Controversy drives concerns about Walker County transit director position
Walker County citizens voted for a board of commissioners. They made it clear they no longer want government run by executive decree. Either the commissioner has forgotten this, or he doesn’t care. My guess is the latter. This entire thing should be put on hold until the new board takes office in January and begins to provide the type government citizens voted for in 2018.
Walker County Sole Commissioner Shannon Whitfield is being asked not to fill a controversial department head position until after the new Board of Commissioners is installed in January.
Walker County posted Aug. 18 a job opening for a public grants and transit director shortly after the resolution of a lawsuit against the county government to obtain an email detailing personnel concerns, including the transit director position.
“I want to be part of the process (if elected), and I have no problem asking him (Whitfield) to wait,” Hakie Shropshire, Democratic candidate for the District 3 seat on the Board of Commissioners, said.
The Jan. 16, 2020, email from Human Resources (HR) Director Sharleen Robinson to Whitfield discussed the transit director position and potential allegations of gender discrimination, cronyism and failure to advertise the position properly related to the rumors that a female transit employee would be bypassed to promote a friend of Whitfield’s as department director.
“This is the first I am hearing about any of this (the grants and transit director position). I did not know about/ had nothing to do with writing this job description or getting it posted. I have no idea what the plan might be,” Robinson wrote Aug. 20 on the Our Walker County Facebook page.
Robinson responded to Elliot Pierce’s post, which included the job description for the new public grants and transit director position and his assertion that this will spark “the next potential scandal in Walker County Government.”
When another Facebook comment questioned the process for creating a new position, Robinson responded, “My experience has been that the HR Director not only writes the job description but also signs approval before it is active. All job descriptions have to be included in the organization’s EEOC Job Description Catalog and assigned a control number, too. The HR Director normally does this.”
Pierce questioned the combination of transit director and grant director for all county departments as one position and offered to give the first person who could find a similar job description anywhere a free sandwich. The legal issues concerning the unfolding of these events are immediately apparent, he wrote.
The job advertisement directs applicants to submit their applications in care of Tabitha Cantrell in Human Resources.
Terri Scruggs wrote of the process
that “normally it means someone already knows who is getting this position” and the job posting was the county’s way of covering itself by accepting applications.
Pierce, who filed the lawsuit seeking the Jan. 16 personnelrelated email, in a subsequent post called for a public hearing in observance of social distance and also televising it via Zoom to allow greater participation.
“Sharleen (Robinson) was brought in by Shannon Whitfield because of her exemplary qualifications and because a county with around 400 employees must have an HR director,” Pierce said.
“It seems since the email detailing gender-based discrimination and favoritism issues became public, Whitfield has sought to minimize and not use his HR director,” he said. “This situation is proof positive. She’s only handling retirement issues right now, according to my conversation with the commissioner. Clearly she wasn’t consulted on this structural change of a major department and creation of a new position.
“If an organization this size is operating without a qualified HR director, then what happens if an employee has a sexual harassment issue? What if the issue is with a superior? This is just one of the many reasons you need an HR director,” he explained.
“Walker County citizens voted for a board of commissioners,” Pierce said. “They made it clear they no longer want government run by executive decree. Either the commissioner has forgotten this, or he doesn’t care. My guess is the latter. This entire thing should be put on hold until the new board takes office in January and begins to provide the type government citizens voted for in 2018.”
When the newspaper called Robinson’s office, a voicemail message instructed callers to request to speak to another employee. Robinson could not be reached for comment.
The newspaper asked Joe Legge, Walker County public relations director, to confirm Robinson’s employment status. He responded Aug. 28, “The County is currently in the process of restructuring some of the responsibilities of the Human Resources department, but the specifics have not been finalized at this time.”
Robert Stultz, District 4 commissioner-elect, said he declined to comment because he does not know all of the facts, but he will discuss the matter with Commissioner Whitfield.
Commission candidates Mark Askew, Tyrone Davis, Bobby Mc
The Walker County Messenger Aug. 18 submitted questions to Whitfield’s office regarding the matter. These questions included:
♦ Who wrote the job description?
♦ Why was the HR director not consulted in writing the position description? Is that one of the HR director’s responsibilities to write job descriptions?
♦ Has Walker County ever done that for other positions? If so, which ones?
♦ Was any HR input sought? Another staff member?
♦ Why does this job posting direct candidates to send the applications in care of Tabitha Cantrell instead of the HR director?
♦ Does the HR director normally vet applications?
♦ Why is this not a separate grant writing/admin position as a department head answering directly to the commissioner or a position within the finance department?
♦ Why fill a department head position now instead of waiting until after the board is sworn in in January? Is there some sort of urgency?
♦ If Robert Stultz and/or any of the commission candidates ask that the position posting be pulled now and the matter revisited in January, would the commissioner consider it?
♦ How long has the transit director position been vacant?
♦ Was the position unfilled because of the county’s financial situation?
♦ What is April Tabor’s current position? Will she still have her current job when the advertised position is filled?
♦ The job skills/experience seem to be more like two separate positions combined into one. Is the job description written as it is because the county already has someone in mind for the role?
County’s response
Aug. 25 the county sent the following response to the Messenger’s questions:
“Walker Transit has been in operation for many years providing transportation services for residents who need to get to and from doctor’s appointments, shop for groceries or run other errands Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. till 4:30 p.m.
“Area employers have requested the County provide a more robust transportation service to help our residents get to and from work. Many of our industries operate their plants 24/7, with shift changes taking place in the evening. Walker Transit is currently unable to meet the needs of these local industries.
“Also, many of our current riders often seek transportation elsewhere in order to attend community functions on Saturday, and many would love the opportunity to have reliable transportation to church and other events on Sunday.
“Approaching the new FY-2021 budget cycle, the county is preparing to expand Walker Transit from 40 to 44 hours per week to as many as 100 hours per week. This would allow Walker Transit to operate 7 days a week with a mission to meet the transportation needs of the employers and citizens of Walker County.
“To prepare for the expansion in our transit operations, the County posted a job opening for a Public Grants and Transit Director. Combining these two responsibilities will greatly benefit the community. One of the primary tasks of the person selected to lead the Transit Department will be to work with the state and federal government on grants, since a portion of the transit budget is funded by grant dollars. Currently, our Accounting Department handles the administration of transit grants. The Public Grants and Transit Director will also be responsible for procuring additional state and federal funding opportunities.
“The expansion of transit operations will create many new job opportunities within the Transit Department. We will need additional shift managers, drivers and dispatchers. Those positions will be posted on the County website after the Public Grants and Transit Director has been hired.”
Requested email
Pierce filed his lawsuit March 12 after the county did not provide an email dated Jan. 16 from Robinson to Whitfield in response to Pierce’s Open Records Act request earlier that month for all emails during the period Jan. 1-31, 2020, and containing the exact phrase “payroll records.” According to the lawsuit, the county’s response on March 9 omitted that email and did not cite privilege or any other reason for doing so.
Pierce agreed to dismiss his suit after the county provided the email he sought. The county paid all court costs and attorney fees associated with the lawsuit, he said.
In the email, Robinson said she had heard rumors that Whitfield’s friend, Mike Smith, would be promoted from patch truck driver to transit manager and would be paid $25 per hour; however, she advised the position needed to be reposted due to the length of the job vacancy and to allow other employees to apply. A few days before the rumors started, the pair had been seen sitting in Whitfield’s truck in the Department of Family and Children Services parking lot.
The email cautioned against promoting the commissioner’s friend at the expense of April Tabor, who had been acting transit manager for two years without any disciplinary actions or write-ups. The email also pointed to inequities in pay.
Tabor earns $13 per hour while her female predecessor was paid $15 per hour, Robinson wrote.
“Given that these are two female employees, how do we justify placing a male, with no previous Transit experience, over the program at $25.00 an hour?” Robinson wrote.
“It will be virtually impossible to defend a charge of discrimination based on gender,” she continued. “This is especially true given the pending lawsuit that charges the very same treatment in another department under the Commissioner’s Office. It will not take a deep investigation to find that female department heads under the Commissioner do tend to make less than their male counterparts, and that there is another department being run by a female, without the promotion or pay increase to the rate the former manager had.”
Since the filing of Pierce’s lawsuit, Smith has been appointed director of the Walker County Civic Center.
Tabor declined to comment for this news story.
Catherine Edgemon is assistant editor for the Walker County Messenger in LaFayette, Ga., and the Catoosa County News in Ringgold, Ga.