April 26 2022 Council Employee Committee (CEC) Meeting

I’ve been silent about Merete Heggelund’s appointment as Acting City Manager (ACM) after King Bob “retired”. Her appointment seemed reasonable and it was only temporary. April 26 I heard we might not find a new City Manager before 2023 so now I must

Speak Out

and

Speak Up

Background

During the campaign, we candidates heard from many city employees about how unhappy they were with their employment. Benefits and wages were NOT the problem. I personally heard stories of waste, incompetence, nepotism, a toxic work culture and a lack of accountability. We promised to look into that if elected.

After the election, I was very happy to see council do exactly that. Council wasted no time in creating the Council Employee Committee (CEC) and initiating the Employee Engagement Survey (EES). The purpose was to see where the issues lay so Council could direct the City Manager to fix the problems.

****Note - the meeting was taped but the public doesn’t have access to the tape. I’m lousy at shorthand so I cannot quote anyone verbatim.****

An update on the survey was given. As of April 26 the survey response rate was 61%! That is HUGE! That alone shows that our employees are hoping for change and accountability. Then the discussion turned to what the Council could expect to see.

I was dismayed and angered by what Merete Heggelund said. It seems our ACM doesn’t want Council to have access to the survey results as “hearing the opinions of employees about their working conditions is not allowed”.

Excuse me?

Our ACM pretty much went on to say if she was City Manager when the CEC was created she would not have allowed it. The Municipal Government Act and the Code of Conduct was mentioned.

Councilor Sharps (Committee Chair) and Mayor Clark seemed to be quite irritated.

Mayor Clark asked (if we can’t see it) “How do we know?”

That’s when our Acting City Manager (ACM) said and I quote this one

“You have to trust me.”

No

No we don’t

IMO the level of arrogance our ACM displayed was astounding. She seemed angry that Council thought they were entitled to the survey results.

I call BS

Council has the RIGHT to know details about all city assets especially our largest asset, our employees!

Council has the RIGHT to see the survey results.

Council has the RIGHT to meet with the ACM to discuss the results. Council has the RIGHT to DIRECT the ACM to fix the issues.

Yes, it’s the ACM’s job to deal with administrative stuff. It was HER job when she was #CAO from 2014-2018. #EmployerReviews shows the issues with senior City Management started during our ACM’s reign.

“Sept 2017 The CAO has surrounded herself with retired hack bullies whose sole purpose is to achieve her objectives at any cost.”

“April 22 2022 Senior leadership is extremely disconnected from the organization. Senior leadership is only concerned with their own careers and not the citizens, employees and rate payers that they serve.”