Jackson County legislator dismisses misconduct investigation as personal vendetta
.png "Jackson County District 1 Legislator Manny Abarca (left) and County Executive Frank White Jr. (right)")
Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. and First District Legislator Manny Abarca don’t get along and haven’t for much of the two years that Abarca has been a member of the Jackson County Legislature. That long-running feud, at least according to Abarca, is the underlying reason why White is now investigating Abarca’s behavior in office.
In a March 26 letter to Abarca and his eight colleagues on the county’s elected governing board, White announced that he was initiating “a comprehensive, independent investigation” of Abarca’s alleged mistreatment of county employees.
“Over the past several months, my office has received numerous reports from associates describing unprofessional, hostile, and demeaning conduct by Legislator Manuel Abarca,” White wrote. “These concerns came to a head this past weekend, when one of our associates received an email from Legislator Abarca that was both inappropriate and threatening.”
Abarca claims that White’s characterization of that email and his overall treatment of county employees is overblown and said he welcomes a full investigation.
“I think he intentionally wants to create this idea that I’m this terrible person, and therefore all of my actions are motivated and predicated off of being upset at staff and harassing them,” Abarca told The Star.
What Abarca is trying to do, he said, is hold White and the people who work for him accountable to the taxpayers on issues such as property tax reassessment.
The latest example of that was on Monday, Abarca said, when he grilled the county’s head of parks and recreation about what Abarca said was an instance where parks workers were put in danger while digging a trench without property shoring.
“If he’s … upset that we’re holding her accountable for creating an unsafe work environment as a complaint, then that’s, that’s transparency, that’s not hostile work environment,” Abarca said “But okay, he can, he can go and do whatever he wants, obviously.”
Declared an ‘emergency’
What White wants is to hire outside counsel to investigate whether Abarca’s treatment of county employees has crossed a line. Is Abarca holding the county accountable or acting like a bad boss whose actions might prompt employees to quit or file lawsuits against the county?
In announcing the investigation, White announced that he was declaring “an emergency,” which gives him the power to pay that outside investigator without getting approval from county legislators first. Abarca is part of the five-member majority faction of the legislature that has been at odds with White on a variety of issues since they took office in January 2023.
White has declined comment on the investigation, but in his letter he says that “threatening” March 22 email was just the latest in a series of troubling interactions between Abarca and county staff.
“The message included personal attacks, demands unrelated to the associate’s responsibilities, and an explicit threat to pursue the elimination of her role through the County’s budget process,” he wrote.
The Star put in a request for a copy of that email through the county’s public records portal on Sunday and as of Wednesday had received no response.
But Abarca volunteered to provide a copy of that email and the string of emails that proceeded it.
It concerned Abarca’s request through his legislative aide that a witness be provided a video link so that she could appear remotely before the legislature’s Public Works Committee, which he chairs.
The county’s head of communications was copied on an email on the 22nd, which was a Saturday, from Abarca’s aide to the witness. The aide said that a Microsoft Teams link would be created and forwarded to the witness so she could appear on camera, and the aide implied that the county’s head of communications would arrange that.
An hour later, the communications head, who The Star is not naming because she is not a public figure, replied that she does not create the Teams links. Someone in the IT department does that, she wrote, and provided Abarca’s aide with that person’s name.
Three hours later, the head of information technology wrote back, saying he would make sure the witness got a Teams link in time for the meeting that Monday.
What the email said
But in the interim, Abarca wrote an email addressed to him and the communications head expressing his frustration. That’s the email that Abarca said sparked White’s call for an investigation.
Minus the names of the heads of IT and communications, this is that email in its entirety with none of the misspellings or grammar corrected:
“I would like to request a stagnant link for every meeting. We are all professionals here and it is ridiculous that elected members of the legislature have to beg for a basic operational functions.
“(Comms head), if you and your staff want to continue to be difficult every step of the way for basic functions of operations than it is clear that we, the legislature need to make a change and eliminate the necessity of your staff’s involvement in our legislative meeting.
“I am exhausted by it being so challenge to the execute basic operations and in no government I have worked in yet has leadership been so challenging and disrespectful to elected officials. I don’t need you to remind me when my meeting is, I need you to make sure any one of us, at any point has a functioning link to log in to a meeting and that if I chose to have a presentation I don’t need a week’s notice to plug it in. If you can’t figure out a change in approach, I will gladly ensure changes are made through this cursory budget process.
“Save any response for a meeting in person if you desire.
“Thanks,
Manny Abarca”
What’s next
In his letter to the legislature, White said the county’s personnel rules require that county employees be treated with respect and asked that the legislature “implement mandatory anti-harassment and respectful workplace training for all legislators and legislative staff.”
He also wants the legislature to have written standards of conduct for interactions with county employees.
And he issued his own threat of sorts:
“At this time, I have decided not to pull county staff from supporting legislative operations,” he wrote. “However, I must be clear: if the investigation reveals a continuing hostile environment, or if the Legislature fails to take appropriate corrective action, I will take any and all necessary steps to protect our associates -- including reassigning or withdrawing staff from direct support roles.”
In an interview, Abarca said he is confident the investigation will clear him of the improprieties that White has alleged against him.
But he doesn’t how this will all end up, should the investigation go forward.
“I think it’s going to be prudent for me to both legally defend myself, if I have to, or figure out where we’re going with this,” Abarca said. “This is unprecedented. We don’t know how this will go forward.”
