by: Diane Benjamin
The City of Bloomington has an employee turnover problem. Back in July it was a topic at a City Council meeting. City Manager David Hales explained the employees don’t have a good balance of work and personal life. He blamed staff shortages for the morale problems.
Yesterday David Hales threw City Clerk Tracy Covert under the bus. He blamed her for not posting the retreat agenda on the website. David, the retreat was not even on the City Calendar. Are you blaming Tracy for not posting it on the calendar too? Suddenly a long time conscientious employee forgets to post the meeting on the calendar, forgets to post the agenda on the website, at City Hall, and at the Den? Seriously David?
David Hales’s very public accusations against a City employee have further denigrated morale at the City. Real leaders take responsibility for errors. Obviously David have no leadership abilities. Morale at the City rests squarely on his shoulders.
Are the employees at City Hall now afraid they will be David’s next public target? The Pantagraph reported that Tracy refused to comment. Of course she can’t comment, she still has to work for the guy who blamed her. I’m willing to bet there is more to this story. Maybe someday Tracy will be able to tell it.
Meanwhile, the potted plants on the Council will continue to give David raises and say what a great job he is doing. More employees will leave, training new employees will require more resources, and morale will continue to decline.
Renner also threw Tracy under the bus. Nice job accepting personal responsible guys.
Yeah a simple statement such as, “we goofed” would have been acceptable rather than blaming a long time very diligent and valuable employee such as Tracy Covert.
The Pantagraph has now taken the Renner and Hales comments about Tracy out of the on-line story.
Disgusting that these two tried to blame a hard working loyal employee and good person like Tracy!
Yes the comments are in there. Of course they buried the story on page A3. I guess their front page story on food ingredients was too important.
Tell your friends! They need to go out of business!
Morale problems always start at the top. Either they’ve mismanaged and the business is going under or they refuse to take responsibility and constantly blame others.
Yes, let’s take the easy route and blame a woman. It sure couldn’t be that the men in Administration didn’t get the agenda done on time and sent to her to post. They probably got the information to her too late to post . . . frickin’ hemming and hawing over stupid details. It probably took them no time flat to spit out “It’s the Clerk’s fault.” They probably had that phrase on the tip of their tongues.
The council needs to admit they hired the wrong person. The on-going hatchet job on department heads is obvious to onlookers. How many have “retired” or moved on to other opportunities since Hales came onboard? He is always pointing at someone else. You know the old adage about how many fingers point back?