‘Unstable environment’: Number of leaders quitting Wyandotte County worries commission
Employee Appreciation Week started Monday in Wyandotte County.
But this week, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, has seen turnover among top employees, with two department heads resigning in one day. A total of three have left this month.
It started Sept. 1, with Kathleen VonAchen, the chief financial officer, announcing she was leaving. Then this week, Katherine Carttar, the economic development director, and Rob Richardson, the director of development coordination and customer service success, resigned.
Richardson’s last day is Oct. 3, while Carttar’s is Oct. 7 and VonAchen’s is Dec. 15.
The departures worried several commissioners who spoke to The Star over the past few days. A few were taken by surprise when they received the resignation letters. One believes the Unified Government might have a toxic workplace.
All four of the commissioner The Star spoke with said that the departures, and the questions they raise about what is happening at the Unified Government, will impact the ability to fill the latest vacancies and other positions that were already open.
“I think we’re facing a difficult time culturally and there’s an issue with employee morale,” said Commissioner Angela Markley, District 6.
“The language and the way that UG employees are treated from the dais and from other elected officials and from folks on the dais probably plays a role,” said Commissioner Andrew Davis, District 8.
“I’m hoping it’s not due to the conflict that is happening publicly between the commission and the mayor and all of these assessments,” added Commissioner Christian Ramirez, District 7. “And how strong-willed he (the mayor)is to change things without thinking about what are the ramifications.”
Mayor Tyrone Garner and interim County Administrator Cheryl Harrison-Lee did not respond to emailed questions about the resignations Thursday or Friday.
In a video tweeted Friday, Garner thanked all the Unified Government employees for employee appreciation week.
“I want to say thank you, continue doing the fine work that you do, know that we’re going to continue to stand with you,” Garner said.
‘They do the work’
VonAchen has said she resigned because the budget office was moved away from the oversight of the finance department which she oversees. The move was done without her input and she said it did not match the job responsibilities that she had been hired for in February 2016.
Even though the Kansas Bureau of Investigation sought her emails, among other records, when it executed a search warrant at City Hall on Aug. 3 as part of a theft investigation, VonAchen said that played no role in her decision to leave. She has said she is not under investigation.
Carttar, in her resignation letter, did not give a reason for leaving. The Star has not seen Richardson’s resignation letter because the Unified Government has not made it available yet in response to a public records request filed Friday.
Both declined to comment.
Carttar’s departure comes one month after Garner publicly chastised her and the economic development staff for not attending a four-hour development presentation put together by Garner and his economic development advisor LaVert Murray — who is not on the economic development staff.
But Carrtar was not asked to participate in the Aug. 11 presentation, which confused commissioners. Harrison-Lee also was not involved.
After Garner’s criticism, Markley told Garner it was disrespectful and offensive to deride the staff after they had not been invited.
Markley, who has been a commissioner since 2012, said the only time she can remember seeing a comparable number of people leaving was around 2014, when previous County Administrator Doug Bach was appointed to replace longtime administrator Dennis Hays.
The difference in those resignations, Markley pointed out, was that they came from people who were already close to retirement age.
But it still had an effect.
“It took a while to get all those positions filled but it was a fairly smooth transition,” Markley said.
Commissioners also said the daily operations of the local government would not be possible without the more than 2,000 staffers that work there.
“A local government is a service organization at its heart and service organizations are built on people,” said Commissioner Brian McKiernan, District 2. “Employees are critical because they are the ones who do the heavy lifting. They do the work of running the city and county, so we have to have good ones.”
Added Davis, “Even a policy or a budget, none of that means anything if we do not have the individuals, the organizations, the teams to operationalize what we do as elected officials.”
Future impact
Commissioners have two worries about the future:
Will there be more resignations?
If so, how will they fill them?
Some of the resignations have caught them entirely by surprise. And generally, they do not want to speculate as to why three department heads have left. McKiernan said they the commissioners would conduct exit interviews with all three people who are leaving to see if there is a common reason behind the resignations or if it’s just a coincidence.
But they all agree this could affect the hiring process.
“I would think that anyone who’s going to apply is going to ask hard questions: ‘What’s going on?’ McKiernan said. “And they’re going to think, ‘How is this going to affect me?’ before they accept a job.”
The Unified Government will also lose another top official soon: Harrison-Lee’s contract is scheduled to end April 1. The government is in the middle of a search for a permanent administrator — which will be its third administrator in 15 months. From 1997 to earlier this year, the Unified Government had two administrators: Hays and Bach.
Commissioners say they can try and do more to help boost employee morale — speaking up during commission meetings and making sure workers feel they are valued. But if more resignations follow in the next few weeks or months, the preception will not get better.
“It’s going to viewed as an undesirable place to work — an unstable environment,” Ramirez said. “And I just don’t want that for the Unified Government. And, unfortunately, it’s going towards that way.”
