Memo details limits to interaction with council

Free to speak — or not?

During a City Council meeting Wednesday in which government transparency and communication were major recurring themes, Vice Mayor Leroy Bennett wondered aloud why city employees might have been told not to talk to members of City Council.

“Some of them are telling me that there has been a letter or memo or something out that they are not supposed to talk with council members,” he said.

With Mayor Linda Johnson asking for city staffers address that question on the spot, Bennett received a quick and firm answer in the negative by the city manager and two different department heads.

However, in the days since, an email from Chief of Staff Debbie George and minutes of a meeting conducted by Fire Chief Cedric Scott have surfaced, showing that employees have, indeed, been instructed to route requests for information from council members through the city manager’s office.

On Thursday, the News-Herald obtained minutes of a fire department staff meeting on May 14, 2014. The following statement appears under the heading, “Fire Chief’s Report”:

“Should you receive a phone or email message to contact a Councilperson from anyone outside of the City Manager’s Office, please forward that request to your respective Deputy Chief via your Chain of Command to be forwarded to Chief of Staff. All inquiries and requests from City Council should come through the City Manager’s Office where they can be properly logged, reviewed, assigned and updated.”

Bennett said Wednesday that he’s from the “old school” of the corporate world and believes in spending time with front-line employees, which is how the matter came up in the first place. He specifically mentioned fire and police department employees as being reticent to speak to him.

But during Wednesday’s meeting, both Fire Chief Cedric Scott and Police Chief Thomas Bennett said they were unaware of any memo limiting contact between council members and city employees.

City Manager Selena Cuffee-Glenn also said she was not aware of such a memo. “I would like to see it if it does exist,” she said.

Presented a copy of the fire department’s staff meeting minutes on Friday, Chief of Staff Debbie George said there was a difference between what Bennett had sought and what the meeting minutes prohibit.

“This is asking them to do something, take some type of action,” she said in reference to the meeting minutes, suggesting the policy does not specify that employees cannot converse with members of council.

Bennett said Friday that he heard from several different employees that they were not supposed to talk to him.

“I’ve heard it more than one time, especially during the campaign,” he said.

Requests are supposed to be handled through the city manager’s office so that they can be handled appropriately, George added. She said it’s part of her job to track the response to City Council’s requests for information and action.

“It may be an issue that needs to be addressed by more than one department,” George said.

She also noted the City Council’s code of ethics states that significant requests for information should be made to the city manager. But, despite significant discussion about the code of ethics on Wednesday, there was no mention during the discussion of any contact restrictions it might impose on council members.

Addressing the policy outlined in the code, George said it “puts employees where they don’t feel they have to do something because of who is doing the asking.” A higher-level employee likely would be more comfortable telling a council member, for example, about barriers to their request.

“That has been the case for as long as I can remember.”

Also Friday, George provided an email she sent on April 23, 2014 — three weeks ahead of the fire department meeting documented in the minutes.

In the email, sent to city department heads, she gave the same direction, almost verbatim, recorded in the fire department minutes: “Should you (or anyone on your staff) receive phone or email messages to contact a Councilperson from anyone outside of the City Manager’s Office, please forward that request to me. All inquiries and requests from City Council should come through the City Manager’s Office where they can be properly logged, reviewed, assigned and updated. Thank you for your attention on this matter.”