Gaslighting 101
Back in February of 2022, I wrote a light hearted love letter to city staff that was featured on this blog. In that post, I highlighted several staff members whose combined experience and years of service showed just how amazing our city staff are and how our entire city has benefitted from their contributions. Since that time, several staff members who were highlighted have left the organization. What’s amazing is that several who I did not highlight, but were equally worthy, are also gone. I wrote the love letter to genuinely show my support but also because there were signs of trouble.
I saw, first hand, our highly competent City Manager continually bend over backwards to give equal time and attention to Councilmembers whose goals were often contradictory. I also saw him attacked and even called a liar by council members who he tried so hard to work with (6/21/2021). I saw a Deputy City Manager frustrated by non-inclusive statements of council members. I saw an assistant City Manager whose contributions were often written off because of her age and gender. I saw staff members brought to tears by council members who belittled and diminished their life’s work.
My letter was also an act of contrition. An apology for any time that I made staff feel as though I did not value their opinions or experiences. This was never my intent, and I hope that I showed my support in other ways during my tenure.
In April of 2023, I followed up my blog with a new blog about the “brain drain” the city was experiencing. Soon after, several news media outlets published stories about the high turnover that the city was experiencing. Stories that included a quote from Councilmember Jenkins where he argued that our City Staff need to “grow up a little bit.” (See: “Shawnee City Council Blamed for Ongoing Staffing Crisis, SMP, 5/26/2023). Some of the departures were before the appointment of the new City Manager. Some departed soon after.
It is absolutely true that attrition is to be expected in any workplace. The City of Shawnee is a mid-sized employer with approximately 300 city employees. Most employees work in public safety and public works positions. These positions range in experience levels and it is not uncommon for municipal employers to experience higher turnover in these areas. What is uncommon is for a city with a long tenured and dedicated staff to have extremely high turnover at the highest levels in a very short period. What is even more uncommon is that at least some of the people that left indicated they took demotions and pay cuts to do so.
On Tuesday, October 10th, the Shawnee Mission Post hosted the Shawnee City Council Candidate forum. Staff turnover was a large focus of the forum. What concerned me were the responses of the current council members and Ms. Megan Warner (Ward 4 candidate). It was clear that this group was prepared to play defense on the question of staff turnover. In turn, they each provided variations on the same theme…. that this recent turnover rate is consistent with rates spanning back to 2019 and there was no cause for alarm. But, they also took it a step further to suggest that the loss of staff has been a positive for the city. They even called out Caitlin Gard’s “youth and inexperience” as the main reason for her departure, and presumably the reason she was not selected for the City Manager position. Authors Note: Caitlin Gard is a highly qualified, capable and accomplished individual and calling her “inexperienced” is equally laughable and insulting.
There are two HUGE issues with their approach that should give all voters pause. First, the use of total turnover rates going back from 2019 is a disingenuous statistic given the city’s situation. It may be true that overall turnover has not increased (I can’t verify this). It is ABSOLUTELY NOT true to say that turnover in management level positions and turnover of highly tenured staff is not higher. Second, their attempt to diminish the contributions of the very capable Ms. Gard is preposterous and matches their other message that the staff that left were no big loss. And, let’s not forget, the Shawnee Mission Post pointed out in their April 26th, 2023 story that the Council members were provided guidance from the city manager that the THEIR behaviors were citied by numerous employees as THE reason they no longer enjoyed a job they once loved.
I am here to tell you, dear voter, that this loss of staff has been catastrophic for the long term health of our city. Not only have we lost institutional knowledge, we now have a greener, less experienced staff. While I do not have access to city employee salaries, I do understand the basic premise that hiring new people is a very expensive proposition. Not only are you likely paying them a higher salary (per year of experience), but you also have significant loss of productivity as staff are on-boarded and learning their new jobs.
Unfortunately, another change our Council made was to discontinue our membership in the National League of Cities. This is an organization that provides countless opportunities for continuing education for employees with work-related certifications. It also allows our staff members and elected officials to learn from other cities’ experiences. This means we will have to pay more to help our employees get continuing education units or simply tell them they must pay for it themselves (a huge dissatisfier amongst employees whose certifications are required for their jobs). We could fix this by simply not hiring certified professionals for the most important jobs in our city, but I think we can all agree this would be a step backwards.
What does this all mean. It means that we, the taxpayers, have to pay more money for the same level of service we had until very recently. And we are having to pay more because of the actions of our current City Council members… who, coincidentally, will tell anyone who asks that they are working to save us money by pushing through highly inadvisable tax cuts.
The current council members are working hard to pull the wool over our eyes. It is time to hold them accountable for their actions and VOTE THEM OUT. You have the power. Remember to vote on November 7th for the following candidates who I fully endorse:
Ward 1: Sierra Whitted
Ward 2: Rev. Jeanie Quick Murphy
Ward 3: Councilmember Knappen is running unopposed. He will retain his seat, but you should contact him to express your concern about this issue and ask him what he is going to do about it.
Ward 4: Laurel Burchfield
Mayor: Mickey Sandifer
And to our staff, I say again: nolite te bastardes carborundorum
https://shawneemissionpost.com/2023/05/26/shawnee-staffing-crisis-202574/