19920121_Campbell-apologies-admits-nothing.pdf) and tried to cast doubts about his accusers because they had not publicly identified themselves. That was too much for six victims. They had endured an arm around the waist; touching of a thigh, bottom or breast; comments about personal dress; and racial stereotypes. [They decided to go public](https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/CCT_19920125_Councilmans-accusers-go-public.pdf). “I have a name and I have a face and those things did happen,” Jean Underwood, executive secretary to the city manager and City Council, told me then. “It’s time for the women to come forward and say, ‘We’ve had enough.’” While it might seem that much has changed in the 3½ decades since Campbell harassed women in City Hall, we still live in an era where Oakland’s city manager [exchanged suggestive texts about his female employees](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/05/17/oakland-jestin-johnson-resigns/); a congressman [abandoned his gubernatorial campaign after accusations of sexual assault](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/04/13/swalwell-resigns-sex-assault-claims/), [including rape](https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/04/eric-swalwell-sex-assault-allegation/); and the nation elected, and reelected, a president [who bragged about grabbing women’s genitalia](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html). Which is why [a new book by Underwood](https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=4df5kjFqM7phtO356UYCEiVy5nz8UAhaoStvE9wX1NY), who has since remarried and goes by Jean Wells, serves as an important reminder of the depth of the emotional harm of such behavior. In Wells’ case, the trauma Campbell inflicted on her triggered memories of something even darker. In her struggle to recover from the sexual harassment, she sought therapy that forced her to acknowledge and confront sexual abuse by her father when she was a child — and her mother’s refusal to acknowledge it. Wells book, “No Longer Silent: Finding My Voice After Sexual Abuse,” describes her dysfunctional family, her struggles to confront her parents, her determination to break the generational cycle of abuse and the role the Campbell scandal played in her finding her voice on the road to recovery. It’s a story of confronting power imbalance in childhood and addressing similar disparity in the workplace. **Fear of retaliation** It’s not surprising that it took weeks of conversations before [three of the women agreed to tell me about their stories for publication without their names](https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/CCT_19911018_MayorFacesHarassment.pdf). Nor that, after the [ensuing three-month investigation](https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/1-18-1992-COUNCILMEMBER-BYRON-CAMPBELL-INVESTIGATION-REPORT-1.pdf) — involving interviews with approximately 56 people about 52 allegations — found 31 allegations to be credible, victims were still reluctant to be identified. Wells and other women in Concord City Hall legitimately feared retaliation. Campbell had threatened to sue at least five individuals for the way they handled the sexual harassment charges against him, according to the investigator’s report. Only after Campbell complained that the women were hiding behind anonymity did six of them agree to speak publicly — and only after I assured each that others had agreed to be named, too. It marked a turning point for Wells. As she was growing up, she had learned that survival depended on suppressing her feelings. She recounts in her book a family fight at the dinner table in which she started to confront her father but her mother “picked up her fork and threw it at me.” “It hit the table next to my plate and then fell to the ground. My mouth closed, and I never uttered another word. I learned that staying silent was the safest way to exist in the family, and I wanted to survive another night.” But, in adulthood, facing Campbell’s behavior, she could not stay silent. “How could I experience and witness such inappropriate behavior and not speak up? I’d done that before, and it hadn’t served me well. … I somehow needed to gain more courage to do the right thing.” After speaking to me, [Wells did the same before the City Council the following week](https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/012592-Two-workers-ask-Campbell-to-step-down-rotated.jpg). “I hope Byron will retire from public office and let the healing process begin in the city of Concord,” she said. [Campbell’s four fellow council members also called on him to resign](https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/CCT_19920130_Council-Campbell-must-go.pdf). But Campbell refused. And because he was an elected official, he couldn’t be fired. All the council could do was pass a resolution restricting his time in City Hall, which limited his interactions with city staff. “But the damage was done. My nervous system was a wreck,” Wells recalls in her book. “Something was breaking inside of me.” **Mobilizing voters** Wells describes the ensuing migraine headaches and the decision to seek therapy, which helped her recall and confront the abuse of her childhood and cut off communication with her parents. As for Campbell, Wells writes, “I hoped and prayed that Byron would see the handwriting on the wall and would decide not to run again. But, in the back of my mind, I knew if he did run, he could make my life a living hell, and it might even cost me my job.” In 1993, Campbell sought reelection. In his candidate statement, [he portrayed himself as a victim under attack because he was an agent of change.](https://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/110293-Byron-Campbell-candidate-statement.pdf) “The outrageous allegations were untrue,” he told voters. Wells and some of the other women who had been harassed helped counter Campbell’s narrative and rally the campaign against him. Canvassing neighborhoods, at each door, she would tell her story of the harassment the women in City Hall endured. Campbell had been the top vote-getter when he was first elected in 1989. But, seeking a second term, in a field of nine candidates for three City Council seats, Campbell finished next to last. He never held elective office again. He died in 2023 at age 85. Before she retired, Wells went on to become director of human resources for the Contra Costa County Office of Education. She remained estranged from her parents for most of the rest of their lives. The account in her new book is short and engaging, with a cautionary message every public official should heed about the pain of sexual harassment. The story is 34 years old but, sadly, still very relevant. *Daniel Borenstein is editor-at-large for the opinion section.*