Personnel board hears complaint from Lt. Eckleson, recommends review by new city manager, previous decision upheld

Two new members of the Crossville personnel board took their seats at a meeting called to handle the appeal of a grievance filed by Crossville Police Lt. Brian Eckleson.

The two new members, former city councilman Pete Souza and former city employee Larry Dyer were both elected by city employees. In addition to the two members elected by the employees, the personnel board includes two members are appointed by city council and one by the city manager. Other members of the personnel board at the April meeting included Beth Davis, chair and Tom Isham. Member Lou Morrison was absent.

The board voted to recommend that the new city manager Greg Wood review the investigation. Wood released a memo on his review that upheld the decisions of interim city manager Lee Lawson putting the ball back in Eckleson's hands for a possible return to the personnel board to appeal Wood's action.

City manager Greg Wood's memo

Lieutenant Brian Eckleson 

Members of the personnel board and attendees

at the meeting

Mr. Souza had a statement to make at the start of the meeting saying that he had been told that the personnel board was only advisory in nature. Souza added, “That verbiage diminishes our standing. Were here to bring the conscience to the city, of what is right and what is not right. After that it is up to the city manager or the court system to take whatever action seems necessary.” Souza concluded, “We can recommend, but it's up to them to execute the corrective action necessary.”

The meeting got underway with Lt. Eckleson describing the incident that led to the grievance and action taken by interim city manager Lee Lawson in response to Eckleson's grievance. The appeal to the Personnel Board is over the action of Mr. Lawson.

According to Eclkeson's statement, the harassment was related to his race, national origin and association with the Jewish religion and the investigation of that complaint by Mr. Lawson. Eckleson said he felt he couldn't address the issue of the investigation without describing the original incident.

The original incident took place in a professional promotion interview with then newly rehired police chief David Beaty. “It was one of the most unprofessional interviews I've had while sitting on a promotion interview,” stated Eckleson. According to Eckleson, chief Beaty said his birthday was on April 20 and asked if Lt. Ecklson knew the significance of that date? Eckleson continued, “He smiled and said he shared his birthday with Adolph Hitler. He continued to tell me that he should shave off part of his mustache to look more like (Hitler.)”

Ecklseson related that he did not remember much f the interview after that. He added that according to human resources director Leah Crockett he was the only one such a statement was made to and he said he was the only member of the department with a Jewish background.

After the harassment complaint was filed, Lt. Eckleson was interviewed by both HR director Crockett and interim manager Lawson. According to Eckleson, at that time Lawson stated to him he was “shocked and appalled those comments were made.” Eckleson said he asked about Beaty's supervision during his probationary period but said he got no answer as to whether Beaty was under the city's mandatory 6 to 12 month probationary period.

Lawson's response to the complaint stated that he was no longer shocked and appalled, but felt the comment might be intimidating or even benign. The letter continued that no derogatory remarks were made about Lt. Eckleson or any ethnic or religious group.

In addition, Eckleson said that the HR director no longer remembered what Beaty said exactly. Lawson offered to take back the letter and let the new city manager Greg Wood take over the investigation. After the new city manager started work he declined to reopen the already concluded investigation.

Additional actions taken by Beaty toward Eckleson include lack of inclusion in staff meetings, no interaction with the chief without going through chain of command though others do not have the same requirement. Eckleson also said Beaty had institued a non-paid hour lunch break though offices are required to remain on-call. Eckleson said that action appeared to be in violation of the state's labor law. Eckleson concluded that some of those actions could be considered retaliation.

Mr Lawson's response in the hearing said that he began an immediate investigation into the matter and spoke to all three who were present and the descriptions given where different or not completely recalled. Said Lawson, “Based on the information and evidence available to me at the time, it was my opinion that no version of the statement targeted Lt. Eckleson.” Lawson added that he reviewed chief Beaty's personnel file and found no evidence of similar conduct.

Chief Beaty said that the matter came up during one of the questions they used in the interviews and stemmed from an earlier conversation about a training Lt. Eckleson showed Beaty on his computer. In reference to a school shooting Beaty referenced Columbine, national pot day on April 20. The date was also Hitler's and Beaty's birthdays and Beaty said he commented that he was not going to shave his mustache like that. “That was the gist of the conversation,” Beaty explained.

Questions from Mr. Souza sought clarification from Beaty who said he didn't believe Eckleson was lying but that Beaty disagreed with his account of the interview.

Souza said he had not spoken to anyone involved in the complaint before the meeting but did say he had calls from three officers that he did not solicit and only listened to the comments that expressed concern over possible anger and retribution. “That's not an accusation,” added Souza.

Souza asked Ms. Crockett about the number of people on the panel and she said when the city was interviewing new police hires there were 6 on the panel. Souza expressed concern about the small number involved in the promotion interviews. Crockett admitted that there were no scores on the ranking list of candidates and that there should have been as part of the personnel procedure.

After some discussion on possible action, Mr Souza commented before offering a motion. “Lt. Eckleson's complaint has merit,” said Souza, “because part of this conversation never should have occurred. I've not found any evidence of malice but it can be construed as malice because of sensitivity.” Souza also said that he did not blame Lee Lawson for any gaps in his investigation as he had his hands full with running the city.

Souza moved saying, “There is sufficient merit in Lt. Eckleson's complaint to warrant the current city manager to re-investigate the situation.” Souza also sought to have the city manager look into the pay question on unpaid but on call lunch and procedures for filling vacant positions. No member supported Souza's motion and the motion of member Tom Isham to have the new city manager review the matter received a second from Larry Dyer. Souza said that Isham's motion was good enough and the matter was approved by voice vote of the 4 members of the board who were present.  

Changes coming in Personnel Board membership following resignations after meeting on French grievance.

Two members of the Crossville Personnel Board members resigned following the January 11 meeting to hear the grievance filed by city parks and recreation director Tammie French against then interim city manager Steve Hill.  Those leaving the board are members John Eldridge and Brooks Boston, both elected by the Crossville city employees. 

Members of the Crossville Personnel Board, city staff and observers

listen as the board hears the Tammie French Grievance 

at their last meeting on January 11, 2017.

Personnel Board discusses French Grievance

The Personnel board includes 5 members including 2 elected by city employees, 2 appointed by the city council and one appointed by the city manager. The process of replacing the two resigning members who were elected by the city employees is now underway.

The city ordinance on the personnel board says that “No member of the Personnel Board shall be employed by or be an official of the city, nor shall be a member of any local, state or national committee of a political party or an official or member of a committee in any partisan political group or organization, nor shall hold or be a candidate for any elective office. No member of the Personnel Board shall be an immediate family member (wife, husband, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, mother, mother-in-law, father, father-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, step-parent, stepchild, grandmother, or grandfather) of any employee or elected official of the City of Crossville.”

The Ordinance also sates the duties and responsibilities of the Personnel Board as follows:

“(a) Represent the public interest in the improvement of personnel administration;

(b) Advise the City Council and the City Manager on problems concerning personnel administration; and

(c) Hear appeals of any employee covered by this chapter relative to personnel actions taken by the city in which the employee feels grieved, as long as the employee has exhausted the grievance procedures provided in the rules and regulations. The Personnel Board may revoke, modify or sustain the personnel action being appealed. The Personnel Board shall have the right of subpoena, the power to examine witnesses under oath, the power to compel the appearance of a witness and the power to require the production of evidence by subpoena. During the review, both the appealing employee and city or other person whose actions are being reviewed shall have right to be heard publicly, be represented by any person the appellant desires and to present evidentiary facts. At the hearings of the appeals or grievances, technical rules of evidence shall not apply. All appeals shall be concluded as expeditiously as possible and in accordance with the requirement and procedures set forth in the personnel rules and regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter. The cases shall be final. However, nothing in this section purports to preclude judicial review.”

The city employees are notified and have 5 days to nominate possible candidates. That took place last week and the city manager then determines the qualifications of the candidates and prepares the ballots that are distributed to the city employees. The ballots are tabulated by the manager with two city employees selected at random to observe the ballot counting and the results are certified.  

Tammie French requesting harassment investigation over personnel violations. Hester dismissed

Crossville Parks and Recreation director Tammie French has requested a further investigation into harassment against her by former interim city manager Steve Hill, marketing director Billy Loggins and parks and recreation secretary Amy Hester.

Crossville Parks and Recreation director Tammie French

As of Thursday, Mrs. Hester is no longer employed in the position of Parks department secretary. Mrs. French had requested Hester be dismissed in early January and again following the personnel board hearing last week.

French's email of January 16 requesting the harassment investigation was sent to Mayor James Mayberry, interim manager Steve Hill, HR director Leah Crockett and city attorney Will Ridley. Hill was removed as interim by the council on January 18.

Mr. Loggins remains as the only one still employed by the city.

Crossville Marketing director Billy Loggins

French wrote, “During the personnel board hearing it became evident that my grievance had merit, and that, had it been filed more expeditiously, more could have been done. In addition, during my time of gathering evidence, I learned that others were involved with the Interim City Manager and ugly, discriminatory and inappropriate comments were made about me. Since the City Manager is one of the people involved, I come to you for help.”

Former Crossville interim city manager Steve Hill

French said that the actions of the three, “Violate many points of the City of Crossville Personnel Policy Handbook in areas including ethics, misuse of city property, and violation of the city's computer use policy.” French pointed out that Hill got the same information she got a day later but Hill had taken no action to address the violations and had rejected French's request to fire Mrs. Hester based on insolence and insubordination.

French concludes, “I am respectfully requesting a formal employee relations investigation be conducted by the City Attorney or an attorney the city hires who can perform such a task.”

Mayor James Mayberry has called for a special meeting Tuesday at Noon, subject Steve Hill's job

Crossville mayor James Mayberry has called for a special meeting Tuesday at noon to discuss the removal of Steve Hill as city manager.  The text of the single agenda item, removal of city manager says, "Due to pending litigation, revelations from grievance at Personnel Board meeting, and insecurity among employees, Mayor Mayberry feels it is in the best interest of the City to terminate Mr. Hill."

Mayor Mayberry calls for Hill's dismissal

In addition to possible action firing Hill as interim city manager, council will also discuss an interim city manager to replace Hill until a new city manager can be hired.

It is extremely rare for a special meeting to be called in the middle of a holiday weekend.

Steve Hill

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.