UNREST AT WEST HILLS

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first 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 multiple 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.

Is it growing pains caused by changing and updating city processes, or is it a toxic workplace?

Owatonna’s city leaders say it’s the former; many of the two dozen fulltime employees who have left the city since Aug. 1, 2025, say it’s the latter.

Frontline staff report feeling ignored and overwhelmed by rapid policy changes implemented in the last year, resulting in plunging staff morale and quiet grievances.

Five department heads, of the 11 in place last year, are gone.

Longtime employees who hoped to retire from their roles are also gone. Some opted for an early retirement; others are job-hunting in their 40s and 50s.

The person saddled with the lion’s share of the blame is City Administrator Jenna Tuma.

After serving as the city’s Parks and Rec director for three years, she was named to the newly developed position of assistant city administrator in the summer of 2024. After a year in that spot, Tuma was hired as city administrator in July 2025 and assumed the role Aug. 8, 2025.

Expectations

In a written statement, Tuma addressed claims of excessive turnover, characterizing any workplace friction and employee departures as an expected, necessary byproduct of modernizing city processes and procedures.

“When the City Council hired me, the expectation was clear: Continue the momentum behind long-standing organizational improvements, move key projects forward and strengthen accountability so we can better serve our community,” Tuma said.

“Almost a year into serving as City Administrator, that work continues every day,” she said in response to the issue. “We’ve been focused on building a great team to meet a fundamental City goal: To create a better tomorrow for Owatonna.

City Council President Kevin Raney said it set out to hire someone with the experience and leadership “to modernize City operations and strengthen accountability. This work would include improving long-term planning, modernizing financial systems, and addressing challenges that have been built up over many years.”

He said he regularly hears good feedback, and has seen “City leadership holding people accountable, applying high expectations consistently, treating people fairly … and advancing the Council's priorities.”

Tuma said she encourages staff “to bring forward new ideas and feedback, including disagreement, because that’s how organizations get better. Like any organization, we’ve experienced staff turnover. We’ve also welcomed many talented new employees who have strengthened our team.”

She said the staff is “working through leadership changes, reflecting the expectations and standards the council asked for,” adding that “through this transition, most of our employees have embraced these expectations and are working hard every day to deliver great work.”

Tuma said that “holding ourselves accountable for how well we serve residents and use taxpayer resources is the culture we’re continuing to build.”

Staff reality

Not so, said several employees who reached out to the Steele County Times.

The people who spoke to the Times were a mixture of current and former employees, across multiple departments.

“The city has invested significantly in culture improvements over the past few years,” one former employee said, “and Jenna’s bullying leadership style has reversed the results that had been achieved through those efforts.”

Among the chief complaints was the appearance of favoritism, either promoting existing employees or “replacing” former employees with people Tuma chose.

“Jenna refuses to allow anyone to challenge her thinking or her plans,” the same employee said. “Several of the employees who were forced to resign or be terminated had expressed different ways of doing their jobs, or new approaches to their positions which, unless these were her ideas, Jenna opposed.”

Another former employee said she believes Tuma “is getting rid of all the people who care about Owatonna and putting people in place who she can control. People are walking on pins and needles,” the employee said.

About a dozen current employees agreed, most of them using the same “pins and needles” phrasing.

“People are afraid to ask any questions because they are afraid they will be next.”

A third employee said they believe “it’s all about power and control. (Tuma) is doing this for control and wants the recognition for what she is doing.”

Tuma said the city “does not tolerate retaliation against employees who raise concerns in good faith, and employees have multiple avenues to raise workplace concerns, including Human Resources, their supervisor, or City leadership directly.

“This is a period of real change, and change can be uncomfortable for people who preferred how things were before,” she said. “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.”

The numbers

The Times, through a public data request, obtained a list of city employees who had left their job between Aug. 1, 2025, and June 11, 2026.

It also obtained a list of city employees who began employment in a new job between those same dates.

The data provided included seasonal and part-time jobs; those were not considered as part of the Times’ figures for this series.

We used the same job titles in our comparisons, as well. For example, if we counted “officials” in the departures, we also counted “officials” in the hirings.

The City of Owatonna has about 145 full-time, permanent employees.

Comparing the lists reveals more hires than departures: 55 hires, compared to 36.

The largest swings were in the parks and rec department, where 33 were hired and 20 left; and in the role of coordinator: seven were hired and one left.

It should be noted: Some of the departures were planned retirements, others left for reasons not related to leadership.

“Roughly 20 employees have left over the past year or so, across multiple departments,” Raney said, off by more than a dozen. “That kind of turnover isn't attributable to any single cause or any one person's decisions. The council is kept informed of staffing changes through routine notifications of full-time hires and departures, and we review overall staffing levels as part of the City's annual budget process.”

He takes the oversight seriously, he said.

Director distribution

Losing nearly half of the city’s department heads, or directors, has fomented concerns among employees.

“Managers were disappearing and emails would come out that this person is no longer there,” a former employee said. “Nobody was aware these people were leaving.”

Since Aug. 1, 2025, the directors of the fire department, finance department, parks and rec department, facilities department and communications department have left.

Three of them said Tuma was directly responsible for their departure; one did not respond to a request for comment and the fifth declined to comment.

“We are raising the bar for what we expect from department leadership: strong performance, modernization, sound budget management, and a clear commitment to residents,” Tuma said. “Today, three of the City's nine department director positions are vacant, and two of those departments are being led by experienced interim leaders while recruitment is underway.”

The number of department directors has been reduced from 11 last year to nine.

The communications department no longer exists in its former capacity; the parks and rec department has been combined with the library department.

The three vacancies Tuma cited are the fire department, the finance department and the newly created facilities/fleet department.

Council President Raney acknowledged that “a few department directors have left the organization.”

He went on to say it’s “a reality any city council should anticipate when organizational culture starts to have more accountability. What I disagree with, and disagree with forcefully, is the idea that this reflects a toxic environment or a campaign targeting particular departments.”

Both he and Tuma said a city the size of Owatonna will compete with other communities for talent, no matter who’s leading it.

“Some departures reflect people choosing not to meet the new expectations; others reflect retirement or unrelated personal decisions,” Raney said. “Throughout these transitions, department operations have continued without disruption to residents.”

Resign or be fired

Several former employees told the Times they were presented with a “resign or be fired” document to sign, claiming they had not been previously disciplined for any infractions.

“I was given the ‘opportunity’ to ‘voluntarily resign’ immediately or else the City Administrator would have the option to fire me at will,” one employee said. “I had already seen the emerging pattern and did not have the energy to resist.”

All but one were allowed to claim their accrued paid time off, or PTO.

When asked if the accusation was true, Tuma said the city “follows personnel policies and industry best practices,” giving employees clear expectations and “a real chance to adjust and improve.”

That process, she said, could include coaching, counseling, training, a performance plan, written documentation of concerns and, when warranted, an investigation into alleged policy violations and potential discipline.

None of the employees who spoke to the Times received coaching or counseling, though a few admitted receiving a performance improvement plan – and little time to implement it.

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

The city’s policy allows payout of an employee’s accrued PTO balance when they leave employment, she said, “but if an employee fails to leave in good standing, it may be cause for the City denying the employee’s severance pay.”

Raney said he is not involved in personnel decisions, something Councilors Doug Voss and Brent Svenby also said.

“The council’s job is to hold the City Administrator accountable for outcomes, not to manage personnel matters ourselves, and that's exactly what we're doing,” Raney said.

“I have absolutely zero comment on anything to do with workforce or human resources or anything like that, so I will be of no use to you,” Voss said when asked for comment.

“I’m not aware of any issues,” Svenby said, “and we don’t know unless employees reach out and tell us. We’re not in there on the day-to-day operations of running the city; we handle policy. I wish employees would reach out to us.”

Professionalism

Current and former employees admitted they had not contacted members of the city council, to whom Tuma answers.

“Communication and trust? That has done nothing but erode since Jenna became in control,” a former employee said.

Another former employee said they had “maintained professional relationships with many City departments but, especially in the last years, I did not feel I could share much with anyone because I did not trust the environment.”

Raney said he sees the staff treating each other with “professionalism and respect. When I walk through City Hall, I see positive interactions and a team that is deeply committed to the City’s purpose and values and how they serve our residents.

“What I do think is happening is people are adjusting to higher expectations and real accountability for staff and for how this administration operates,” he said.

An employee has a different perspective:

“Everyone hopes they can stay in their corner and not garner any attention from Jenna. They want to be left alone to do their jobs,” they said.

“As council president, part of my job is to ask hard questions and hold the City Administrator accountable, and I, along with my fellow councilmembers, do exactly that,” Raney said. “What I can tell you … is that I stand behind and am very excited about the direction the City is headed and the people leading it. A handful of departures and a few disputed accounts don't change that.”

When asked if employees trusted city leadership – whether administrative employees or city council members – to make changes, the employees were firm.

“No. Certainly neither,” one said. “It used to be a good ol’ boys’ club. Now it’s an autocracy.”