No sympathy: Tuma accused of favoritism

From accusations of hand-picking inexperienced staff to being denied training, the claims of current and former employees of the City of Owatonna about City Administrator Jenna Tuma are as varied as they are troubling.

The Times, through a public data request, obtained a list of city employees who left their job between Aug. 1, 2025, and June 11, 2026. Tuma officially started in her role Aug. 8, 2025, after serving as the first-ever assistant city administrator for about a year.

The employees who spoke to the Times claimed they weren’t the only people who were unhappy with changes that accompanied the new leadership.

One woman said that based on her conversations with coworkers, “I don’t know anybody that feels like they have job security. At minimum, 75% of the employees had expressed that at some point,” she estimated.

That included all departments and all levels of employees, she said, and was a “daily” topic of conversation.

The Times has not done any kind of poll or survey of city employees.

It’s not so much the numbers, though, as it is the stories behind them.

Good start

One former employee said that under Tuma’s leadership initially, “it felt like a great example of what local government should be.”

As time went on, however, “we started to realize that Jenna’s got her inner circle,” which included lunches, book clubs and more.

“If you’re in the inner circle, you’re golden. But if you do something to get on the wrong side of the circle, then you’re done – and there’s no in-between,” the employee said.

Soon, “Jenna’s favoritism” became evident in how the remote work policy is applied, how birthdays are celebrated at City Hall and in many other ways, according to at least two other employees.

A current employee claimed Tuma selects her favorite employees to accompany her on official city business that pertains to other employees’ area of work rather than their own.

“The mentality is, you either need to get into Jenna’s clique, or keep your head down and don’t get noticed,” a former employee said.

The city had invested significantly in culture improvements over the past few years, another former employee said.

“Jenna’s bullying leadership style has reversed the results that had been achieved through those efforts.”

Changing course

The lack of training was a common concern across multiple departments, according to interviews with current and former employees.

“We struggled, because there was no training,” a former employee said.

They were told no training was budgeted, even for training deemed necessary.

“The state actually provides some courses that you need – and we couldn’t even go to those,” she said. “We were told it figure it out on our own.”

It was another way to “set people up to fail,” the employee said.

“Jenna and Emily (Thamert, assistant city administrator) have it down to an art,” another employee said, citing “a list of everybody that had rubbed them the wrong way during their employment.”

Challenges to Tuma landed them on the “list,” and that was the norm, the employee claimed.

Some of the challenges came from people Tuma herself had hired.

Several current and former employees spoke of a director who was hired without being provided adequate turnover, including passwords and critical files, documented operating procedures and more.

“No outside resources were provided to help this vital position navigate the transition,” one of them said.

There is no list, Tuma said.

Instead, she described the action as “a period of real change, and change can be uncomfortable for people who preferred how things were before. But discomfort with new expectations is not the same as retaliation, and raising legitimate questions is not the same as ‘pushing back’ in a way that results in an employee’s inability and willingness to effectively perform their job.

“We're confident in the team we're building,” Tuma said, “and confident that it's being built the right way.”

Departures begin

The term “set up to fail” came up again and again among the employees who spoke to the Times.

Yet another former employee said he wasn’t terminated, but “I was pushed to resign.”

“What he said is where we were all at. We weren’t terminated; we were told to leave,” one woman said.

Helping with the paperwork was the law firm of Flaherty and Hood, of Winona, described on its website as “Minnesota’s leader in law and legislative advocacy.”

Tuma and Thamert would have the firm create performance improvement plans for employees on the “list,” knowing that the goals were unattainable, multiple employees said.

One former employee claimed to have heard attorney Brandon Fitzsimmons ask, “do we want this person in this role, or do we want to push them out?”

Fitzsimmons did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The city’s answer to his question, though, would dictate what the PIP would require from the employee.

Flaherty and Hood would then draft a document “outlining the failures,” and the document was presented to the employee.

The employee would be allowed to leave on their own “in good standing” and receive their vacation payout if they sign the document immediately, the former employee said.

“We all signed it,” she said, “so it looks like we all just quit. You don’t have a choice.”

Not so, said Tuma.

“When an employee still isn’t meeting expectations and termination is likely,” she said, “that employee still has the choice to resign rather than be terminated… The choice to resign always belongs to the employee.”

‘Incredibly unprofessional’

Former City Administrator Kris Busse had a nickname for Tuma, stemming from her days as the director of the parks and rec department: Big Bucks Tuma.

Several current and former employees confirmed the moniker, apparently used as a good-natured jab.

“We’d be sitting in a meeting and Busse was like, ‘oh, here comes Big Bucks Tuma’ in front of all of us,” one woman said.

When asked who else might know about the nickname, the reply was “nearly everyone in city hall.”

The name-calling went both ways, employees told the Times.

“Jenna had terrible (nick)names for everybody,” a former employee said, “and she made fun of everybody – including (city) council members.”

“She definitely has a captive audience with the council,” another employee said. “She’d often say, ‘they’ll do what I tell them to do.’”

But it was another alleged incident that multiple employees said was a turning point for them.

It involved a sympathy card – reportedly signed by Tuma, Thamert, HR Director Rachel Boss and Tricia Notch, administrative coordinator – mocking the termination of a city employee planned for that morning.

“They thought it was so funny,” one employee said. “They were all in on it to the point where they bought a sympathy card because they thought that would be hilarious.”

Tuma and Thamert presented the card to the department the employee would be leaving, “and they were both smiling and laughing,” another woman said. “It was incredibly unprofessional.”

“All of them knew, and it made me sick,” a third employee said. “It was disgusting.”

Reactions to accusations

When asked specifically about the alleged name-calling and the sympathy card, Tuma referenced data privacy laws, but said “the conduct you've described is not something I recognize and not consistent with the standards we expect or the culture we're building in Owatonna.

“More broadly,” she said, “the City holds itself and its employees to a high professional standard and takes any concerns seriously. If any City employee has concerns about workplace conduct, we encourage them to raise those concerns through the appropriate channels so they can be reviewed.”

Council President Raney reiterated that he is “not involved in personnel issues. Even if I was familiar with what you are describing, for privacy reasons I could not comment on issues like this.”

Brent Svenby, councilor for the Fifth Ward, had a stronger response when told of the alleged incident with the sympathy card.

“If that did happen, I’d be pretty upset about that,” he said. “That’s not right.”

Raney intimated that the turnover and subsequent allegations are part of city growth.

“Change like this isn't always easy, but the Council believes it's essential to building a stronger City for both employees and residents,” he said in a statement. “We know that turnover in staffing can draw some attention. That's expected, and it isn't unusual.

“What I don't accept is the suggestion that departments or specific individuals are being unfairly singled out,” Raney said. “I don't believe that's an accurate picture in Owatonna.

“As a council, our goal for the City is to continue to strengthen accountability and improve the City’s performance,” he said, “and we expected that direction would bring change.”

Svenby said he would listen to the claims, if asked.

“I wish people would reach out to me if they have stories to tell me,” he said.

None of the employees who spoke to the Times contacted members of the city council about their specific concerns.

O-Town Crisis Investigation At Glance

This is the second in a series of stories planned by the Steele County Times about employee turnover and changes at the City of Owatonna. The Times was approached by several people, including current and former employees, about leadership concerns, which sparked this investigation. We are providing anonymity to the employees who wanted to share their stories but say they fear retaliation – even former employees. The Times knows the identities and has verified their employment and roles with the city.