Back in September we wrote our blog All in The Family which was about Nepotism which is the practice among those with power or influence to favor, show bias, or give preferential treatment to relatives, friends, and close associates. Most companies have rules or policies about Nepotism in the workplace, including the City of Frisco.
The Employee Code of Conduct policy regarding Nepotism in the city has been the same since 2006. That is why we were intrigued in 2023 when we noticed the city made changes to the policy two times in a matter of months. Why did they change it? The reason for the change can be found in a memo from Lauren Safranek, Director of Human Resources. After reading the reason for the change it led us start investigating recent new hires and the possible relationships they had to someone in the city which you can read about in our September blog.
Several commented that we were making something out of nothing when in fact it was exactly what we suspected. The city was changing the Nepotism Policy in order to hire Interim Fire Chief, Lee Glover. On September 14, 2023, we filed PIR that stated we wanted all communications via email between city officials (for example HR, city manager’s office, and city council) regarding the change to the Nepotism Policy from 1/1/2022 to Present. Also, any emails regarding Lee Glover and Nepotism. We received a note back from the city saying they have released a few documents but that some of them were confidential and therefore they sent it to the Attorney General for an opinion.
What could be that confidential about a Nepotism Policy that a city would need to send to the AG? If you are willing to go on record and change the policy then why not be open and share why you want to change the policy? According to the letter the city sent to the AG they claimed a portion of the info contains confidential attorney-client information which was not intended to be disclosed to 3rd parties. Furthermore, a portion of the info involves interagency or intraagency communications which were intended to remain confidential.
This is where we have a huge problem with the city’s explanation and AG request. How can the city get a request or for an item, then go to a council meeting, have a discussion in executive session, come out and vote to release confidential HR documents on a retired employee who is under a gag order and is actively running as a political opponent against Mayor Cheney? Please note while Cheney recused himself from the vote 4 of the city council members who participated in the vote had already publicly endorsed Mayor Jeff Cheney. How is this is okay, but we can’t release documents about a Nepotism Policy? Why can’t the council vote to release the documents we requested? Are you telling me there is something SO CONFIDENTIAL in a discussion about policy change that it must be hidden from the public?
We went through the items the city “released” to us and the most exciting thing we found was the alert Dana Baird, Director of Communications received from our Twitter Post on September 13, 2023. However, the rest of it is just copies of the memos and policy changes. All we could do at that point was wait patiently for the AG to give their opinion to see if they would release the rest of the documents. We learned on 12/29/23 via an email from the city that the AG had ruled that the city may withhold the information they claimed to be confidential.
I am sure the city was very excited to learn they could withhold the rest of the Nepotism documents. That’s okay, because as you know we file many PIRs and early this year we filed one on Lee Glover which included an interesting email. We were sitting on a chain of emails waiting to see the AG’s response to the Nepotism PIR. The email subject line read “NEPOTISM” dated March 8,, 2023, that was from Lauren Safranek, HR Director sent to Wes Pierson, City Manager.
The initial email to Wes simply has a link to the Nepotism Policy. Wes Pierson replied to her a short time later asking her to clarify the following: 1) Interim Fire Chief Lee Glover has learned that he now has (as of when) a second cousin working in Frisco’s planning department. 2) Your understanding of our nepotism policy is that Lee would be ineligible to apply for the open Fire Chief position because of his relative who is now employed by the City (regardless of the fact that the relative works in another department and there is no reporting relationship). He ends with, am I correct?
Lauren replies that evening to Wes and said: Wes, As of October 2022, Lee Glover’s second cousin has worked for the City of Frisco as a Planner I in Development Services. Currently, as interim Chief, I would not consider this a violation of the nepotism policy. However, regarding your second question, the policy states: The hiring, transfer, and/or promotion, of Identified Employees shall not be allowed, even in different departments, if that action results in a violation of this Policy and/or creates a conflict of interest, or the appearance of a conflict of interest for the City as determined by the City Manager and/or his/her designee. When any relationship prohibited under this Policy and/or that constitutes a conflict of interest exists, the City reserves the right to take appropriate action to eliminate the violation, which may result in action being taken up to, and including termination.
Therefore, while Lee can apply for the Fire Chief position, the policy indicates he cannot be promoted because it would create a violation of the policy since the policy states that No Identified Employees of a Department Director may be employed by the City of Frisco after the effective date of this policy. We could enact Section V. Procedures which would allow 30 days for a resolution or the City terminates the employees with the least seniority. Identified employees are employees related within the prohibited level of consanguinity and/or affinity, a cohabitant or a roommate, as specified in the policy. I hope this answers your question. Please let me know if you have any questions.
After the communication on March 8, 2023, Lauren Safranek requested a change to the Nepotism Policy at the April 4, 2023 city council meeting which you can read about in this memo here. In a nutshell Lauren requested the Nepotism policy be revised to remove the Third Degree of consanguinity (blood). Her reason, “In today’s job market, by going as far as the Third Degree of consanguinity, we may lose the opportunity to consider some possible dedicated employees.” What she means is “if we don’t change it we cannot hire LEE GLOVER.” Obviously, this is probably what the city intended to hide from us went they sent it to the Attorney General!
It was clear in March and April 2023; the city had every intention to change the policy to hire Lee Glover! So, why did they spend money to hire an agency to do a search for a new fire chief? Also why did they do the dog and pony show of “MEET THE CANDIDATES” for the Frisco Fire Chief position, on June 1st? Does the city really think it is fair to these candidates to let them believe they even had an opportunity. These dedicated first responders took time out of their schedule and away from their job to interview, travel, and meet the public. The reality they were never going to get the job, the decision had already been made.
For all of those saying we are grasping at straws we have proven again that the city is
1) Breaking The Law because they did not include this email in our original PIR which clearly asked for emails regarding Nepotism & Lee Glover.
2) We said the city changed the policy to hire Lee Glover and the response from many is “oh the city would never do that” … BUT THEY DID EXACTLY THAT AND THE EMAIL BETWEEN LAUREN AND WES PROVES IT!
3) The fact the request to change the Nepotism came just 2 ½ weeks after their email communication and basically solved their problem, it only doubles down the confirmation we were correct.
4) The city changed the policy to hire someone and they have used the same policy to disqualify others in the past. It is not fair to change the policy at whim or when it suits you. That is not why polices are in place.
In closing we find it very interesting what the city deems confidential and not confidential. They will vote to release confidential information on a political opponent but they won’t vote to release the documents regarding the decision to change the NEPOTSIM POLICY? This is our plea to Mayor Cheney and the council to vote to release the documents for all the PIRS we have. Stop hiding behind the AG because it is clear every time you have something to hide and that is why something smells like SHIT in Frisco!
To see the full documents of the snap shots included, click here!
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