Third GH employee union joins calls for investigation into tension at City Hall

A third Gig Harbor employee union has joined the call for an independent survey of morale and retention issues at City Hall, while supporters of Mayor Kit Kuhn countered with letters praising his leadership.

In an unsigned letter to the council on August 10, Teamsters Local 313, which represents city supervisors, said “employees have endured too much strife and obstacles from the administration while doing their work and deserve to be listened to.

“No one should have to come to work every day in an environment where they must walk on eggshells, especially these employees, who work to serve citizens and the community,” the letter said.

Local 313 represents members of the Supervisors Guild, which includes nine city supervisors.

The supervisor’s letter follows similar ones from Teamster locals representing the city’s police officers and employee’s guild — in total, about 100 employees.

In an article in The Gateway on August 6, current and former city employees described Kuhn is an obsessive micromanager who is prone to explosions of temper and is often rude and verbally abusive, particularly toward women. They cite his behavior as the principle reasons more than 20 employees, many supervisors or department heads, have quit or retired since his election in 2017.

Supporters fight back

Supporters of the mayor, in a letter-writing counter-attack, praised the mayor’s firmness in dealing with employees, whom some characterized as incompetent slackers uninterested in serving the public.

“I am writing to express how disturbing it is to watch the public verbal attack on our mayor,” wrote Kathleen Rose of Point Fosdick Drive in a comment to council on August 10.

“After Kit was elected, we became aware of many disgruntled folks both in and outside of City Hall. Rumblings of an attempt to destroy him was heard often. Those accustomed to getting everything, suddenly had instability and were being challenged to change their view.

“Sadly, this powerful self-serving bubble still exists in our city today, something our new administration has had to fight on every level. The negative gossip that takes place in regularity is very disheartening.”

Angela Sisney of Goodman Drive wrote to offer “my full-throated support of Mayor Kit Kuhn.”

“In my experience as a corporate employment attorney, a change in leadership and leadership style sometimes result in employee complaints,” she said. “There are two sides to such situations,” and she urged the council “not to rush to judgment.”

‘Spilled my coffee’

Robert Archer of Shyleen Street said he “spilled my morning coffee out of laughter” when he read a former supervisor’s comment that Kuhn was a “mini-Trump.”

“Mayor Kuhn won election by all accounts, in a landslide,” Archer wrote. “The electorate felt we needed change and quickly. Mayor Kuhn is providing that change and doing so in a timely manner, perhaps too swiftly for a large percentage of city employees that have become comfortable without being challenged to do more for the citizenry with fewer hands.”

However, one commenter, Marlene Druker, an architect and member of the city Design Review Board, urged the council to “go forward with the impartial, anonymous staff survey they have proposed.”

“I share the frustration that several council members have recently voiced regarding the city’s loss of the talents of many effective public servants,” she wrote. “It has been revealed that many resignations have been the result of negative reactions by the staff to their treatment by our mayor.”

Druker expressed the hope “that this survey will lead to changes that insure our staff is treated with the respect they deserve and in accordance with employment laws in our state.“

Deny culture war

In their letter via the Teamsters, the city supervisors denied the suggestion, put forward by Kuhn’s principal campaign donor in a Gateway op-ed piece two weeks ago, that city employees were simply unable to adapt to the mayor’s “new culture.”

“The employees rapidly leaving the City of Gig Harbor are not doing so because of a culture change by the mayor,” the supervisor’s letter said. “This is a mayor who is controlling, passive-aggressive and reacts negatively whenever anyone questions him.”

The Teamster’s letter added that the council committee investigating the complaints against the mayor should include the actions of the city administrator, Bob Larson, and the human resources director, Kamiel Borders, “as, right or wrong, they have been carrying out the mayor’s orders.”

The complaints in the supervisor’s letter echo those in an earlier one from Teamsters Local 117, which represents the city’s sergeants, detectives and police officers.

In their July 17 letter, the police union complained the “current leadership style can only be described as totalitarianism.”

The mayor’s style “radiates volatility, frustration and exhaustion throughout the employees of this city and our fear is that this mass exodus will continue if not corrected,” the officers said.

For his part, the mayor complained at the August 10 council meeting about “council members posting newspaper articles on their websites,” and repeated his complaint that he was hamstrung by the risk of litigation if he were to tell his side of the story.

RELATED STORY: In setback for mayor, Gig Harbor City Council commissions a survey of employee morale.

RELATED STORY: Mayor Kit Kuhn replies to his critics in an op-ed

This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 12:00 AM.