The Stevensville Town Council voted 3 to 0 last week to override Mayor Brandon Dewey’s latest policy requiring council members to submit future requests for information directly to the mayor rather than through the office staff. Dewey said the routing of information requests through him was a temporary policy being adopted to deal with his employees’ recent complaints about a toxic work environment being created by council members.
“It is not my intent to restrict council’s access to information, it’s just how they access that information,” said Dewey. He said it was a temporary measure adopted to place a buffer between the parties until a more permanent solution to the issues between the council and staff could be worked out.
Councilor Robin Holcomb took offense, saying that the Mayor’s memo was not a request but an order stating that they could no longer ask for information from town staff.
Councilor Bob Michalson said that when he asked Town Clerk Audree Tribbensee for copies of all correspondence from his mailbox he was told he had to fill out an information request form. He said he talked to other past and present councilors and they had never been required to fill out such a request form. “We should have the same rights as the mayor,” said Michalson.
He said that instead of receiving any information he received an email from Dewey stating that the council was creating a toxic work environment amongst the workers. Michalson denied the accusation and said he’d like to know why the mayor would make such an accusation.
“To be clear,” said Dewey, “they came to me and made that complaint. I am just relaying it to you.” He said his policy was put in place to keep people happy while things are worked out. He told Michalson he would have to ask the staff about the hostile work environment that has been created.
Town Clerk Audree Tribbensee spoke up, saying that she was not the person who came forward about a hostile work environment. She said that she was new on the job but has been told and read things in the record that indicate serious difficulties between the council and the mayor’s office have been ongoing for several administrations.
“People are assuming that I am the one,” she said.
Then she said that Michalson had sent her an email request for all correspondence between every councilor and any administrative staff. She said the request had no timeframe or any other parameters, so she emailed back requesting some parameters to the search.
“You just said all correspondence and I just asked for clarification,” she said. “But I do agree with my fellow staff members that there is a hostile working environment here. In my thirty years of doing municipal work I have never seen a council so hostile to the mayor’s position that it flows over to staff by association I guess.” She said it made her feel that because she works for the mayor she is considered “a bad person and treated with the same manner of disrespect.”
Pat Groninger, a former mayor and former council member, said, “I know you ladies get beat up, not just by one or two councilors but by the public too. But you don’t work for the mayor, you work for the town.”
“But he’s my supervisor,” said Tribbensee.
“Yes, but he can be overrun… the mayor can’t tell you what to do unless he hears it from the council,” said Groninger. “The council sets the rules and sets the laws. They have the right to access you ladies at any given time during working hours. The toxic environment starts with you. When they say ‘yea’, you say, ‘OK’.”
Councilor Stacie Barker said she had been trying to get information verifying that the mayor had really reimbursed the town for some expenses but has not gotten a direct response. She called the answers she got from staff “lying.”
“I can’t trust somebody right now,” she said. “You are not on my trust list as a mayor and you want to say we created a toxic environment.”
Dewey reiterate that it was not his complaint, it was a complaint brought to him by his staff members.
“Do you want me to just say ‘suck it up, buttercup’?” he asked.
Bill Perrin, another former council member, said that it was clear here that some members of the council had created a hostile environment. “We saw evidence that the council at least in some portion is creating a hostile work environment to the point that we saw emails stating that you were ‘going to make the mayor’s life miserable, just like we did Paul Ludington’ which you did and he quit.” Perrin said the intent was clear and admitted by Michalson. He said that is what has to change.
Michalson admitted making the statement but called it “an inside joke between Robin [Holcomb] and I” that was taken the wrong way. He then recalled how several months ago the mayor slammed a door in his face to shut him out of a meeting with the Town’s attorney. He said that was shutting the door, not just on him, but on the whole council since he is president.
He added, “I’m just as much to blame as Mr. Dewey. I’ll take 50% of the blame. I’ve got big shoulders. But I won’t take 100% of the blame because it works both ways.” He said having to go through the mayor to get information was not right.
The Council voted to override the mayor’s policy by a vote of 3 to 0 (Raymond Smith was absent).
Next on the agenda was discussion and possible decision about initiating an “independent investigation” into the claims of a toxic work environment. This was also requested by the Town’s Attorney, according to the mayor.
Michalson said, “Do we want to continue this dancing around the dozie? Or do we want to get together and start working as a team? If we do, then let’s go that way and if not, let’s have the investigation.”
Dewey said that the League of Cities and Towns was contacted and agreed to facilitate a meeting between the council, mayor and staff as a workshop with assistance from the Local Government Center and MMIA.
“I don’t know that it would necessarily address the hostile work environment, but I suppose it would,” he said.
Michalson said that the toxic work environment has been around for at least three years.
“It didn’t just start when you came in,” he said.
Dewey said that he didn’t think the money for an investigation would be wasted.
“It’s worth noting that in the past decade this organization has paid out $90,000 in wrongful discharge and harassment claims,” he said.
He said the workshop could prevent future claims and give them some tools to address the issues with the staff. He said he did not ask the League of Cities and Towns to conduct an investigation but to facilitate a conversation and provide mediation.
The motion to initiate an independent investigation into the allegations of a toxic work environment was defeated by a 3 to 0 vote.
The council also decided to re-open the Temporary Fishing Access Site that was constructed on the Town’s River Park property. The temporary site was created last summer when the former owner of Fort Owen Ranch put up concrete barriers preventing use of the traditional FAS next to the bridge. The temporary site was closed this year during high water and the floodplain permit required for working at the site has since expired.
The council heard from members of the public that the original approval for an FAS on town property was met with stern resistance from the public but agreement was reached to construct a temporary site while a permanent location was sought elsewhere. Some land belonging to the county on the west side of the river at the bridge was identified as a possibility and the county agreed to give the property to the town.
Before that site could be analyzed and a design approved by FWP engineers, however, the Fort Owen ranch changed hands. The new owner agreed to re-opening the traditional site by the bridge, which was always considered the best site by FWP engineers, and plans to enlarge and improve the FAS with parking and picnic tables and some camping areas with a toilet have also been agreed to.
The Public Works department made a recommendation to the council not to re-open the temporary FAS on Town property because a permanent site at the bridge was already being established. They recommended looking at the recent EA done for that development to see if it met the deficiencies they were concerned about.
Although members of the public who were involved in the initial decision to put in the temporary site insist that they agreed to it only on the condition that it was temporary, former mayor Jim Crews disagreed. He insisted that the council decided that it would be a permanent site.
Police Chief James Marble said that he would recommend re-opening the site temporarily. He said there is a real congestion issue posing safety hazards at the traditional site that may not be resolved until the full FAS is finished with its planned improvements and that by opening the Town’s site temporarily, congestion could be relieved.
The Council voted 3-0 to re-open the site on the town’s property.
The Council, in another 3-0 vote, refused to adopt the wages and salaries presented by the Mayor for all town employees. Holcomb and Michalson both refused to approve the pay schedule because it contained a job description for an aerobics instructor at the pool. They claim the mayor made up the job description without council approval, so it is invalid. Michalson said if the council approved the wages and salaries with the unauthorized job title it would create a bad precedent. He said that the power to create job titles belonged to the council and not the mayor.
“If we give this power to the mayor, what’s next? Soon the council will have no authority,” he said.
Although there was some question as to being able to approve a budget without approving the wages and salaries first, the council did approve a budget on a vote of 2 to 1 for this fiscal year after the mayor told them it was possible to do it and was the common practice.
In other business:
• The council approved a resolution requesting distribution of $13,000 in Bridge and Road Safety and Accountability funds for use on the 3rd Street improvement project.
• The approved a task order agreement between the Town and HDR Engineering regarding Phase IV of the water system improvements project which involves the proposed construction of a new water reservoir in town.
• A Master Agreement for professional services with Morrison-Maierle Inc. engineering was approved.
• A design-only grant application for taxiway improvements at the airport was approved as well as a task order approving the reconstruction of the taxiway and the taxiway lighting.
• The Council also consented to the Fire Department’s Volunteer Roster.