Green responds to board report

After a formal request, The Dalles Chronicle was given a partially deleted, or redacted, copy of the report. Green provided the paper with an undeleted copy, saying, “I want the public to know what’s going on.” He said the report “doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

The Chronicle’s attorney said the redactions were not supported under public records law. Further, the Chronicle is free to fully quote from the document it received from Green.

Cozad wrote in the report, “It appears that at times an inconsistent application of personnel policies and procedures occurs, which can lead to a breakdown of staff morale, fractionalization of staff…”

This paragraph was deleted from the version the district provided to the Chronicle.

Also deleted was, “In light of challenged communication, lack of clearly defined roles, inconsistent application of policies and procedures, less than desirable supervisory skillsets, and lack of positive motivation, employee morale is certainly less than optimum. As a result you have employees who are not committed to the district vision, become self-serving and have no desire to strive to achieve success.”

“This is what Karl came up with, not the

board,” Green said, “and I know that Karl did not talk to everybody [on staff]. So if he’s talking to two or three of them, I can tell you, there’s two or three who aren’t happy.”

There are seven full-time staff at Parks, including the director.

Green said supervisors got training, staff had clear job descriptions and he followed all written policies.

Green allowed that “morale was pretty bad in the office. People didn’t know what the heck was going on.”

Green said his own morale-boosting efforts included taking each employee to breakfast or lunch annually. In 2010, he declined to keep a step raise and instead gave the money to his employees.

His own stress level got so bad in July he was hospitalized, directly from work, and ordered by his doctor to take two weeks off. He never returned to work because he was put on paid administrative leave immediately after his medical leave, pending an investigation of a sexual harassment allegation, and then a few weeks later he was terminated.

Green said he offered to take a lie detector test regarding the sexual harassment issue but was not taken up on it.

When Green was terminated, the board stated it was unrelated to the sexual harassment allegation. The sexual harassment issue is still unresolved.

Another deleted portion of Cozad’s report said “internal communication with regards to the operations and direction of the district are definitely challenged, a general lack of knowledge was expressed by many.”

Green said he had monthly staff meetings. “Unless it was confidential information, I shared everything with the employees.”

A deleted comment in the Cozad report said, “Thompson Park Pool Project management has been compromised due in part to lack of oversight during the development of performance contracts.”

An undeleted quote said, “The primary issue of concern was, and still is, the amount of time from the passage of the bond and the lack of actual implementation of physical activity on site.”

A pre-construction contract lacked a completion date for that work. Cozad’s report also noted insurance and bonding papers were “not a physical part of this contract as in an attachment document.”

Green said the pre-construction contract was reviewed and approved not only by the park district’s attorney, Tom Peachey, but was also reviewed by the attorney for the Special Districts Association of Oregon. Peachey said he could not comment on his communication with his clients.

Green said bonding and insurance documents were available in his files at the district office, along with several other documents that would disprove allegations in the report regarding staff training. He said he told the board as much at the August meeting, but the board didn’t ask that he produce them.

“They obviously did not [want him to get the documents],” he said. “They already had their mind made up.”

As for the pool project timeline slipping, Green said, “That’s interesting. I would like them to explain to me what they mean by that. I think it was moving the way it should be.”

Green said timeline issues could also be attributed to the board itself. He felt the board slowed the pool timeline “by not being able to make the meetings and by not having extra meetings.”

Denae Manion, who worked at the parks district for a year as a recreation assistant, said she finally quit this past spring after she started suffering panic attacks from the tension in the office.

She said, “I enjoy Scott, I think he’s a good boss, I think he’s lost a little bit of sight of how to act professionally.”

She said Green showed “lenience” in how he treated some staff compared to others. She said some staff “can do what they want and they don’t get in trouble,” but for others, “it’s a different story.”

Green said he didn’t show lenience toward any specific employee, and added that employees aren’t aware of steps he takes in personnel matters with other staff.

Cozad’s report noted “financial policies regarding the purchasing authority are either not clearly defined [the following was deleted] or are applied in an inconsistent manner as to making it very difficult to follow any type of transaction trail.”

Green said all transactions are “easily trackable” through the accounting process.

Another deleted quote from the Cozad report said “financial resources, or the lack thereof, are blamed for the lack of properly irrigated turf.”

Green said, “Yes, there was an issue” with a “dry spot on Kramer Field.” He said he’d been firmly told earlier in his nine-year tenure as director to delegate duties more, and Kramer Field was the responsibility of one of his employees.

Green said Cozad never interviewed him, and if he had, he could have showed him documents supporting supervisor training, for example. Cozad said he didn’t try to talk to Green because he was told Green would only communicate via text with the board chair, Catherine Whalen. Whalen also said that Green wanted to only communicate with her via text. Green said that was “a bunch of BS. I’m not that into texting anyway. That’s really weird.”