Back in the Carmel Angelo Era, management staffers who presented a problem for the peevish CEO were summarily given the heave-ho on the spot and nobody dared comment about it in open session. The target of Angelo’s abrupt terminations, mainly senior level “at will” employees, had no choice but to sue if they didn’t like it, fair or unfair. Some of them have sued; some of them have not. At least two of them still have wrongful termination cases pending, costing the County hundreds of thousands in legal fees.
But these days, without the volatile Angelo at the helm, things have become more muddled and unclear. And with Mumbler In Chief, County Counsel Christian Curtis basically running the show, everything is complicated by his “legal advice” to the Board which is generally um- and uh-infused versions of, “No, you can’t do that.”
On Tuesday, a clearly frustrated Supervisor Ted Williams brought forward an agenda item to try to address the management problem from a different angle: Revamp the County’s civil service rules to make it easier to terminate problematic managers.
Employees Union Rep Patrick Hickey was skeptical.
“I don’t know if the County is in the best position to make recommendations for improving the civil service commission based on its recent track record,” declared Hickey, stating outright what most observers were thinking. “What are you doing to supervise County management? The Board’s direct supervision of the Cannabis Department was a train wreck.”
Ouch. None of the Supervisors showed interest in following that one up.
Hickey went on: “We have a situation going on right now that you are all aware of. A manager who has threatened employees, lied to community members, violated labor law, and sent an e-mail to all staff saying that speaking to you, the Board of Supervisors, can be construed as both insubordination and a violation of the Brown Act.”
An email?! Apparently this particular manager has put her wrong-headed opinions in writing! So there’s a record of it.
Hickey: “This manager claims that this information and direction was provided by the County Counsel's office.”
Is that in writing too?
Hickey: “I hope that our County Counsel's office is not giving out this sort of dubious advice. If any front-line employee did a fraction of these things they would be put on administrative leave and investigated.”
Or terminated, we should add.
Hickey: “You all have received a petition from a majority of the staff of this department weeks ago. It details a long list of mismanagement. But so far, it appears that you have done nothing.”
“Nothing” is this Board’s stock in trade. At least Williams proposed some kind of amorphous civil service rule changes, but that won’t fix the immediate problem that Hickey is talking about, nor much else given the current state of County management.
Hickey: “If this is the kind of oversight and supervision that the Executive Office is providing to its department heads, we all have real cause to worry. Rather than violating labor law, how about working with your employees to move the county forward? Come to the table with ideas. Hold your management accountable. This current approach will only lead to unnecessary strife and disruption.”
The room full of employees erupted in cheers and applause. Nobody accused them of insubordination.
County Counsel Curtis did not deny Hickey’s “dubious advice” allegation, although he had plenty of opportunity. You’d think that if he had not given such bad advice to the “manager” in question he would have denied it on the spot.
The AVA has obtained a copy of the petition which Mr. Hickey referred to. The manager in question is Cultural Services Director Sarah Faber-Samson. The petition was signed by most of the employees in the County Library system under Faber-Samson’s Cultural Services Agency and was submitted to the Supervisors on June 2, 2023. The Cultural Services Agency is a good sized County department which includes the Library (with branches in Ukiah, Willits, Fort Bragg, Laytonville, Covelo, and Point Arena now), plus the County’s parks and the County Museum in Willits.
“Toxic Work Environment at our Mendocino County Libraries
We, the undersigned employees of the Mendocino County Public Library are writing to express our concerns about the toxic work environment that has developed at our libraries since the arrival of the Cultural Services Administration Director Deb Fader Samson.
The Mendocino County Library System is a vibrant and innovative community institution that provides a wide range of services throughout our county. Branches serve as important community gathering places and information hubs for many county residents. Library staff have been recognized for their creative and engaging programming that has expanded way beyond checking out books.
But since the arrival of the new Cultural Services Agency Director, staff has seen a dramatic change in the atmosphere and climate in the workplace. This has led to a dramatic drop in staff morale and has led some employees to leave. Here are some of the concerns that we have:
• Lack of communication.
• Lack of community engagement.
• Loss of trusted, valued, and experienced staff who have served for years due to her toxic “leadership.”
• Refusal to take constructive input and information from Branch Librarians. Characterizing questions and requests for clarification as “arguing with her.”
• Bullying of staff.
• Micromanaging and meddling in local branch issues that should be handled by staff.
• Disengagement and disinterest in library activities.
• Alienation of stakeholders and damage to the important relationship with the Friends of the Library groups throughout the county, including distribution of false information to the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.
• Lack of trust and unsatisfactory outcomes in director’s handling of patron behavior violations, creating an unsafe work environment for staff.
Therefore, we respectfully request that the CSA Director be put on a Corrective Action Plan and be provided with training, support and direction to improve her managerial skills and provide more engaged and more supportive leadership for library staff.”
In 2022 Ms. Fader-Samson received a base pay of about $112k per year plus other pay and benefits totaling about $169k per year.
According to her Instagram page Ms. Fader-Samson is “Library Director, Ohio State Alum, Univ. of So. Carolina Alum, Dog Mama, Aunt. Into reading, hiking, theater, interior design, art, and liberal politics.” In May of 2021 she was described as the “new” Director of the Mendocino County Library and Cultural Affairs Department. There was no formal announcement of her arrival as Mendocino County Director of Cultural Affairs at the time.
Seemingly unaware of the nature of the management problem, Supervisor John Haschak asked Williams why he agendized an item about improving the civil service commission and its processes.
Williams: “I’ve been told I’m not allowed to talk about personnel issues in open session. I would be happy to go through the chronology of what I have witnessed here. I think if the public saw it they would fill the room with outrage. I am trying to find a way to address the problem without getting the county in trouble. I think the best way to do it is to give direction to staff to bring back their ideas based on the problems that we've had in this county. What do they think are the changes in the management structure and potentially the civil service process that would allow them to have the tools to address this problem early where we wouldn't be paying big settlements and we wouldn't lose other employees? If they come back with nothing then there are not any problems. But time and again I've heard and I imagine we have all heard that we can't solve it; we have a difficult process because of civil service.”
Williams suggested aligning the County’s civil service policies with the state’s rules rather than “doing our own thing.” But, of course, such “alignment” — a process that would take years if it was even tried — would require County Counsel Curtis’s stamp of approval.
Supervisor Maureen Mulheren commented: “Since I have been a board member, there have been a handful of incidents with our employees that I am absolutely appalled about.”
Funny, Supervisor Mulheren’s Supervisorial facebook page, which includes frequent notices about how great it is to work for Mendocino County along with the usual Great Redwood Trail events and other Ukiah area cultural affairs activities, doesn’t mention any appalling incidents.
“Any colleagues that are not at appalled, that is up to them,” Mulheren continued, trying not to directly call out her fellow Supervisors. “However, I think we should revamp the rules so that we are able to release employees quickly if they have specific issues. I have not gone through our civil service rules to try to figure out how to do that. We are asking Human Resources to take a stab at that, aligning more with the state rules, that might be the most efficient way to do it.”
CEO Darcie ‘The Flexible’ Antle: “We can look into it. I know that County Counsel already has.”
Oh, we bet he has. And here we are.
Board Chair Glenn McGourty: “It sounds open-ended. Are you ok with that?”
Wait a minute. If it “sounds open ended,” shouldn’t the Board try to close it? Why ask the CEO if it’s ok, when it’s the Board’s responsibility?
CEO Antle: “Yes. We understand the intent.”
The intent, right. Sure. And it was left at that. The CEO might “look into it.” No target dates, no promises, no particulars, no names, no reporting back. No action taken about the Cultural Affairs Director.
Just as Mr. Hickey said: Nothing.
* * *
Supervisor Ted Williams told MendoFever’s Sarah Reith on Friday that he “did not receive the petition” signed by most of the County Library staffers complaining about County Cultural Affairs Director Deborah Fader-Samson, adding that the formal complaint that the Employees Union filed with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) was “the first he had ever heard of worker dissatisfaction at the library.” Williams also told Reith that workers can’t strike over the lack of a COLA, and that he believed that the union was using the library issue as a “wedge.” Williams wrote in a text message that, “Deb [Fader-Samson] was following legal advice, which is her duty, and the legal advice contained a typo. ‘Is’ vs ‘is not’.” Williams “clarified” that the mistaken legal advice came from County Counsel’s office, but not from Christian Curtis himself. Williams said he was “keeping an open mind” about the complaint, and that he “would like a fair process,” including education for everyone about the First Amendment. “Now we have this PERB charge,” he said; “and we’ll have to blow a bunch of public money.”
Williams also told Dave Brooksher of the Mendocino Voice that “I don’t find it to be much of a story.”
Williams made a big deal last Tuesday about how outraged the public would be if they knew what he knew about County management and how hard it is to terminate substandard managers.
To summarize: Supervisor Williams had not seen the complaint with its laundry list of issues the employees had with Ms. Fader-Samson — much more than just their questioning her bad legal advice. But that didn’t stop him from arrogantly dismissing the issue and from blurting out unsubstantiated and contradictory denials, claims, dubious labor law opinions, and lame excuses to the local media, concluding by saying that in his view the library employees exercising their right to complain about the problems they had with Ms. Fader-Samson amounted a waste of taxpayer money.
MS. Reith tactfully declined to mention that Supervisor Williams approves the “blowing of public money” on a monthly basis as he picks costly pointless fights with the Sheriff, rubberstamps wasteful Supes Chamber upgrades and no-bid contract extensions and add-ons to Camille Schrader’s mental health monopoly, unquestioningly approves raises for senior staffers including County Counsel, allows the Teeter Plan to run a deficit of over $1 million, defends the single-industry tourism subsidy, approves hundreds of thousands in outside lawyer fees, etc.
Be First to Comment