What do you think of when you hear the word Human Resources?  Are you one of those who thinks HR is your friend, and they are there to help you manage workplace misconduct and other issues?  Maybe you fall on the other end of the spectrum and think HR is the hidden devil in the workplace and they are there to protect the company…not you.  If you have ever seen the movie Up in The Air then you know Ryan Bingham, played by George Clooney, lives a life of constant travel and is a corporate downsizer.    What is that?  His job is to look at employees face-to-face and fire them delicately.   In one scene he says “Natalie, what is it you think we do here?”  Natalie replies, “We prepare the newly unemployed for the emotional and physical hurdles of job hunting while minimizing legal blow-back.”  Ryan looks at her and says, “That’s what we’re selling.  It’s not what we are doing.  We are here to make limbo tolerable, to ferry wounded souls across the river of dread until the point where hope is dimly visible.  And then stop the boat, shove them in the water, and make them swim.”    Does any of their conversation sound like they are there for the employees, of course not!

After talking with several whistleblowers and reading the exit interview notes we filed a few PIRs, one specifically asked for information on the Job Descriptions and any complaints made regarding them being changed without approval.  Interestingly we got back a document titled Case 64 – Hotline Web and it was titled “Falsification of Contracts Reports or Records.”   We immediately knew Porter was on to something in his comments to Wes Pierson in the exit interview. 

What was Case 64 about to unveil?  Well, in the snapshot it says the call come in on 5/29/2023.   The report goes on to identify the caller as an employee, who chose to remain anonymous.  Under a section called “Case Information” it lists several questions the caller had to answer.

Question One:  Please identify the person(s) engaged in this behavior:  The caller identified HR Director,  Lauren Safranek,  HR Department, Lori Rutland, and Assistant Fire Chief, Lee Glover. 

Question Two: Do you suspect or know that  a supervisor or management is involved?  The caller identified Deputy City Manager, Henry Hill.

Question Three: What is the general nature of this matter?  The caller said HR Director, Lauren Safranek and Assistant Chief, Lee Glover have repeatedly altered documents to protect their personal job performance measurements and personal initiatives.  Example of this include forcing employees to secretly alter job descriptions without notifying employees, deceptively altering policies without staff involvement, requiring employees to falsify signatures, taking actions to deliberately undermine employee grievance / complaint processes, and making slanderous statements of other Supervisors to facilitate personal gain.

Question Four: What do you estimate the monetary value of this matter to be?  The caller said anywhere from $250,000 to $499,999 USD.

Question Five: Where did this incident or violation occur?  The caller said FD Job Descriptions, FD Reports, Workers Compensation Policies, Termination Letters, Investigation involvement with a conflict of interest.

Question Six: Please provide the specific or approximate time this incident occurred?  The caller said 2020 to 2023.

Question Seven: How did you become aware of this violation?  The caller states they accidentally found a document or file.

Question Eight:  Please identify any persons who have attempted to conceal this problem and the steps they took to conceal it.   The caller states City Manager, Wes Pierson, Deputy City Manager, Henry Hill, HR Director Lauren Safranek, Assistant or Fire Chief Lee Glover, and HR Lori Rutland worked together to hide their various actions.  It asked for details to which the caller said multiple staff and previous employees have been impacted by these actions and are aware they took place.

If you are anything like us our jaws dropped wide open, we could not believe what we were reading.  We had to read it a few times and each time we asked why would an employee take a risk to make these accusations with the possibility they could be identified.  This gave a new light to the Porter’s exit interview.

Then we noticed the report section titled “Assignments & Access” and it listed the case assignee(s) as none.  Then it reads restricted access and lists Henry Hill.  Then it has the case access list which names Hector Quiroga and Jacinta Shanks.  It made us wonder what restricted access means.  Was Henry Hill the only person with access or the only person restricted so he had no access to the complaint?  If restricted access means no access, then why are Lauren Safranek, Lori Rutland, and Lee Glover also listed as well as they are named in the complaint?  

There were no case notes, no synopsis, and no outcomes listed.  Do you think they even investigated the claims made by the caller?  Do you think this should have been reviewed by an independent third party since it involved city management?  Remember in our blog about the ethics complaints the city attorney could not investigate as they are paid for by the city, to protect the city.  Most of those in upper management have been there awhile and are probably too friendly with each other to be objective. The reality is these are very serious accusations and if true could leave the city open to potential lawsuits and if it happened the city should be firing several people from the top down. 

We were determined to go through all the items now in our PIRs and start putting together a timeline from 2020 to 2023 to see what we could uncover.  In our next blog we plan to lay out the timeline and our theory supported by evidence of what we believe happened.  Our guess, you will be shocked!