City Hall is facing a morale problem.
Throughout the past few weeks, the News Tribune has reached out to several current and former employees and, through a Sunshine Law request, gained access to emails and internal documents that show many employees have been struggling to deal with morale issues at Jefferson City Hall.
For many employees, it's the result of tight budgets that led to a stagnation in salaries and benefits.
However, for other employees, it started when the Jefferson City Council fired former City Administrator Nathan Nickolaus in September 2013.
"There is a cancer in this organization, and it needs to be cured or excised before we are left with a work force more dedicated to clock punching than exceeding expectations," wrote 4th Ward Councilman Glen Costales in a Jan. 30 email to the council, mayor, city administrator and department directors.
It's not the first time the city has faced an issue with morale.
In March 2013, the City Council even held a special meeting to address employee morale in the midst of a $1.68 million budget shortfall.
However, now the situation has led many employees to look for work elsewhere. In 2015, the city had a nearly 9 percent turnover rate, with the IT department leading the pack at 40 percent turnover within its 10-person department, the most notable of whom was Bill Betts, the former director of finance/IT, who left at the end of November.
In 2016, more employees have followed.
IT Support Specialist Cletis Webb left the city at the end of January, and former GIS Manager Greg Resz's last day was Feb. 3.
"We've lost all these people in less than 10 months," Resz told the News Tribune before starting his new job in Arkansas.
Of the 42 people listed as leaving the city's employment since Jan. 1, 2015, 32 had been hired within the last 16 years.
City Administrator Steve Crowell said Friday the nearly 9 percent turnover rate for 2015 likely isn't high for the city overall, noting there are probably years when it was higher and years when it was lower.
"The important thing to do is to look at why," Crowell said. "Did they retire? Did they leave for another job in the city? Did they leave for another job outside of the city?"
Crowell said at one point about one third of the employees who had left had done so for another job, and most often, the issue comes back to pay.
"The why is really something to think about because some of that we really can't control," Crowell said.
Mayor Carrie Tergin said Thursday she believes one of the reasons is the stagnation in pay and benefits.
"I'm aware that there is some talk lately about morale and issues at City Hall, and that greatly concerns me," Tergin said.
Tergin points to the City Council's decision last summer to eliminate the 2 percent across-the-board pay increase for city employees that Tergin and Crowell had in their draft budgets as part of the problem. Instead of the pay increase, the City Council approved a one-time $900 payment for all employees.
"I was concerned at what the impact could be on morale," Tergin said of the removal of the pay increase. "I so strongly did not agree with this budget, that I vetoed it."
Tergin did veto the budget, at the time citing the increase to the gross receipts utility tax, but the council overrode her veto. When the budget was moved out of committee and to the full council in late August, four council members voted against it, including 4th Ward Councilman Carlos Graham, who said at the time, he wanted to see the 2 percent pay increase in the budget.
At the same August meeting, Crowell told council members "to remember that employees have places they can go other than here."
Employee frustrations
Resz pinpoints the start of the morale downturn, at least for him, with the firing of Nickolaus. Nickolaus was fired in September 2013 with the mayor at the time, Eric Struemph, saying the city needed to move in a different direction.
"That was the first devastating part to us. He was like family," Resz said.
Resz said Nickolaus made an effort to make people feel appreciated, which went a long way when budgets began to tighten. Also, after Nickolaus was fired, he became the first name to be added to what would be called "the Wall of the Fallen."
"It was basically all the folks we'd worked with over the years from Nathan Nickolaus (to) all the IT folks. It was their name tags that they left and their badges, their pictures," Resz said.
However, in January, Resz said, Crowell told him to take down the memorial, stating it was bad for morale.
"I said, "Yeah, it's really bad for morale what's been going on back there, what's going on for the city,'" Resz said.
A Sunshine Law request for emails concerning morale since Jan. 1, 2015, included an email from Resz to IT employees and several former employees, including Nickolaus, Betts, former assistant city attorney Jeremy Cover and former IT manager Lisa Scheulen. The email stated: "It saddens me to say that I have been ordered by City Administrator (Steve) Crowell to remove the wall of the fallen/remembered as "it is bad for morale.' If me taking over and maintaining the wall has affected anyone's morale, I apologize. I just really cared for and miss those of you who were on the wall."
Many current and former employees declined to comment on the record because of concerns about job security and keeping ties at City Hall. However, whatever the reason, Resz is far from the only person who suffered from low morale.
Costales sent an email to other council members, Tergin, Crowell and department directors on Jan. 30 stating he had spoken to about 100 employees, and there was a clear problem - low morale.
"I am hearing that the problem is due in part to inconsistent messaging from leadership. We talk about about the importance of taking care of personnel; yet we fund "nice to have' programs with additional monies rather than necessities," Costales wrote. "They see additional city funds allocated and spent on Old Town revitalization, (Cultural) Arts Commission, and $1.5 million given to Parks and Recreation for a facility they may not even be able to use. They believe this is being done on their collective backs. Many city employees feel they are being treated as unnecessary and expendable."
In an interview with the News Tribune in late February, Costales said one of the biggest issues facing the city right now is morale. Costales attributed the city's low morale to stagnant pay and conflicting messages from the city's leadership.
"A lot of that, the low morale, stems in large part from the leadership that is the council members," Costales said. "We sit in here and we discuss how important personnel are, and then we go and fund other things. ... We should have used that money for general fund expenditures, taking care of the employees, and that affects their morale."
Internal documents surveying city employees in 2015 back up Costales' claims of inconsistent messaging.
According to emails and interviews, Crowell established an internal employee committee that conducted employee surveys early last year. An email from Crowell to Tergin on Jan. 29 states the city received 147 survey responses, about 35 percent of employees, and the responses were finished by April 2015.
One document from those survey results is the 2015 Employee Survey Frustrations list, which includes the following concerns:
"Would like to see someone back employees, their issues and concerns."
"Secrecy."
"Every mayor, City Council person and administrator who have never done my job always know more about my job than me. So could we elect people for once who will listen to experienced city employees?"
"A council that will make a decision about something and not vote on or discuss for years."
"Cliques and "good ol' boy' mentality."
"Lack of support by administrative departments."
"I've never met the city administrator. It would be nice if he made an effort to visit with all city employees at their workplace, not his."
"It would have been nice to have met the city administrator."
"No long-term plans for the future."
"The city has to take care of its departments, infrastructure and employees before it takes on new pet projects."
"Overall our health insurance plan is poor ... very poor ... and very expensive."
"It seems that the employees have not been made a priority in funding decisions, which is apparent in the pay disparity between department directors and middle/upper management."
"After years of successive budget cuts, there is nothing left but to ask citizens which services they would like to cut."
"Little things matter to employees; the city can afford it because when employees leave, it costs much more to replace them."
In the Jan. 29 email to Tergin, Crowell said he thought many of the issues leading to the comments in the survey happened before he began in March 2014, "but I do accept the responsibility for trying to address the issues (or at least make recommendations to council), which I think we are trying to accomplish.
"Many of the items referenced in the survey are beyond my control or sphere of influence," Crowell wrote in the email. "I do not think many of the items identified occurred over the last year or two and will take time to address (some issues such as improve communication are ongoing). I do not want to appear defensive or disrespectful, but I do think we are headed in a positive direction. But again, that is my perspective."
In an interview Friday, Crowell said the purpose of the survey was to identify barriers to customer service. He said it was meant to be an internal tool to guide city staff and help address issues, which is why it wasn't sent to the City Council or initially shared with Tergin.
Crowell also specified the survey was just one way they gathered input at that time. He said employee committees are always gathering input in one way or another, noting the recent addition of a suggestion box for staff and his practice of going out and working with employees in the field.
A crisis in IT
For one former employee, the morale issue lies squarely in Crowell's sphere of influence.
The City Council hired Crowell in January 2014, and he officially started in March of that year.
For Resz, Crowell was a striking change from years past, one that he says eventually led him and others to leave City Hall.
"If Nathan Nickolaus would have stayed, not gotten let go, this wouldn't have happened," Resz said. "Bill (Betts) would have stayed."
But Betts submitted his resignation last fall and declined to comment further about the move. Resz said after Betts submitted his resignation, the IT staff wanted to know what the administration planned to do with his position.
"Our concern was that in the time of need, they combined IT with finance," Resz said.
That was in September 2014, when the City Council approved a merger of the finance and IT departments, placing Betts at the head of the two departments. Betts had been the interim finance director since February 2013, in addition to his duties as IT director.
The merger was not unlike a previous idea from Nickolaus, who in January 2013 sought to promote Betts to assistant city administrator, but that idea was ultimately abandoned after some discussion about whether the process was improper.
Resz said the situation wasn't ideal, but it did work with Betts at the helm. But the idea that anyone else could effectively manage both departments was something he was skeptical about.
"We really wanted to see the departments split back up, and so did finance," Resz said. "Finance feels like they didn't get a full-time director either. But we feel like we went from 100 percent down to 35-40 percent time IT director."
Resz said Nickolaus' original plan to merge the departments under Betts was never meant to be carried on if Betts was no longer with the city, which Nickolaus later confirmed to a News Tribune reporter.
"Nathan told me it was always his plan that if something happened and Bill was no longer there, that he would have immediately switched those positions back up again," Resz said. "It was a one-time, one off; we were a million dollars or however much ($1.68 million) we were down that year, and that's what we needed."
So the IT staff went to meet with Crowell to express their concerns, Resz said. But, according to Resz, it did not go well.
"We had our first meeting with Steve (Crowell), to which he belittled us and bullied us and he yelled at us," Resz said. "The first question was "Has there been any consideration given to reorganizing back into separate departments?' And after teeth-pulling, he said, "Consideration? Yes.' Elaborate please? "No.'"
Resz went on to describe a meeting that escalated as Crowell challenged the staff's assertion IT was the "backbone of the city." He described Crowell as yelling and banging his fist on the table by the end of the meeting.
"We ask (Crowell) ... who's going to represent, without a director that knows anything about IT, who is going to represent IT at the big table? To which he said, "IT doesn't deserve a spot at the big table,'" Resz said. "I said, "Well, I don't know, all the corporate-level executives, businesses in America seem to differ with you.' And that's when he went into this whole, "I've been in bigger, badder places than Jefferson City, and that's not the way it is there.'"
After that meeting, Resz said, it was clear Crowell did not respect the staff.
"We wanted respect. We didn't get any respect there," Resz said.
And that's when they first approached the mayor to make her aware of staff concerns.
Tergin confirmed she was approached by some employees about a meeting with Crowell. She said she took their concerns and went to speak with Crowell privately about the situation.
"We had a very lengthy conversation about it," Tergin said. "We had a very good conversation, and I think that there are definitely many sides and many angles to this. ... There are, clearly, two different perspectives."
Tergin said she wanted to make sure he was aware of how he had been perceived in the meeting so if there were any issues, he would have an opportunity to address them.
"He was very appreciative of the feedback," Tergin said.
In an interview with the News Tribune on Friday, Crowell said any account of him yelling, belittling or disrespecting the staff is completely inaccurate.
"I understand and appreciate all the employees," Crowell said. "I did not yell. ... We had a candid conversation, and I said some things they didn't like ... and I can be kind of blunt."
Crowell described his management style as candid. He said if he's asked a question, he will give the answer and it may not be the answer they're looking for, which is very different from Resz's description of him.
Resz described Crowell as a master of not answering questions and recalled him using the phrase "good question, next question" as a way of moving to a different subject matter.
"(He) likes to keep one person between him and the problem at all times," Resz said.
Crowell said he tries not to be too blunt, but he also wants to share as much information as possible and perform his obligation to balance the needs of all departments and keep things running as efficiently as possible.
Whatever the reason, morale has continued to be an issue in 2016.
Webb, the former IT specialist, sent an email to several IT employees and Hilpert in early January that contained a blog entry titled "Why Your Employees Leave in Waves and How to Stop It."
The article, from a blog about leadership and management, stated: "When multiple team members are leaving, it's a sign that change is needed. Embrace that mindset."
Roxanne James, a systems analyst with the city, responded later that morning saying, "Exactly what has happened around here."
Attempts to address issues
Emails from City Hall sent and received since Jan. 1, 2015, show multiple attempts by the city administrator, department heads and other administrative officials to address and improve employee morale.
One email from City Attorney Drew Hilpert in August 2015 discusses a recommended use of health insurance savings to help boost employee morale that may have lagged due to a perceived decline in health benefits.
"In talking with people, I am firmly convinced that our biggest (problem) right now with morale (is) our people perceive, right or wrong, that our insurance took a huge hit last year (and c'mon...it did)," Hilpert wrote. "It's finally driving people to look for other work."
Janice McMillan, director of Planning and Protective Services, replied to Hilpert's email in agreement, adding, "most city employees are represented in the 70 percent of Americans whose incomes have been stagnant in the past 10 years, their benefits have declined and health care costs have skyrocketed."
Crowell responded to Hilpert's email asking for data to back up claims the city offers "less attractive insurance" and added "apparently the 2 percent across the board increase council has included the past few years (while state employees received 0 percent) is of little to no consideration."
Crowell said the city has several employee committees established to directly get input on issues affecting employees in order to help the overall environment of working for the city. One such committee is the Employee Involvement Committee, which is meant to help plan and organize activities, programs, events and services for employees and their families.
"I haven't figured out how to make everybody happy yet," Crowell said Friday. "It's hard to balance all of the kinds of things that we need to do. ... We've got a lot of great employees working."
One big step already being undertaken, Crowell said, is the classification and compensation study, which will trigger an overall review of the city's existing job descriptions and pay ranges. City staff has issued a request for proposals, and the goal is to have that information available for the next budget cycle, which would start this summer.
The city also has started recognizing an outstanding employee each month with an award and presentation at a City Council meeting. The city also holds quarterly staff meetings to help keep employees up to date on information, as well as reward them for hard work.
Next steps
On Thursday, Tergin said the council would have a closed session Monday to discuss some specific issues at the urging of a member of the City Council. Monday's agenda states the council may go into closed session to discuss individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records pertaining to employees.
Another closed session is planned for the March 21 council meeting, where Tergin said she plans to go through her annual evaluation of Crowell.
The City Charter requires the mayor annually to review the city administrator and report to the council. Tergin said she plans to solicit input from the council on Crowell, as well as meet with department directors to gather input before the March 21 meeting.
"My goal is to find out what specific issues there are and to evaluate those," Tergin said. "The issues that are causing morale to be put into question, absolutely we need to know what they are so that we can correct and improve."