Peck v. City of Henderson et al

Filing 1

COMPLAINT against all defendants (Filing fee $ 350 receipt number 09780000000001233418), filed by Mary Kay Peck. Certificate of Interested Parties due by 5/25/2009. Proof of service due by 9/12/2009. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Exhibit A, # 2 Exhibit Exhibit B 1-7, # 3 Exhibit Exhibit B 8-15, # 4 Exhibit Exhbit B 16-23, # 5 Exhibit Exhibit B 24-31, # 6 Exhibit Exhibit B 32-38, # 7 Exhibit Exhibit C, # 8 Civil Cover Sheet, # 9 Summons)(Kirshman, Norman)

Henderson City Council Meeting - April 14,2009 NB-073 - Employment Contract - Mary Kay Peck, City Manager

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So that is whatever it is. If that's a series of evaluations, then fine. If it is not, then Mr. Kirshman can make whatever arguments he wants to make at an appropriate time in the future. I was made aware, over the past month, that as much as it would have been, in my view, it in the interest of everyone for there to be a meeting before last Thursday, Mr. Kirshman was unwilling to conduct a negotiation session, a meeting among the lawyers prior to the election. He wanted to wait until after the election had been conducted. So the election then occurred and Thursday following the election, there was a meeting where the one million nearly two hundred thousand dollar demand for a settlement was communicated to the representatives of the City. I received a copy of that today as a part of my briefing on this matter. Or maybe it was yesterday afternoon. In any case, in the last day or so. Now I think it appropriate for us to be as careful as we can. One of the serious implications of a statute that requires an evaluation of an appointed official in a setting like this is that it's awkward for everybody, potentially damaging for some. But none the less, we have this contract in front of us and we have an agendaed item that is there at the request of a member of this Council. I might say that in the 12 years that I've been on the Council, when on occasion members of the Council have asked that matters be placed on the agenda, I have never felt it my responsibility to attempt to dissuade them. Rather, I have simply passed the request along, if it has come to me, and the item has been agendaed. This is one of those times.

Henderson City Counc;; Meeting _ Apr;; 14, 2009

NB-073 Employment Contract. Mary Kay Peck, City Manager
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Now, there are a few things that I - - j u s t occurred to me that I think bare discussion. And I would invite my colleagues to participate in
this discussion. Obviously, there is sensitivity to the things that We say,

because we have no intention of inflicting injury. But we have an 5
obligation here to determine what it ;s we're going to do. That requires

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that there be a full and candid discussion among us of the items that are of concern.

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I think one of the first things we ought to discuss is whether __

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is what our view is of Ms. Peck's management style and its effect on the operations, and for that matter, on the morale of the various staff and level

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of people who work in this depart - - in this City. And I would invite all of you
to participate in this discussion. The .iIrs t 'It em, I think ought to be the f
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question of her management and her management style.

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COUNCILMEMBER ANDY HAFEN: Well,

Mayor, 1-- I t s

Henderson City Council Meeting - April 14, 2009 NB-073 - Employment Contract - Mary Kay Peck, City Manager

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Now, there are a few things that I - - j u s t occurred to me that I think bare discussion. And I would invite my colleagues to participate in this discussion. Obviously, there is sensitivity to the things that we say, because we have no intention of inflicting injury. But we have an obligation here to determine what it is we're going to do. That requires that there be a full and candid discussion among us of the items that are of concern. I think one of the first things we ought to discuss is whether - is what our view is of Ms. Peck's management style and its effect on the operations, and for that matter, on the morale of the various staff and level of people who work in this depart - - in this City. And I would invite all of you to participate in this discussion. The first item, I think, ought to be the question of her management and her management style. COUNCILMEMBER ANDY HAFEN: Well, Mayor, I - - it's come to my attention that over time - - and, of course, this has just come to light recently because I have had some discussions with members of staff, that the management style has been somewhat divisive (sic). And I think because of that, it's been a great concern to me as to whether that type of management style would still be a benefit to number one, the employees that staff the City; and then, of course, number two, to the residents of the city. COUNCILMEMBER JACK CLARK: Mayor, when I first became aware of what I will describe, because I have the floor, as a culture of fear, I went to Ms. Peck and discussed this with her. She told me that she would investigate it. She was unaware of any such condition.

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Subsequent to that, I've had a couple more meetings with her. All of those meetings, a denial that that culture existed. However, we've had previous employees who have left the City who have stated that they left for fear of being terminated. They didn't want to wait until they got fired. And these were employees who had been long-term, loyal employees. Current employees who have been embarrassed in public meetings and in meetings with other staff, who have been threatened, both pUblicly and privately with their jobs. After several meetings and several discussions, I wasn't seeing any improvement. In fact, about three days after my last meeting, there was yet another incident where an employee was embarrassed and felt as if their job were in jeopardy. So I agree with Mr. Hafen that - - this is probably, in my 16 years on the Council, this is my saddest day. And this is my saddest day because I really don't feel that there is a bad guy, so to speak, in any of this. I have great respect for Ms. Peck. But we simply cannot have a culture in our City where people are afraid. We've never had that before in the 16 years that I've been here. And that culture has dramatically increased over the past six or eight months. COUNCILMEMBER GERRI SCHRODER: Well, Mayor, for a long time I didn't know that there was a problem because I don't work for Ms. Peck. She worked for us. I had my bi-weekly meetings with her. And I like Mary Kay Peck; a very nice person. But then it had come to my attention that there were some things that were happening that I wasn't

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aware of. I had heard from a couple of staff people and I had decided maybe I should investigate this a little bit more to find out what's really happening. Just as Councilman Clark had said, there were some staff members that told me that they were afraid to come to us to tell us some vital information. And I just don't think that for staff to be afraid to disclose information to us is in the best interest of the people of the City of Henderson. So that was a concern that I did bring up to Ms. Peck. She had asked, how do I rectify this? And I said, well, it doesn't matter to me who gives information to us, as long as we get our information. While I like Ms. Peck, it had come to my attention that her leadership skills were very threatening to the staff. I feel that I was in the dark. I was oblivious to some of the things that were really happening, and I don't think that any staff member should have the fear to come to us. I don't feel that someone who is reporting directly to us on issues that are important to the City of Henderson should not give us that information. COUNCILMEMBER KIRK: You know, Mayor, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this. I feel like Councilman Clark, though, it's not something we look forward to. I wish things could be different. It's very difficult for those of us that are elected to get inside the tent, if you will, of the staff. Staff has - - and I've noticed that since the very first day I was elected. I've never really felt part of the communication network, if you will, at the City staff level. There is this communication level at the Council level, and then there's the real communication level that happens,

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I think, within the staff membership that we don't - - we're not always privy to that. And when I started to feel that there were some issues and I could see them, I had a meeting with Mary Kay and we sat down and we talked about some things that I thought were wrong in her management style. I pointed them out. And she was very, very, very defensive of her position and what was right. And indicated to me that she thought that I was stepping outside my authority as a member of the Council and was trying to tell her how to manage as opposed to just setting policy. So I backed off that. So I felt, for quite some time, now that her management style has been divisive and that the employee morale was affected by that. It was obvious to me; especially the employee morale was affected by the way she managed. So I knew that there were some serious issues that needed further examination. MAYOR GIBSON: The thing that has come out of my individual inquiry, in line with the things that we're talking about now, has been an indication by several people on the staff that they were directed - when they became aware of sensitive information, particularly budget information - - they were directed not to share that information. In my estimation, that's a breach of the manager's responsibility to the elected officials. There isn't a single aspect of the City finances that should not be within the purview and the knowledge of the elected officials. That is, in my estimation, a very serious, serious thing for consideration.

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Now there's been some discussion about the adverse affect on morale. I don't if anyone wants to have any further discussion on that matter. If not, I want to move on because I have determined, from my visits with people - - I had actually informed Mary Kay that there were a number of department heads who were feeling like they had been completely left out of the discussion. I have learned since that there is one important member of the staff who sought for a long time, maybe even months, to sit down and meet with the manager and was not allowed a meeting. I don't know how we can expect the City to be managed if department heads are excluded from the discussion. Either they are department heads because they have the capacity to lead and contribute, or they, obviously, should be removed because their input is not valued. I am not aware of a lot of detail. I know of several, I think I know of three cases where people who I would expect would be a part of the greater management team of the City were excluded from important meetings. I think there are others - - and there's one other person who is an assistant city manager that was not involved in much of the budget and policy-related meetings. And I think that's inexcusable. When it comes to the involvement of the staff, are there any things - - I mean, Gerri, you have had an opportunity to do your own investigation. Are you aware of anything of that nature? COUNCILMEMBER SCHRODER: I am aware of - - there are some times when I had heard from staff members that they were supposed to go to one meeting and then had another meeting at the same time. And

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then when they went to report back over to the City Manager, that she admonished them for trying to be in two places at one time. I know of situations where a staff member was kind of thrown under the bus in a meeting. I know of a situation where a staff member had given us information at the same time that she had received information and then later on, the staff person was admonished for giving us that information prior to her getting the information. I know of situations where a staff member has gone to the City Attorney's Office to confirm whether or not information could be - what kind of information could be given to the press, the media. That person was also admonished for going to the City Attorney's Office prior to going to her. So I do know of different instances where several staff members had come to me and told me about their experiences of trying to do their job. And while trying to do their job, they get admonished for that, yelled at. It's just something that I don't - - I don't believe that a City Manager should conduct themselves in that manner. I believe that you don't get anywhere by yelling and screaming at people when they're trying to do their jobs. I believe that if you try to work together and look for solutions to problems, that's a better way to conduct business. Those are some of the things that I have been told. MAYOR GIBSON: Any other thoughts in this? COUNCILMEMBER CLARK: More direct information, Mayor. As we got closer in our research of the science center, I had specifically requested an employee join us on a fact-finding mission to

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Dallas. That employee agreed to go, and when we got to Dallas, I found that that employee was not there. When I asked Ms. Peck why that employee didn't come to Dallas, I was told that the employee had questioned why they were going, didn't feel that it was important that they go, and didn't want to go. That was not the information that I got directly from the employee. I felt it was important, as we moved forward in our investigation into the science center, that that particular employee participate because of their expertise in specific areas. I would like to address the budget issue. MAYOR GIBSON: Could I just ask you, as follow on, did you ever have occasion to square up the conversation that you had with the employee - COUNCILMEMBER CLARK: Yes, I did. MAYOR GIBSON: - - with Ms. Peck? COUNCILMEMBER CLARK: I spoke to the employee afterwards, who explained that they were specifically directed not to go. In fact, that employee had already obtained plane tickets to go at the time that they were directed, specifically, by Ms. Peck not to go on that trip. Again, I had expressed repeatedly for weeks, prior to the trip, what I felt was the significance of this particular employee's participation because of their expertise, particularly as it pertained to financing, what is going to be a very complicated financing package for the project.