Day 3: Case 64 & HR Malfeasance

by | Dec 22, 2023 | City Council, Frisco Fire Chief Lee Glover, HR Case 64 - HR Malfeasance, HR Department, Lauren Safranek, Politics

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! 

Day 2: The Exit Interview: Pierson & Porter

by | Dec 21, 2023 | Frisco Fire - Climate Survey / ICMA, Frisco Fire Chief Lee Glover, Frisco Fire Department, HR Case 64 - HR Malfeasance, HR Department, Lauren Safranek, Politics, Wes Pierson

Whistleblowers come in many forms.  If we had to describe ours we would say they are like Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.  Recently one of our six geese-a-laying tipped us off to another high-ranking Frisco FD fire fighter who gave notice to retire.  

Jeromy Porter is a 27-year fire service veteran.  Most recently he served as Deputy Chief with the Frisco Fire Department.  In 1996, Porter joined the Lake Cities Fire Department where he spent most of his years and climbed the rank to Deputy Chief.  We asked ourselves why would a man with man years left retire now?  Then we saw an announcement in Star Local Media that Jeromy Porter was now the Assistant Fire Chief for The Little Elm Fire Department.   That made us ask, why would a man retire then go another city?  We wanted to know if he did an exit interview so asked some insiders at city hall who told us yes, he did.  We filed a PIR with the city to obtain those records and when we received them, well  we were not disappointed.

We received a copy of the City Manager, Wes Pierson’s handwritten notes from the exit interview.  At the very top it is dated 9/27 and has his name and initials next to it.  Wes writes JP doesn’t want to leave but his relationship with Fire Chief, Lee Glover is unsustainable.  Then we note 3 bullet points down the page.

The first point is titled Job Description Issue (preferred vs required).  Pierson notes Porter said the job descriptions were changed without approval.  On the side Pierson writes When, How and Why and we are guessing those were his internal questions or notes to himself. 

We had heard rumors that some shady stuff was happening in HR but we still were perplexed by Porters comments.  We went back to some of those who had reached out to us earlier from inside the city to ask more specific questions and the responses were eye opening.  It started us on a new quest of digging.

The second point is titled Lee Glover.  Pierson writes that for over 9 years Lee Glover has constantly insulted him, belittled him, made jokes on his height.  It also goes on to say Glover yelled and cussed at staff and that he would flex.  We asked an insider what “Flex” might mean she told us that Glover would Flex like he was going to shove or hit someone to intimidate them.   Pierson notes that Porter was concerned about leaving because Glover may retaliate and go after his son who is a 3 Year Firefighter with the City of Frisco.

Are we surprised by Porters claims?  No!  In a previous blog we told you about the City of Frisco, Fire Department Employee Climate Survey done in the fall of 2011.  It noted in the survey that this was the FOURTH one done over the PAST 10 YEARS.  Why would a city need to do so many climate surveys?  The firefighters felt that unless Chief Mack Borchardt and his entire Senior Staff, which included (drum roll) Lee Glover were replaced with someone from the outside, there was no way to correct the issues.  The report said from the top down they ruled with things like a temper, iron fist, and threats.  In 2023, a recent survey was done by the Fire Fighters Association and over 200 fire fighters gave Glove a vote of no confidence, so not much has changed since 2011.

The third point only confirmed what we already reported that our new Fire Chief, Lee Glover, has an alcohol problem.  Pierson writes 3. Drinking (only while traveling).  He writes JP claims that Vetterick, Owen and others felt peer pressure to stay and “close the bar.”  Based on the notes we are only assuming that Porter may have told then Fire Chief, Mark Piland about the incident because in Pierson’s notes it reads Piland (response).  Then there is a star symbol and a note it last happened at inspection of tiller and names the 3 fire fighters.  It is hard to read Pierson’s writing, but it looks like Gilliam, Odum and Dixon.

Here is what we find interesting about Porters exit interview with Pierson and his personal notes.  When it comes to point 3, we know of a July 2022 complaint about Lee Glover on a “travel trip” to inspect fire trucks and the names of those involved are different that those written in the exit interview notes.  So, it appears when we wrote about Groggy Lee Glovers behavior in a previous blog, we weren’t wrong!  It is called a pattern of behavior. 

In closing, we believe Jeromy Porter and that he is telling the truth in his comments. He is leaving and has no reason to lie and he left on a professional level. We sent an email to Porter however we have had no reply to our inquiry. What we are curious about is what did the City Manager, Wes Pierson do after this interview. Did he file the notes and act as if these issues don’t possibly exist? Did he start asking questions?

Stay Tuned to learn about Sassy Lauren Safraneks acts of possible Malfeasance!