Full opinion text
OPINION AND ORDER CRABB, District Judge. This civil rights action arises out of the same events as Owens v. Ragland, 313 F.Supp.2d 939 (W.D.Wis.2004), in which Selina Owens, a former coworker of plaintiff Kia Thomas in defendant City of Madison’s affirmative action department, accused defendant Enis Ragland of sexually harassing her and then retaliating against her in various ways when she complained. In an opinion and order dated April 12, 2004, I concluded that Owens had failed to show that there were any genuine factual disputes for trial with respect to her claim for retaliation under the First Amendment. However, I concluded that Owens was entitled to present her harassment claim to a jury, which later found that Ragland had made sexual advances toward Owens but that his conduct had not been unwelcome to her. In this case, plaintiff contends that both defendant Ragland and defendant City of Madison retaliated against her because she sided with Owens when Owens first came forward in 2000 and because she filed an ethics complaint against Ragland and a discrimination complaint against both Rag-land and the City after Ragland became director of the affirmative action department in May 2003. Plaintiff asserts claims under both the First Amendment (via 42 U.S.C. § 1983) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e. Defendants have filed a motion for summary judgment on all of plaintiffs claims. They advance multiple grounds for dismissal: plaintiffs speech is not protected under the First Amendment or Title VII; many of the actions about which plaintiff complains are not sufficiently severe to be actionable under federal law; plaintiff has failed to show a causal connection between any protected speech and adverse actions taken by defendants; and defendant Rag-land is entitled to qualified immunity. Defendants’ motion will be granted in part and denied in part. Plaintiffs ethics and discrimination complaints were protected speech under both the First Amendment and Title VII. Further, there are genuine issues of material fact with respect to whether plaintiffs protected speech motivated defendants to reduce her duties, initiate and conduct investigations against her, restrict her access to the City’s computer system and spread false rumors about her. Together, these actions could deter a reasonable person from exercising her rights under Title VII and the First Amendment. Finally, defendant Ragland is not entitled to qualified immunity on these claims. Plaintiffs remaining claims will be dismissed, for the reasons discussed below. From the parties’ proposed findings of fact and the record, I find that the following facts are undisputed. UNDISPUTED FACTS A. Parties In December 1999 or January 2000, plaintiff Kda Thomas began working in the City of Madison affirmative action department as a contract compliance clerk. Plaintiff was later promoted to “Secretary I”. The “class description” for the “Secretary I” position provides: This is responsible secretarial and administrative support work. Employees in this class exercise judgment and discretion in the performance of a variety of activities requiring the interpretation and/or application of policy. Secretary I’s often serve as the first level of review and resolution on correspondence and personal contact, and independently gather information, draft routine correspondence, or take other appropriate action to assist managers in the most effective utilization of their time by relieving them óf administrative detail. Work at this level may involve leadership responsibilities in coordinating the completion of assignments. Secretary I’s typically work under the general supervision of a department or division head. The position description for the “Secretary I” position in the affirmative action office lists additional duties, such as directing staff and interns, “manag[ing] overall office operations” and “establishing], reviewing], maintaining] and auditing] the work unit filing system and budget process.” Over time, Kirbie Mack, plaintiffs supervisor and the director of the affirmative action department until February 2003, delegated a number of responsibilities to plaintiff, including: budgeting for the department, staffing for the affirmative action commission, taking minutes at department meetings, coordinating work for the clerical pool and supervising clerical workers. As a result, plaintiff was given the “unofficial” title of “office manager.” Through these additional duties, plaintiff was able to make important contacts with other management staff.and department heads in the city. Plaintiff was the “confidential secretary” for the director of the department. The confidential secretary deals with all forms of confidential personnel issues and has access to personnel files. The director and the confidential secretary must have a relationship of trust. Defendant Enis Ragland was the chief of staff for Mayor Sue Bauman from April 1996 until April 2003. Since that time, Ragland has been the interim director for the affirmative action department. B.Allegations in 2000 Some time before the end of October 2000, Selina Owens, a coworker of plaintiffs in the affirmative action department, told plaintiff that defendant Ragland was making sexually inappropriate comments to her. (At this time, Ragland was still the mayor’s chief of staff.) According to Owens, Ragland told her that he wanted to perform oral sex on her, that he imagined what sex between him and Owens would be like, that he could make her “come” without touching her, that she was an “undercover freak” with “sexual skills” and that he thought she must have “a sweet pussy.” In addition, Owens showed plaintiff several emails that she believed were sexually suggestive. Plaintiff concluded that defendant Ragland was sexually harassing Owens. Plaintiff told Owens that she should “not allow it to continue.” Defendant Ragland invited plaintiff to lunch several times. She told him that she was married and had a child. When Owens reported her concerns to Mack, plaintiff went to Mack as well. Plaintiff told Mack that defendant Ragland was trying to hit on her while she was working, that he had invited her to lunch on multiple occasions but she did not want to go and that Ragland asked her, “Did you ever see something so good that you’d like to have but you know you can’t?” (Defendants deny that Ragland made this remark, but not that plaintiff reported it to Mack.) Plaintiff told Mack that she believed Rag-land used the department as “his playground” and that his interactions with her made her “uncomfortable.” After Owens and plaintiff talked to Mack, Mack went to the mayor. (The parties dispute whether Mack told the mayor that Ragland was sexually harassing employees in the affirmative action department or whether she told the mayor that he was “bothering” employees by spending too much time in the office.) As a result of this meeting, the mayor told Ragland not to visit the affirmative action department unless he had official business there. C.Mack Leaves the Affirmative Action Department Before Mack left the department in February 2003, she asked human resources to conduct a reclassification study of plaintiffs position. Reclassification may be justified when an employee is performing duties beyond those outlined in her job description. Reclassification may be accompanied by a pay increase. Norman Davis was appointed interim director of the department after Mack left. Plaintiff retained her supervisory authority over Nancy Castillo (an employee in the affirmative action office), her responsibility over the budget and her responsibility to coordinate work assignments for the light duty and clerical pool. Although Davis reduced some of plaintiffs duties temporarily, Bauman told Davis to restore the duties that he had removed from her “until some issues are resolved.” D.Ragland’s Appointment as Director of the Department David Cieslewicz became the mayor of the City of Madison in April 2003. When Mack learned that Cieslewicz was considering defendant Ragland to be the interim director of the affirmative action department, she contacted Lamarr Billups, an advisor to the mayor and close friend of Ragland. She told Billups that the City would have “a liability problem” if Ragland was given supervisory authority over plaintiff and Owens because they had complained about his behavior before. Billups told Cieslewicz that there was a rumor involving defendant Ragland and female employees in the affirmative action department. Billups may have told Cies-lewicz that the rumor involved “inappropriate romantic overtures.” Cieslewicz asked either Billups or Janet Piraino, a member of the transition team, “to make sure that there wasn’t anything to the allegations.” (The parties do not propose any facts about what Billups or Piraino did, if anything, to investigate the allegations.) Cieslewicz appointed defendant Ragland as the interim director of the affirmative action office on April 21, 2003. Between April 23-25, 2003, plaintiff, Owens and defendant Ragland attended a conference for the Wisconsin Association of Black Public Sector Employees, known as WABPSE. During this conference, Mary Ann Stalcup, the City’s Director of Human Resources, received a telephone call from a news reporter, who told Stalcup about a sexual harassment allegation against Ragland. The reporter mentioned both Owens and plaintiff during this conversation. On April 25, Piraino called Ragland at the conference. She told him that a newspaper reporter was asking whether there were sexual harassment allegations against him. After finishing the telephone call, defendant Ragland summoned Owens out of a training session that she was attending. Ragland told Owens about the conversation he had had with Piraino. Owens then talked to plaintiff, who went back to talk to Ragland. (The parties dispute the exact content of this discussion. According to plaintiff, Ragland told her that he was considering moving her out of the department because she was afraid of working alone with Christie Hill, another employee in the affirmative action department. According to defendants, Ragland said only that moving plaintiff out of the office would be an “option.”) On April 28, 2003, defendant Ragland sent an email to the employees in the department in which he stated that his “plan is to familiarize myself with the AA department and its needs before considering changes to the operational structure.” On the same day, Ragland summoned plaintiff into his office, informing her that she would receive less responsibility in the department. Specifically, she would no longer be in charge of monitoring data that the department used for budget allocations. On April 30, 2003, plaintiff sent defendant Ragland an email in which she expressed her desire not to be moved out of the affirmative action department. In response, Ragland wrote that “moving [plaintiff] out of the office” was “an option, which was based on you stating that you do not feel safe around Norman and Christie because of past experiences.” Later the same day, plaintiff wrote to emphasize “the importance of my duties and responsibilities within this agency.” Rag-land wrote back: Yes, you have articulated your desire to maintain the duties and responsibilities delegated to you by Mrs. Mack. I have also stated to you that many of the duties you would like to maintain are the responsibility of the director. While the previous director was comfortable assigning those responsibilities to you, I feel they are my responsibility and I am accountable to the mayor for the AA Department. At this time I do not feel the need for an ‘office manager’ the unofficial role you indicated that you were delegated by the previous director. I will assume more of those duties as I learn about the agency and its needs. E. Plaintiff Files Two Complaints On May 1, 2003, plaintiff filed an ethics complaint against defendant Ragland with the City of Madison. Plaintiff wrote: In October of 2000, Selina Owens filed a complaint with the Affirmative Action Department (Manager) Kirbie G. Mack against Enis Ragland (former chief of staff). The basis of her complaint was sexual harassment. Ms. Owens’ complaint alleged that Mr. Ragland requested sexual favors. In October of 2000, I was called as a witness regarding this matter. I too came forward to state that Mr. Ragland had made sexually explicit comments to me and I provided examples. During the investigation, I did state that I did not feel intimidated by Mr. Ragland. I also did stat[e] that the comments were unprofessional and inappropriate. I believe that one other female city employee came forward and stated that she too had experiences wherein Mr. Ragland made inappropriate comments to her. Each person involved in the investigation [was] told at the conclusion of the investigation that Mr. Ragland was prohibited from coming into the AAD. I also observed that between October of 2000 up until his most recent appointment he did not return to our department. I don’t know if the City Human Resource[s] Department is aware of the investigation or the decision surrounding this matter. However, I do know that Mr. Ragland was aware of the decision which was made by the former Mayor Susan Bauman, wherein she prohibited him from entering into the AAD for any reason. This decision was communicated to all front desk staff with the Affirmative Action Department. 1. I believe that Mr. Ragland knowingly failed to relate this information to all the pertinent people when he was competing for the Acting Director position. 2. I also believe that Mr. Lamarr Billups was advised of this complaint prior to Mr. Ragland being appointed. I also believe that the HR Director was aware of this situation before the final appointment was made. If this is the case, I believe that it was inappropriate for the Human Resource Director to fail to investigate the complaint pri- or to appointing Mr. Ragland as the Acting Director. 3. Selina Owens is out of work right now because of a related issue and I do not believe that it is fair or just for the City to allow this to continue. While I do not personally feel intimated by Mr. Ragland and I believe that he will conduct himself appropriately, now[,] I do not believe that he should remain as the Acting Director of this agency. The impression that we received at the conclusion of the investigation, was that this was a form of punishment and we would no longer be subjected to his behavior. Therefore, I am requesting that a thorough review of this entire matter takes place. I will state that Mr. Ragland appears to be doing a fine job; however, out of fairness to everyone involved I do not believe that he should continue in the position of Acting Director. I also believe that out of respect and fairness to everyone involved, all City officials who played a role in appointing Mr. Ragland should have at least spoken to the complainant. The City states that it takes a proactive stance against all forms of harassment and for City officials to make hiring decisions without any regard to how said decisions may harm others is reckless and wrong. In closing, there is a file in the Director’s office entitled “Enis Ragland[.]” [T]his file contains all of the pertinent information relative to this case including explicit email communications that Mi-. Ragland sent to Selina Owens. Se-lina Owens also has copies of these records, I believe that there is a[n] audio tape as well. If your body requires additional documentation I would advise that your body investigat[e] this matter by contacting the former Mayor and all of the witnesses involved in this case. (Bold in original.) On May 5, 2003, plaintiff filed a second complaint, this time with the Wisconsin Equal Rights Division. In her complaint, she alleged that David Cieslewiez, defendant Ragland and defendant City of Madison had discriminated against her because of her sex and because she had opposed discrimination in the workplace. Specifically, she believed that her job duties were being reduced because of her involvement in a previous sexual harassment complaint against Ragland. Defendant Ragland learned that plaintiff had filed this complaint on May 6. The same day, he sent an email to Davis and Christie Hill that provided in part: I discussed with HR and the CA the two complaints filed by Kia against me and my concerns about her continuing to serve as my confidential secretary. I need to know from you, what confidential information is assessable [sic] and/or controlled by Kia. I propose the following assignments until there is a resolution of her complaints against me. I will remove all budgetary and supervisory functions from her and direct her to provide clerical support to all staff who request it. She will provide clerical support to David and the CDP as well as staff the AAC. I am thinking of asking Norm to supervise her until the complaints are addressed. Norm I will understand if you don’t want to supervise her. F.Plaintiff’s Leave of Absence April 30, 2003 was the last day plaintiff reported to work until July 21, 2003. From May 2, 2003, through June 4, 2003, plaintiff called defendant Ragland almost every day. When plaintiff called, she would say that she was “out again today” and “would be in tomorrow or the next day.” On May 21, 2003, plaintiff told defendant Ragland that she would be out of the office “indefinitely,” in reliance on the advice of her doctor. G.Accident Report On her way to the WABPSE conference, plaintiff was in a minor traffic accident while driving a city vehicle. Shortly after the conference, plaintiff told defendant Ragland that she had completed an accident report in accordance with city policy. She told him again at least two other times before May 14, 2003, when he sent her an email stating that Kevin Houlihan and the City’s insurance company needed plaintiffs accident report. Ragland sent plaintiff a second email the same day: “This is to inform you that you are in violation of APM 5-2, which requires the completion of an accident report within 24 hours of the accident.” Ragland forwarded the email to Norman Davis, Mary Ann Stalcup, Kevin Houlihan, LaMarr Billups, Christie Hill and assistant city attorney Larry O’Brien. At the time Ragland sent these emails, the information that he had from the City’s risk manager was that plaintiff had not yet submitted an accident report. H.Computer Access and Responsibilities On May 15, 2003, defendant Ragland made a number of changes with respect to plaintiffs computer access. First, he instructed the “help desk” for the city’s information services department to replace plaintiff with him and Christie Hill as authorized contacts for the department. The authorized contact is the person responsible for working as a liaison with information services. This person troubleshoots, refers concerns to information services and makes certain that employees have appropriate security access. These duties needed to be performed in plaintiffs absence. Second, defendant Ragland removed plaintiff as the main Groupwise contact and the contact for “proxy rights on the AA file.” Like the authorized contact, the Groupwise contact serves as a liaison to the information services department. It is important to have this duty performed. The employee with proxy rights “monitors the account for citizen contacts with the AAD, as well as calendars of employees.” On May 16, 2003, defendant Ragland instructed Hill to remove plaintiffs access to the “DST System,” which is used for payroll entry. On May 21, 2003, Ragland instructed information services to remove plaintiffs access to the city’s computer system. Defendant Ragland is not aware of any other city employee who has been denied access to the City’s computer system while on sick leave. Plaintiff was not denied access to the city’s computer system when she took a leave of absence from the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission. I. Ragland’s Newpaper Interview After plaintiff filed her Discrimination complaint, defendant Ragland told a newspaper reporter that plaintiff was a “disgruntled employee.” This comment was published in the Wisconsin State Journal. J. May 15 Letter On May 15, 2003, defendant Ragland sent plaintiff the following letter: Dear Kia, I wish to further clarify office practices and procedures. As you indicated your work hours are from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. You will be expected to be here during those hours. Your position description and classification indicate that you are a Secretary I. In all correspondence you should refer to yourself as Secretary. Office Manager is not a city-approved title nor do I believe it is descriptive of your role. As outlined in your position description, you are directed to continue to provide clerical support to me when requested and to other staff. You are directed to continue to provide general administrative and secretarial support for the two commissions and nine committees (e.g. coordination and preparation of the agenda, minutes, processing of items, mailings, drafting routine correspondence and related duties as required.) In an effort to help the department run in a more effective and efficient manner and to best utilize all of the talents in the office, staff members will be allowed to go directly to office support staff, secretarial pool staff or hourly staff, including you to get projects done. You may be requested to coordinate clerical staff projects, but you do not have a supervisory role with the staff. I will resolve any conflicts related to assignment priority setting that cannot be resolved among staff. As the Acting Director, I am responsible for the budget. In these tight budget times, I need to be able to understand the budget, where we are [ ] facing [a] deficit and where we can perhaps cut items and still obtain a balanced budget. I will be responsible for all budgetary matters. I will review and approve all documents that impact the AA budget. Please give me all of [the] budget information, as well as the city credit card. Time keeping and time sheets are [] critical to the operation of the department. You will continue to collect payroll timesheets and enter the data in a timely manner. However, all payroll information must be reviewed by Christie Hill and approved by me before submission to the Comptroller. Lastly, confidentiality is an essential part of your responsibility. Confidential information that you may glean during the daily course of your work is to remain strictly confidential. In a letter dated May 28, 2003, plaintiff responded to defendant’s May 15 letter. She wrote that she did not have any “budget information” in her possession and that she had returned the credit card to the comptroller’s office. In addition, she informed Ragland that a rental car had been charged to the city credit card when she failed to cancel her reservation for a planned business trip that was cancelled. However, “all charges were reversed and charged to [plaintiffs] personal visa account.” K. June k Letter After speaking with plaintiff on the telephone on May 30, 2003, defendant Ragland wrote plaintiff a letter dated June 4, 2003, in which he raised a number of subjects, including the following: (1) he informed plaintiff that as of May 30, 2003, the comptroller’s office had no record of receiving the city credit card that plaintiff had told Ragland she had returned; however, he had been informed that plaintiff had returned the card after that date; (2) he informed plaintiff that because her return date was unknown, her card was cancelled and her authority to use the car was removed; and (3) he informed plaintiff that there was no need for her to have computer access because her doctor had instructed her not to work. In addition, he told plaintiff that neither the “Risk Manager” nor “Motor Equipment” had received her accident report. He asked her whether she had filed the report and, if so, when. Ragland sent copies of his letter to Stal-cup, Piraino and O’Brien. L. Investigations of Plaintiff When defendant Ragland was appointed, the department was in “a state of chaos.” The employees in the department were complaining about one another. Ragland was told that supplies were missing from the department, including a notebook computer and money from a fund raising event. He did not investigate the missing supplies or funds. Complaints to Ragland from employees were so frequent that it “got to the point [he] indicated [he] didn’t want to hear anything else about what happened prior to [his] becoming director.” Defendant Ragland instructed the employees in the department to submit complaints about other employees in writing. Ragland did not receive a written complaint about plaintiff. Defendant Ragland did not view it as his responsibility to report “serious instances of dishonesty” that occurred before his arrival. However, “if there were issues that Norman Davis had initiated and began to look into,” Ragland believed that those issues “should be completed.” Shortly after defendant Ragland was appointed, he delegated certain payroll functions to Christie Hill. Hill told Ragland that her review of the records led her to believe that plaintiff, Selina Owens and a third employee might have falsified time records in late December 2002 and early January 2003. Ragland did not ask Hill to prepare a written complaint. On May 6, Ragland sent the following email to Dick Grasmick, the director of information services for the City of Madison: Hi Dick, Please accept this email as my request to IS for general information on email generated between 12/22/02 and 1/4/03 for the following employees: Kia Winters (Thomas) Selina Maggit (Owens) Donald Studesville Please let me know if you need additional information. When defendant Ragland did not receive any emails as a result of his request, he turned over Hill’s reports on the questionable time records to the human resources department. There is no city policy stating that only department heads may request emails from information services. Brad Wirtz, the labor relations specialist for the City, could have obtained the information. On May 9, 2003, Lavonne LaFave-Bennett, an employee with the parks department for the City, called defendant Ragland after reading a newspaper article regarding the complaints filed by plaintiff. She contacted him because she “did not believe that the full story was being told.” LaFave-Bennett told Rag-land that she had felt threatened by plaintiff in a conversation that took place in 2002. After meeting with her in person, Ragland asked her if she would be willing to meet with the city attorney or someone else in that office. The same day, LaFave-Bennett received a call from assistant attorney O’Brien, who asked her about her allegation. On May 13, 2003, Hill told Wirtz that plaintiff had been accessing Hill’s emails without permission. On May 12, 2003, the human resources department assigned Wirtz to investigate the allegations of falsifying time sheets, yelling at LaFave-Bennet and accessing Hill’s email without authorization. Wirtz notified plaintiff of the investigations on May 27, 2003. With respect to the false time sheets allegation, Mack had approved all of the time sheets that plaintiff submitted during the time period in question. However, Wirtz did not ask Mack whether she had approved- plaintiffs time. Instead, Wirtz sent Mack an email, asking whether plaintiff had been working at Mack’s house and, if so, what plaintiff was working on. Although Wirtz concluded that plaintiff “did not work all of the hours for which she was paid as indicated on her time sheet,” the human resources department did not take any action against plaintiff because the results of the investigation were inconclusive. On May 27, 2003, Wirtz initiated an investigation into Lafave-Bennett’s complaint. He concluded in his report that plaintiff “spoke loudly and inappropriately to LaFave.” The City chose not to discipline plaintiff for this incident because of the lapse of time between the incident and the report. Wirtz does not remember when the City of Madison ever investigated anyone other than plaintiff for talking loudly. Another city employee had talked to him in a loud and inappropriate voice but the City did not conduct an investigation. In addition, he has never been asked to initiate an investigation regarding conduct that had occurred more than six months earlier unless the situation was ongoing. In 2001, plaintiff reported to Wirtz that a coworker had called her a “bitch” and threatened her physically. Wirtz did not investigate this incident. Finally, Wirtz concluded in his investigation report that plaintiff “knowingly accessed Ms. Hill’s email without authorization.” However, Wirtz did not identify a city policy that prohibited plaintiff from accessing another employee’s email when she had proxy rights to do so. During the course of this investigation, plaintiff told Wirtz that Hill had violated confidentiality rules, but Wirtz did not investigate this allegation. M. Plaintiff’s Return to Work In July 2003, plaintiffs doctor “cleared” her to return to work. In a letter to the mayor dated July 17, 2003, plaintiff wrote: “I am scared about returning because Mr. Ragland continues to serve as the Director of the department.... I am particularly concerned that Mr. Ragland will continue to retaliate against me for expressing my concerns.” After discussing the issue with the human resources department and legal counsel, the “Mayor’s Office” decided to reassign plaintiff to a “Secretary I” position in the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission. Plaintiff did not agree with this decision. (It is not clear whether plaintiff raised her objection with defendants.) In a letter to plaintiff, Stalcup provided two reasons for the decision: (1) plaintiff had indicated that she was uncomfortable working with defendant Ragland; and (2) plaintiffs position in the affirmative action office was as defendant Ragland’s “confidential secretary,” a position requiring a “trusting relationship [that] does not exist between [plaintiff and defendant Ragland] at this time.” Both positions were classified as “Secretary I,” both were full time and both received the same pay. The human resources department told plaintiff that the reassignment would be temporary. Plaintiffs positions in the affirmative action department and the Equal Opportunity Commission differed in a number of respects. In the affirmative action department, plaintiff reported directly to the department director, staffed nine committees, commissions and subcommittees, acted as a liaison between the department and the commission and had “programmatic responsibilities.” In addition, she was responsible for the budget and for “the work flow of the clerical staff.” In the department, plaintiff was allowed to “flex” her schedule and attend classes that were paid for by the city. Plaintiff had none of these responsibilities or benefits at the Madison ■ Equal Opportunity Commission. The human resources department informed plaintiff that she could not collect her belongings in the affirmative action department. Instead, her belongings were sent to the human resources department. Plaintiff discovered that some of her things were missing, including a pen and pencil set and some of her personal files. In addition, the information in plaintiffs Personal Digital Assistant had been erased and a ceramic cat had been broken. Although defendant Ragland entered plaintiffs cubicle while she was absent, he did not pack up her personal items but asked another employee in the department to do so. N. Open Records Requests On May 20, 2003, plaintiff received a letter from the city attorney’s office, explaining that the City was conducting an independent investigation of the allegations made by Owens. Plaintiff withdrew her ethics complaint after receiving this letter. Further, she participated in the investigation by providing written answers to written questions. During the investigation, the City received an open records request from Marc Eisen, the editor of Isthmus, for emails sent and received by plaintiff between February 14, 2003, and April 19, 2003. Grasmick, the City’s director of information services, wrote plaintiff that he had determined that “the public interest in disclosure of these messages outweighs the public interest in non-disclosure. I therefore intend to comply with the law’s presumption of openness of records and to release unredacted (unblack-ened out) copies of all the messages.” In addition, he told plaintiff that she could appeal his decision to the Circuit Court for Dane County. He enclosed copies of the emails that would be released, ■ one of which fell outside the date requested by Eisen. In response, plaintiff wrote a letter to Grasmick expressing her belief that “it would be highly inappropriate for the City to selectively disclose information that may further damage my reputation.” She wrote that she did “not have the resources to hire an attorney” in order to challenge Grasmick’s decision. She asked him to reconsider. The emails were released and shortly thereafter the Isthmus ran an article “in which Ms. Thomas’ motives and credibility [were] called into question.” In a letter dated August 28, 2003, Mayor David Cieslewicz wrote plaintiff about several more open records requests from the media seeking a copy of the City’s report on its investigation of Owens’s allegations. Like Grasmick, Cieslewicz concluded that the public interest in disclosure outweighed the interest in non-disclosure and that plaintiffs name would not be redacted. The City later revised this position. In a letter to plaintiffs counsel, assistant city attorney O’Brien wrote that plaintiff would be treated “as other witnesses,” meaning that he would “redact her name and other personally identifiable information from the report and the exhibits.” However, the City would not redact her name from references to documents that were “already in the public domain.” In the released version of the report, plaintiffs name was visible in two places. On page 22, the report states: “Ms. Thomas calls herself the ‘Office Manager’ for the Affirmative Action Department, even though there is no such position in the AAD.” Plaintiffs complaint before the equal rights division includes an allegation about plaintiff being the office manager. Page 28 of the report contains several references to' plaintiffs name. Plaintiff is unaware of any unredacted information on page 28 that is not contained in a public document. DISPUTED FACTS I find that the following facts are genuinely disputed; I have construed them in favor of plaintiff as favorably as the record permits. Hunt v. City of Markham, Illinois, 219 F.3d 649, 652 (7th Cir.2000). From 1997 to 2000, defendant Ragland made social visits to the affirmative action department as often as twice as week and for as long 30 minutes each visit. Ragland made plaintiff uncomfortable when he would visit with her because occasionally his eyes “meandered all over her body.” In addition, Ragland told plaintiff she was attractive and that “any man who had her was lucky.” • After plaintiff and Owens reported their concerns to Mack, Mack told defendant Ragland that female employees in the affirmative action department “had come forward to express concerns regarding his behavior.” Ragland then called Owens; he asked her whether she had reported him-to Mack. During the week of April 15, 2003, plaintiff called the mayor’s office to discuss Mayor Bauman’s transition. Defendant Ragland answered the telephone. He told plaintiff that the “2000 complaint” was interfering with his appointment as the director of the affirmative action department. Plaintiff told Ragland that he had been “out of line” in the way he behaved in 2000. Ragland told plaintiff that “he was never trying to hurt anybody.” Plaintiff told defendant Ragland on May 14, 2003, that she planned on returning to work on May 16, 2003. Billy Harris is an employee of the Equal Rights Division of the Department of Workforce Development for the State of Wisconsin. On June 23, 2003, defendant Ragland admitted to Harris that he had told two others that Harris and plaintiff were “seeing each other.” Ragland apologized for spreading the rumors and agreed not to make “similar slanderous accusations” in the future. OPINION A. Scope of Plaintiff s Claims Plaintiff Kia Thomas asserts two claims of retaliation, one under the First Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against defendant Enis Ragland and one under Title VII against defendant City of Madison. Plaintiff asserts a claim against Rag-land in both his official and personal capacity. However, a claim against a public officer in his official capacity is a claim against the entity for which he is an agent. Richman v. Sheahan, 270 F.3d 430, 439 (7th Cir.2001). To hold the City of Madison liable under § 1983, plaintiff would have to show that a policy or custom of the City was a “moving force” of the retaliatory acts, White v. City of Markham, 310 F.3d 989, 998 (7th Cir.2002), which she has not done. Accordingly, I will dismiss plaintiffs claim against defendant Ragland in his official capacity. A preliminary dispute between the parties concerns the proper scope of plaintiffs claims. In her brief, plaintiff identifies four acts that she believes prompted defendants to retaliate against her: (1) her statements to Kirbie Mack in 2000 that defendant Ragland had acted inappropriately; (2) the ethics complaint that she filed on May 1, 2003; (3) the complaint she filed with the equal rights division on May 5, 2003; and (4) a telephone conversation she had with defendant Ragland in April 2003. In addition, she identifies numerous retaliatory acts, including a failure to reclassify her position. Defendants argue that plaintiff should not be able to expand her claims to encompass new ones based on the failure to reclassify or on any of the statements she made beyond those in her ethics and Discrimination complaints because she is asserting those claims for the first time in her brief. I agree with defendants with respect to plaintiffs claims that defendants retaliated against her as a result of the April 2003 telephone conversation ■ and that defendants retaliated against her by refusing to reclassify her position. Plaintiffs complaint contains no allegations relating to an April 2003 conversation. Further, although plaintiffs complaint includes a list of many retaliatory actions, the failure to reclassify her position is not among them. To state a claim for retaliation under either the First Amendment or Title VII, it is not necessary to plead facts showing that the plaintiff is entitled to relief. However, to comply with Fed.R.Civ.P. 8, a plaintiff must provide the defendant with notice of her claim, which means that she must identify the alleged retaliatory acts of the defendant as well as the protected act that prompted the retaliation. Higgs v. Carver, 286 F.3d 437, 439 (7th Cir.2002) (complaint would be insufficient if it contained only allegations that defendants had retaliated against plaintiff for filing suit and none identifying suit or acts alleged to have constituted retaliation). Because plaintiff did not give defendants notice in her complaint of her claim that defendants retaliated against her because of an April 2003 telephone conversation or that she was seeking relief for the failure to reclassify her position, she may not proceed with these claims. The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has held that a plaintiff may not amend her complaint through arguments in her brief in opposition to a motion for summary judgment, but this is exactly what plaintiff has attempted to do. Griffin v. Potter, 356 F.3d 824, 830 (7th Cir.2004); Whitaker v. T.J. Snow Co., 151 F.3d 661, 664 (7th Cir.1998). See also Bethany Pharmacal, Inc. v. QVC, Inc., 241 F.3d 854, 861-62 (7th Cir.2001) (court did not err in denying motion to amend complaint when defendant had already filed motion for summary judgment). However, defendants do not deny that plaintiff identified in her complaint her statements from 2000, her ethics complaint and her Discrimination complaint. Her references to these matters was sufficient to put defendants on notice that they were part of her claims. Defendants complain that, during discovery, plaintiff gave defendants the impression that her First Amendment claim was limited to her ethics complaint. During her deposition, counsel for plaintiff objected when defense counsel asked plaintiff what “speech [she was] claiming that [she] engaged in that’s protected” under the First Amendment. Dep. of Thomas, at 65, attached to Mi. of Modi, dkt. # 46, Exh.# 4. Defendants asked for the same information in an interrogatory. Plaintiff objected again, on the ground that defendants were asking for a legal conclusion. However, without waiving her objection, she answered that her ethics complaint was protected speech. Defendants do not point to any legal authority requiring exclusion under these circumstances. NutraSweet Co. v. X-L Engineering Co., 227 F.3d 776, 786 (7th Cir.2000) (rejecting defendant’s argument that evidence should be excluded because defendant was “sandbagged” by plaintiff because defendant cited no supporting authority). To the extent that defendants believed that plaintiff was making unfounded objections in depositions or answers to interrogatories, it was defendants’ obligation to file a motion to compel under Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(a)(2). Generally, a court may exclude evidence for discovery violations only when the party has refused to comply with a court order. Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(b)(2)(B). Potentially, defendants could rely on Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(e)(2), which requires parties to supplement incomplete responses made during discovery. However, even assuming that plaintiff violated this rule (defendants do not cite the rule in their briefs), I could not impose a sanction if her failure to comply was substantially justified or harmless. Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(c)(1); McCarthy v. Option One Mortgage Corp., 362 F.3d 1008, 1012 (7th Cir.2004); David v. Caterpillar, Inc., 324 F.3d 851, 857 (7th Cir.2003). At least some of the blame for plaintiffs nonresponsiveness can be attributed to defendants. They asked plaintiff in her deposition to identify her protected speech, which calls for a legal conclusion, Sullivan v. Ramirez, 360 F.3d 692, 698 (7th Cir.2004), instead of asking what she said or did that caused defendants to retaliate against her. Lay witnesses are not required, or even permitted, to testify about questions of law. United States v. Espino, 32 F.3d 253, 257 (7th Cir.1994). Defendants were entitled to learn plaintiffs theory of the case through interrogatories. Fed.R.Civ.P. 33; American Nurses’ Association v. Illinois, 783 F.2d 716, 723 (7th Cir.1986) (“defendant could serve contention interrogatories on the plaintiff to learn the theory behind the claim”). Thus, to the extent that plaintiff failed to supplement her interrogatory responses as required by Rule 26(e)(2), this failure may not have been substantially justified. But defendants would still have to show that they were unfairly prejudiced by the violation, which they have not even attempted to do. Defendants knew that the discrimination complaint was part of the case as part of plaintiffs Title VII claim against the City. They would have a difficult time arguing that they needed to engage in additional discovery to refute plaintiffs allegation that defendant Ragland was motivated by the Discrimination complaint in taking adverse actions against her because they had a full opportunity to take discovery on this point in preparing to defend against plaintiffs Title VII claim. Further, defendants do not suggest that they would have tried to argue that the Discrimination complaint was not protected under the First Amendment; in fact, they appear to concede that it was. Accordingly, I will consider plaintiffs claim that defendant Ragland retaliated against her for filing the Equal Rights Division complaint as well as her claim that the City retaliated against her on this same basis. With respect to plaintiffs Title VII claim, defendants argue that plaintiff should not be permitted to argue that she opposed sex discrimination in any medium other than the Equal Rights Division complaint. Again, defendants assert that, during discovery, the Discrimination complaint was the only “oppositional activity” plaintiff identified. In their brief, the only citation defendants provide in support of this argument is to pages 64 and 65 of plaintiffs deposition. However, there is no mention of plaintiffs Title VII claim in that portion of the deposition or in the pages immediately before or after. Further, the only authority defendants point to in supporting this argument are several cases discussing the “sham affidavit” rule, under which a court may strike an affidavit that contradicts prior deposition testimony. E.g., Stinnett v. Iron Works Gym/Executive Health Spa, Inc., 301 F.3d 610, 615 (7th Cir.2002); Cowan v. Prudential Insurance Co. of America, 141 F.3d 751, 756 (7th Cir.1998); Bank of Illinois v. Allied Signal Safety Restraint Systems, 75 F.3d 1162, 1168-70 (7th Cir.1996). However, defendants do not cite an affidavit that is inconsistent with plaintiffs deposition testimony, so this rule does not apply. Accordingly, I will consider plaintiffs claim that the City retaliated against her for filing the ethics complaint and for her involvement in Owens’s 2000 allegations against Ragland. B. Protected Conduct A threshold requirement in any retaliation case brought under the First Amendment or Title VII is that the plaintiff engaged in conduct or speech that is protected by the law. In the public employment context, the First Amendment guarantees the right to speak out on matters of public concern so long as the employee’s interest in doing so is not outweighed by the government’s interest in efficiency and effectiveness. Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968). The scope of protection under Title VII is more limited. It prohibits an employer from retaliating against an employee who opposes discriminatory practices or who “has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding or hearing under this subchapter.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a). Plaintiff contends that both her ethics complaint and Discrimination complaint are entitled to First Amendment protection and that her ethics complaint, her Discrimination complaint and statements to Mack in 2000 are protected by Title VII. Surprisingly, she does not argue that her comments in 2000 constitute protected speech under the First Amendment, so I will not consider that question. Defendants appear to concede that the Discrimination complaint is protected both under the First Amendment and Title VII. Thus, the issues are whether plaintiff was exercising her right to free speech when she filed the ethics complaint and whether she was “opposing” conduct that violated Title VII when she talked to Mack in 2000 and filed the ethics complaint in 2003. 1. Ethics complaint a. First Amendment protection 1) false and reckless statements Before considering whether plaintiffs ethics complaint addressed a matter of public concern, I must address defendants’ argument that the complaint is entitled to no First Amendment protection because it contains false statements. McGreal v. Ostrov, 368 F.3d 657, 673 (7th Cir.2004) (falsity of statement “not normally relevant to the question whether the issue was a matter of public concern”). Even outside the public employment context, the First Amendment does not protect false statements that are made with knowledge that they are false or with reckless disregard for the truth. New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964). In Pickering, 391 U.S. at 574, 88 S.Ct. 1731, the court held that this standard applies to speech of public employees in cases “in which the fact of employment is only tangentially and insubstantially involved in the subject matter of the public communication.” Recently, the Court of Appeals for -the Seventh Circuit has concluded (with little discussion) that the New York Times test applies to all speech by government employees when they are addressing matters of public concern, Gazarkiewicz v. Town of Kingsford Heights, Indiana, 359 F.3d 933, 942 (7th Cir.2004), even though the Supreme Court expressly rejected an invitation in Pickering, 391 U.S. at 569, 88 S.Ct. 1731, to apply New York Times as “a general standard against which all [speech by public employees] may be judged.” In any event, defendants do not argue for a different standard, so it is the one that I shall apply. Defendants point to five statements in plaintiffs ethics complaint that they assert are false: (1) Selina Owens “filed a complaint” with the affirmative action department in 2000; (2) plaintiff was a “witness” in this matter; (3) there was an “investigation” of Owens’s complaint in 2000; (4) defendant Ragland made “sexually explicit comments” to plaintiff; and (5) another city employee stated that Ragland had made inappropriate comments to her. With respect to the first three statements, the most that can be said is that plaintiffs choice of words was not as precise as it could have been. It is true that Owens did not file a formal complaint in 2000, that the City did not conduct a formal investigation and that plaintiff did not testify at a trial or hearing. However, Owens did complain to' the director of the affirmative action department, plaintiff did report her own concerns to the director and the director did take Owens’s and plaintiffs allegations to the mayor, who as a result told defendant Ragland not to visit the affirmative action office unless he had official business there. (Although the parties dispute whether Mack told Bauman that employees were complaining about sexual harassment, it is undisputed that Mack told Bauman that Ragland was “bothering” employees.) Plaintiffs uses of the words “complaint,” “witness” and “investigation” would not be identical to the' definitions one would find in Black’s Law Dictionary, but they were “substantially correct,” which is all they were required to be. Pickering, 391 U.S. at 570, 88 S.Ct. 1731; see also Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, Inc., 501 U.S. 496, 516, 111 S.Ct. 2419, 115 L.Ed.2d 447 (1991) (inaccurate quotation is not “false” under New York Times test “unless the alteration results in a material change in the meaning conveyed by the statement”). I note also that defendants fail to explain how they were harmed by these asserted inaccuracies, which is another factor that the Court considered in Pickering, 391 U.S. at 571, 88 S.Ct. 1731 (noting that plaintiffs false statements “would not normally have any necessary impact on the actual operation of the schools”). See also Ceballos v. Garcetti, 361 F.3d 1168, 1179 (9th Cir.2004) (even recklessly false statement may be protected if it did not cause defendant injury). With respect to the fourth statement, I cannot say that defendants have established as a matter of law that defendant Ragland did not make sexually explicit comments to plaintiff. It is true that the statements recalled by plaintiff in her deposition would be more accurately described as having sexual connotations rather than being sexually explicit, for example, Ragland’s alleged question to plaintiff, “Have you ever seen something that you really wanted but could not have?” when she declined his lunch invitation. However, even assuming that plaintiff’s characterization of this statement in her complaint was not “substantially correct,” plaintiff testified that Ragland made additional comments that she can no longer recall. Defendants question the likelihood that plaintiff would have remembered sexually explicit statements in 2003 but then forgotten them by 2004. Defendants’ point is well taken, but it is one for the jury and not this court. Siding with defendants on this issue would require a credibility determination, which is not permitted in deciding a motion for summary judgment. Morfin v. City of East Chicago, 349 F.3d 989, 999 (7th Cir.2003). Finally, defendants have not met their burden to show that plaintiff exhibited a reckless disregard for the truth when she stated that she “believe[d]” that a third female employee had complained about “inappropriate” comments that defendant Ragland had made. Defendants must show that plaintiff “in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth” of her statement. St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 731, 88 S.Ct. 1323, 20 L.Ed.2d 262 (1968). Defendants’ only evidence of this is that plaintiff relied on hearsay when she made the statement, but they point to no authority requiring public employees to insure that their statements comply with the Federal Rules of Evidence before they express an opinion. See Clyburn v. News World Communications, Inc., 903 F.2d 29, 34 (D.C.Cir.1990) (by itself, reliance on hearsay does not show reckless disregard for truth). To meet their burden, defendants would have to adduce evidence that plaintiff had reason to doubt the veracity of her source of information, which they have failed to do. Even if I were to assume that some of the statements in plaintiffs ethics complaint were false and made with reckless disregard for the truth, this would not mean that I could conclude that the entire ethics complaint was stripped of any First Amendment protection. As plaintiff points out, the Supreme Court has recognized that parts of a document may be protected while others are not. Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 149, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 76 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983) (noting that one question on questionnaire touched upon matter of public concern). The “gist” of plaintiffs ethics complaint is that defendant Ragland should not have been made director of the affirmative action department after at least two women in that department had complained about inappropriate behavior and were later told that his presence in the department would be restricted. Defendants do not contend that this basic allegation was made with reckless disregard for the truth. Masson, 501 U.S. at 517, 111 S.Ct. 2419 • (“Minor inaccuracies do not amount to falsity so long as ‘the substance, the gist, the sting, of the libelous charge be justified.’ ”) (quoting Heuer v. Kee, 15 Cal.App.2d 710, 59 P.2d 1063, 1064 (1936)). Accordingly, I cannot dismiss plaintiffs First Amendment claim on this ground. 2) public concern A court must examine three aspects of a statement to determine whether it addresses a matter of public concern: content, form and context, with the greatest emphasis on content. Gustafson v. Jones, 290 F.3d 895, 906-07 (7th Cir.2002); Kuchenreuther v. City of Milwaukee, 221 F.3d 967, 974 (7th Cir.2000). Defendants do not argue seriously that the content of plaintiffs -ethics complaint fails to touch on a matter of public concern. They assert that plaintiffs complaint does not in fact identify any violations of the City’s ethics code, but whether this is true is not relevant. Matters of public concern are not limited to violations of state or municipal law and First Amendment protection does not turn on whether an employee picked the right form to fill out. Walker v. Thompson, 288 F.3d 1005, 1009 (7th Cir.2002). As noted above, plaintiff challenged the City’s decision to appoint defendant Ragland director of a department that included women whom he had sexually harassed or toward whom he had acted inappropriately. It is not difficult to conclude that this is a matter “in which the public might be interested.” Dishnow v. School District of Rib Lake, 77 F.3d 194, 197 (7th Cir.1996). Defendants argue, however, that even if the subject matter of the ethics complaint might implicate matters of public concern, the context of plaintiffs speech shows that she filed the complaint because she was angry with defendant Ragland for reducing her job responsibilities. Although an employee’s motives in speaking out are relevant in determining whether speech addresses a matter of public concern, very rarely is speech deemed unprotected under the First Amendment simply because the employee’s reasons for coming forward were not completely selfless. Free speech rights are not limited to white knights and martyrs. If they were, many important issues would never be brought to light. Breuer v. Hart, 909 F.2d 1035, 1039 (7th Cir.1990) (“Wrongdoing may often be revealed to the proper authorities only by those who have some personal stake in exposing wrongdoing.”) Thus, the court of appeals has held that speech on an important topic does not lose its value whenever the speaker has something to gain. Rather, unless the employee’s only motive is to further a purely private interest, the speech remains within the scope of public concern. Gustafson, 290 F.3d at 908; Spiegla v. Hull, 371 F.3d 928, 939 (7th Cir.2004) (criticizing district court because it “improperly elevated motivation to a litmus test and thereby undervalued the important content of [the plaintiffs] speech”). In this case, I cannot conclude as a matter of law that plaintiffs motives in filing the complaint were purely personal. The primary piece of evidence on which defendants rely is that the filing of plaintiffs complaint closely followed defendant Ragland’s reduction of her job duties. As defendants point out in a different context, temporal proximity is rarely enough to demonstrate an issue of fact with respect to motive, much less establish motive as a matter of law. Wyninger v. New Venture Gear, Inc., 361 F.3d 965, 981 (7th Cir.2004); Galdikas v. Fagan, 342 F.3d 684, 697 (7th Cir.2003). Defendants point to other facts challenging plaintiffs motives, but none of them shows as a matter of law that plaintiffs ethics complaint was nothing more than a petty personal gripe. Defendants’ arguments are more appropriately considered by a jury. Once a court determines that an employee’s speech addresses a matter of public concern, it must balance the employee’s interest in speaking out against the employer’s interest in “providing effective and efficient services.” Sullivan v. Ramirez, 360 F.3d 692, 698 (7th Cir.2004). It is the government’s burden to show that its interests outweigh the employee’s. Klunk v. County of St. Joseph, 170 F.3d 772, 775 (7th Cir.1999). With the exception of the decision to reduce plaintiffs duties, defendants do not argue that any of defendant Ragland’s actions against plaintiff would be a necessary or appropriate response to plaintiffs ethics complaint or Discrimination complaint. Accordingly, I will consider the balancing test in the context of evaluating that decision below. b. Protection under Title VII Plaintiff contends that her ethics complaint is protected by Title VIPs provision that prohibits employers from discriminating against an employee “because he has opposed any practice made unlawful by this subchapter.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a). Specifically, she argues that she opposed sexual harassment in her ethics complaint. Defendants deny that the ethics complaint opposes any conduct prohibited by Title VII; they argue that, at most, it is concerned with plaintiffs belief that “it was inappropriate that Mr. Rag-land was appointed to the director position without any consideration/disclosure of events that allegedly occurred back in the year 2000.” Dfts.’ Br., dkt. # 24, at 25. This is an unjustifiably narrow reading of the complaint. As noted above, plaintiff makes it clear in her complaint that she is concerned with the City’s decision to appoint defe