Reactions to terminations vary with perspective

There are as many reactions to the apparent upheaval at Owatonna City Hall as there are people who have heard about it.

Several former employees predicted city leadership, including city council members, would describe the recent staff turnover as “building your bench.”

“You have to get rid of the people who are not team players, and you build your bench with the players that you want, which means you fire everybody and you bring in whoever you want to be in those roles,” one woman said.

“To them, it’s good,” she said. “Like, ‘they didn’t belong here; they weren’t part of our culture; nobody likes them anyway; onto bigger and better things’ is the mentality.”

Members of the public may chalk it up to disgruntled employees lashing out against changes put into place by City Administrator Jenna Tuma.

There was, however, a common theme among the majority of the former employees who spoke to the Times:

“I don’t want anything out of this,” one said. “I just want Jenna stopped. I think what she is doing is wrong. People should not be scared all the time, worrying if they are going to get fired because they crossed their boss.”

One man said he came forward because “this truly just comes down to, we don’t want this to continue in the community that we love. I still live here; I have nothing to gain from talking about this – I just don’t want this to continue into the future.”

Yet another former employee acknowledged that “we’re all disposable, as employees. Nobody’s guaranteed anything, but I’ve never been in a place where you didn’t have somebody to be your cheerleader, and get you the things you need to do your job.”

Several also mentioned letting city residents know what was happening behind the scenes.

“I don’t know if the council is aware of the bleeding that has taken place in the last year,” one said. “It troubles me that they may not know there are so many people in management positions that have left. I don’t think the council knows about everyone that has left.”

Another woman said a couple of council members “came through city hall to ‘chit-chat’ with employees. I told them about multiple things, and I was told not to get discouraged and leave.”

City Council President Kevin Raney said one of its “most important jobs is to hire and oversee the city administrator. This council takes that responsibility seriously. City leadership has always been responsive to council direction and we work well with all city staff and have a relationship based on mutual respect.”

Tuma, the lightning rod for most of the concerns, said that “personnel decisions are based on performance, operational needs, conduct and the expectations that apply consistently across every department. In alignment with the City’s Better Together value, we operate as a team of diverse perspectives and talents working to create a better tomorrow for Owatonna.

“We support each other, listen to understand, and respectfully challenge each other – always recognizing and trusting that we will succeed more as a team than on our own,” she 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,” Tuma said.

A sixth former employee wasn’t convinced.

“Nothing will change unless the council wakes up,” he said, “but that probably won’t happen, either.”

O-Town Internal Crisis Series

This week: Insider view on work environment and allegations of unprofessional conduct by the administration

Last week: Overview of concerns about city leadership

Next week: Concerns about financial management