A push by Commissioner Alison Hamilton has put unresolved employee grievance complaints against Commission Chair John Johnson, above, on the agenda for the commission meeting on Monday, Feb. 3. The discussion is expected to be held behind closed doors because it is a personnel issue. (Journal file photo)
By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – At the end of the Linn County Commission meeting on Monday, Jan. 27, Commissioner Alison Hamilton said that she would like to put an executive session on next week’s agenda to meet with Linn County Treasurer Janet Kleweno and Linn County Register of Deeds Kristy Schmitz.
County Clerk David Lamb asked what their justification was for the executive session.
Commissioner Jason Hightower said that he thought it fell into the non-elected personnel category because it was about four employee grievances that were filed more than a year ago.
Hamilton asked Johnson if had read the grievance procedures.
“Yes, I’ve read them,” Johnson responded. “Been a while, but I have read them.”
In a phone interview on Jan. 29, Lamb said that the county grievance policy had “no teeth” to it if a grievance were filed against an elected official like a commissioner. According to Lamb, elected officials can just brush off results of a grievance because they are elected officials.
The only things that can actually be done when an elected official is acting unprofessionally or harassing employees is to file an ouster or petition for a recall.
Kleweno and Schmitz were on a committee headed by former commissioner Danny McCullough that was designated to review several grievances filed by employees. A law firm was hired to look into the grievances and apparently gave a report to the grievance board. But no decisions or recommendations were ever presented to the commissioners or the employees by this committee.
While the names of two of the employees – former economic development director Jessica Hightower and Public Works Director Shaun West – came out in commission meetings, the two other employees who filed grievances were not named. All grievances were filed against Commissioner Jim Johnson.
Because one grievance was filed against Johnson by the wife of another commissioner, it was obvious that Jessica Hightower filed had filed the grievance. Gary Thompson, the county counselor at that time advised both Johnson and Hightower that they could not sit on the grievance board.
West’s grievance, because it resulted from the same incident as the grievance filed by Jessica Hightower, was lumped into this same grievance.
According to the county policy’s grievance policy, “In no case, however, will this grievance board be comprised of less than two commissioners.” That policy was ignored.
And no separate grievance board that should have included two commissioners, which would have been McCullough and Jason Hightower, was ever formed for the other two grievances which were filed a later time.
Thompson also pointed out that both he and Lamb had witnessed the incidents and should not sit on that committee. That left former commissioner Danny McCullough, who had not been at the specified meeting, to be on the grievance committee.
At the Aug. 7, 2023 meeting, Jason Hightower, who was at that time commission chair, followed Thompson’s recommendation on how to handle the situation and made the following motion:
1) Authorized the county clerk, as the chief personnel officer, to retain an outside firm to investigate the grievances and make recommendations to the grievance board,
2) Authorized the creation of a special grievance board made up of the county Commissioner who is not conflicted out and two elected officials who are not involved in the matter, and to authorize McCullough to recruit two elected officials to serve with McCullough on the special grievance board,
3) Authorized the special grievance board to receive the results of the investigation and make the final decision regarding the grievances, and
4) Acknowledged that Johnson and Jason Hightower have been recused from further action on these grievances. McCullough seconded the motion. The motion passed 2-1 with Johnson voted “no.”
Because there was no answer to the grievance, on June 17, 2024 West told the commission that, based on the 11-month process with no results on the grievances and the continued behavior and alleged harassment of employees by Johnson, he had delivered a Complaint of Ouster against the commissioner to the Linn County Attorney’ office.
That ouster case remains open with the county attorney’s office pending an investigation by the by the Kansas Attorney General’s office. If the county attorney finds cause for the ouster, Johnson would be suspended pending a court hearing on the charges.
Other county officials also have either refused to take phone calls from Johnson reporting that he is harassing them.
At the Feb. 13, 2023 commission meeting, the previous Sheriff Kevin Friend told the commissioners why he had stopped coming to commission meetings.
Friend said, “Because I was treated bad, and I don’t go where I am treated bad. I have no need to be there. It’s my personal mission.”
Jessica Hightower resigned effective as of Aug. 9, 2024 after months of being the target of Johnson’s anger after her husband was voted in as commissioner.
Johnson had made motions to fire her several times because he considered her working for the county while her husband was commissioner as nepotism.
However, early in Jason Hightower’s term in office, the commission followed the advice of Thompson to place Jessica Hightower’s position under West’s supervision as public works administrator to ensure that her husband was not her direct supervisor.
In the July 31, 2023 meeting, Johnson had said that Jason put the county in a difficult position because he (Johnson) and McCullough are at odds on everything. He said they shouldn’t be in this situation.
At the meeting, Johnson told Jason, “I did not do what you did to me. You did it to the whole county by doing what you did,” apparently referring to Jason Hightower’s running for office.
Johnson complained at the October 2, 2023 that the Hightowers had disrupted the county business and flow chart.
Comments