City's personnel board expresses concerns over Tammie French vs. Steve Hill grievance.

The Crossville personnel board spent 2 hours reviewing the grievance complaint filed by Crossville parks and recreation director Tammie French against interim city manager Steve Hill but was unable to agree on much relief to the complainant due to the technicality of the timing of the complaint.

Some of the information released as part of the evidence angered one member of the panel and the communications between some of the city employees that used the city's internal messaging system called IPswitch were described by that member as “unprofessional.”

Tammie French began by describing her grievance and said it was not acceptable to her that Mr. Hill had made no attempt to address and resolve the issues I listed and those that have continued since I filed the grievance.

French continued, “Hill's actions are directed at me and not a move toward what's really best for the recreation department. There is a distinct pattern of Steve making decisions in regard to parks and recreation and without including me in discussions and decision making process. Its obvious to me that he has no respect for the fact that I am now the recreation director.”

Crossville Personnel Board, city staff and observers listen to 

discussion on Tammie French employee Grievance

After the grievance was filed, French requested copies of communications between her administrative assistant, city marketing director Bill Loggins and Steve Hill. Those communications revealed things that French said she was not aware of before her request was made. French explained, “Recently things have come to light that show Hill has enlisted other employees, both inside and outside the recreation department to help create an environment of turmoil that he knows I cannot function in. His improper and secretive line of communications has created a specific and strong divide among the staff. In my opinion, Steve's actions are detrimental to the future of the recreation department and I hope that somehow we can find resolution.”

Crossville director of Parks and Recreation Tammie French

French then passed out a number of pages of printouts of the internal messages that she received through making a public records request. The messages were reviewed for some time by the four members of the personnel board who were present. They included chairperson Beth Davis, John Eldridge, Lou Morrison and Tom Isham. Brooks Boston was unable to attend.

IPswitch messages between various parties. 

French explained that the documents she provided established a line of communication detrimental to her mostly between Amy Hester and Billy Loggins and Steve Hill. She said she felt Steve Hill was attempting to get inside information rather then coming to her with questions and problems. French said there were many derogatory comments made about her and other staff members. French told the board she also had requested emails between the parties and there was more similar information there but she did not want to over burden the board.

French explained that in mid summer she spoke to Mr. Hill about the volume of work that Amy Hester was doing for Billy Loggins. She said she told Hill the work was creating a problem. French said she went back and talked to Mrs. Hester about the situation, that future requests from Mr. Loggins should be run through French first, as Mrs. Hester did a huge amount of computer work for him. Said French, “She did not do that but the work continued.”

French said she went to Mr. Hill on January 4, 2017 to terminate Mrs. Hester but he rejected that. French said she was instructed to write Hester up but she has not been able to do that as Hester has been out sick since then.

“In my opinion,” said French, “Steve does not recognize me as the director of the department. In so many things he has made decisions where I have not even been consulted in advance.

Members of the board and city attorney Will Ridley discussed their responsibility and the grievance procedure including a report from the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) that says while some of French's complaints were qualifying grievances at some point, the complaints were not timely filed with in the 20 days the grievance procedure calls for. Other issues were “outside the scope of the grievance policy and should be reconciled at the operational/budgetary/managerial levels.”

Mr. Hill was given a chance to respond. Hill began by saying he had not read all the interoffice messages yet but agreed that if Mrs. French said there was a problem then he felt it was a problem. Hill told the board the procedure was to write up an employee three times before termination. Hill said the other complaints had been sent to MTAS and he agreed with them that they are not really grievances.

Interim city manager Steve Hill

Hill said he had gotten complaints on the parks department that had 5 full-time people and there was downtime during the winter. Hill continued saying that no policies were violated and he stands behind all the decisions he's made.

Board member Lou Morrison expressed surprise that an interim city manager would be dismantling departments. Morrison indicated the stack of messages he'd read and said to Hill, “I'm offended by these. I think its unprofessional of you and Billy Loggins and Amy Hester.”

Hill replied, “It probably is.”

Morrison said he was offended that Mrs. French's attendance at a family funeral was used as fodder for a joke, and was wrong. Morrison asked Hill, based on the procedure he quoted, an employee could undermine a department head and and all that could be done is to write them up? Hill responded that there were offenses that an employee could be fired immediately for and one example Hill gave was an employee being arrested.

Human Resources manager Leah Crockett read a statement concerning employment with the city stating that the city was an “at will” employer and that an employee could be fired at anytime with or without notice.

Mr. Morrison again took Hill to task over making a decision on French's request to fire Mrs. Hester without having reviewed all the documentation he was given. Morrison asked Hill if he would tolerate a subordinate treating him the way Hester had treated French. Hill said after he has read all the information he could give a better answer. Hill stated that Hester has also filed a grievance against French. Morrison responded to Hill, “you better read this!”

Morrison again returned to the messages saying he couldn't believe that Hill and one of his department heads would actively undermine another department head and enlist a subordinate to do so. “There seems to be something here,” added Morrison, “if everybody's always looking over their shoulder, its just not an effective way of leadership.”

Returning to Mrs Hester's employment, Morrison said to Hill, “In the businesses I've been involved with, she should have been fired on the spot. You should have been reading this (messages) and you should have done something about it. And Mr. Loggins, he is about as unprofessional as they come and that is something that needs to be addressed.”

The board discussed the need for smooth operation of the city and the recreation department because it attracts tourism dollars. Beth Davis said she was concerned about the situation as a taxpayer.

The personnel board members struggled with what they could do and what they should do about the complaint in light of the MTAS and city attorney's advice. They considered recessing the meeting to reconvene after members consider the matter further but finally one motion came from member Tom Isham to follow the recommendation of MTAS on the grievances before the board but the motion failed in a tie vote with Isham and John Eldridge supporting and Davis and Morrison opposed.

After additional discussion another motion was considered that the grievances are not timely filed but the board recommended that there be better communication between the city manager and city department heads. The motion was approved unanimously.