Selma mayor faces lawsuit over gender discrimination, workplace harassment
A former Selma employee says Mayor Scott Robertson harassed and discriminated against her from her March 2023 start to her October 2025 departure.
Selma Mayor Scott Robertson and the City of Selma are facing a lawsuit that accuses the mayor of gender discrimination, workplace harassment and retaliation against a former employee. The case puts a public spotlight on how the small Fresno County city handles complaints inside City Hall and how much legal exposure local taxpayers could face if the claims move forward.
The plaintiff is Mary Jane Venegas, who worked for the city from March 2023 to October 2025. Her complaint says the problems arose during that period and that she was subjected to harassment and retaliation while employed by the city. The allegations place a sitting elected mayor at the center of a workplace-discrimination dispute, a rare and politically sensitive challenge for a city government that answers directly to residents.
The lawsuit also raises questions about the culture inside Selma’s administration. When a city employee says harassment and retaliation reached the point of legal action, the dispute can go beyond one person’s claims and become a test of how seriously city leaders respond to complaints involving power, gender and accountability. In Selma, that question now extends to whether Robertson’s office and city managers had mechanisms to address problems before they escalated into court.
Venegas’s employment dates give the complaint a defined window: roughly 31 months working for the city, from spring 2023 until fall 2025. That timeline matters because it anchors the allegations to a period when she was inside city government, not after the fact, and it suggests the dispute grew out of day-to-day interactions in the workplace rather than a single isolated incident.
The lawsuit surfaced as residents in Selma and across Fresno County began learning more about the allegations against the city’s top elected official. The case adds legal and political pressure to City Hall at a time when public confidence in local government depends on how openly officials confront claims of discrimination and harassment involving one of their own.
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