The Waiting Game (Immel Report)
The wait for the official Immel report is now over as Citizen Wausau has recently received a copy of the document. In case some of you forgot, Mike Morrissey retired, and Kristen Fish resigned from the Community Development Authority office in the past few months. Allegations were made by Wendy Jasurda, a former employee. An investigation happened and then was suddenly back page news.
This document is the report that Mr. Immel compiled and sent to the city. It is a fascinating document in many regards, and we hope you read it thoroughly. It sheds light on the relationship or non relationship alleged, or had, or maybe had or did not have, or might have had. It never speaks to the claimant, Jasurda, even though she has representation, and as such could have been interviewed. It also does not explain why the City Council was left out of the hiring of such an important consultant, in such a potentially explosive HR matter.
It further leaves out the accountability and follow through on any of these findings, though it is fair to say that this information might not have been new to anyone.
Further more, I find it significant that Mr. Immel has taken the time to explain the process in which he was brought on board as a consultant for the City of Wausau in regards to this matter. I have read several findings presented to governing bodies, and few read like this, in this manner. Instead I question whether or not this was writing with the express mandate to put it in the hands of the public and handle all of the questions brought forth by blogs and the Wausau Daily Herald Forum over the past few months.
It is my understanding that this document is not a finding of fact or a matter of official record as presented to the City Council. It seems to be a report from an internal investigation.
Dino Corvino said:
It was reported that Immel was paid 5000 today in the WDH.
It was also reported that Immel was to work 40 hours on this.
It was also reported he would be paid 100 dollars an hour
I am not a math guy, but I think that is 4000 dollars.
Why the extra thousand Mr. Nagle?
June 12th, 2008 at 9:13 am #
Tom Neal said:
possibles based on reports from the street:
Bonus for a job well done?
Overtime?
Hazard pay?
Cell phone use?
Cost-of-living allowance?
Gas money?
Miscellaneous expenses?
Hush money?
Golf bet?
$1,000 was just in Chamber Bucks?
June 12th, 2008 at 9:53 am #
erik said:
I’m not quite sure where you got the forty hour figure, Dino, but it’s incorrect. Mr. Immel reported working 50 hours, he actually said he worked more but only charge the city for 50 when I spoke with him.
And as far as it being back page news, it was the front page, top story in the Daily Herald today. I know our station had it in our “A” block for every news broadcast we carried yesterday.
Admittedly none of the follow through you were asking for was in any of those reports, but it’s not as if some sort of rug sweeping is occuring by the mainstream media.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:21 pm #
Dino Corvino said:
Erik,
I do not think the media swept this under any sort of rug. I think it is fair to think that the city did.
I type slowly. But from the time he gave the oral report that was so maligned about the recording instruments, and what not, my questions is, what took this long to type up this information?
Mr. Nagle said that there was 40 hours alloted for this work in the beginning. It was reported by DJ at the WDH. 40 hours, and 100 an hour, 4,000 bucks.
Now, without any oversight, or change in spending or reporting to the now standing HR Committee, this number moves to 50 hours.
I think this change, and lack of notification is once again, an indication that this investigation was put together on the fly, the City Council was left out, and as such the people were left out.
I have been asked if I think the affair was real or what ever. I could care less. Unless Mike or Kristen are dating me, who they want to date, not my concern.
I believe, and will continue to write about, the issue that this brings up. The coalescing of power in the hands of a few, the sort of spears tip of power, and in that spear tip is a lack of accountability.
For example.
Mr. Nagle was the HR Supervisor. As such, he supervised management level staff. He supervised Mike Morrissey.
An allegation was made by a former employee, regarding said high level staff.
The allegation reflected things that an HR Supervisor would not or should not allow.
Clearly this allegation, if found true, would reflect badly both on the person, Morrissey and his supervisor, Nagle.
Then how is it that Nagle was allowed to find, and select a colleague to investigate this, without the HR Committee oversight?
What does that allow for?
If the investigation was not given a scope, and a mandate if you will from the HR Committee, what knowledge do taxpayers have?
Why was the HR Committee not a part of this process officially?
Why was it reported that this was a 40 hour project, and it is a 50 hour bill?
Why has the City Council created a structure with no HR person other than the city attorney?
Am I not safe to assume that if the HR Director in your company wanted to investigate allegations against someone, they would contact corporate council for guidance in that process, and that the attorney would in fact be a tool of enforcement?
How does one man fill those roles, when they seem to be at odds?
I do not think that the media did not look at this, though I do not find it on the 550 AM site and Pat and Tom did not discuss it, and it is not on Channel 9s site, it is not on the fox 55 site, it appears on the WDh website.
I am willing to conceed that the flooding is a far greater story, but I think this report is significant. It should not just be in the WDH.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:41 pm #
erik said:
Mr. Nagle is going against what Mr. Immel told local media back in that late April. Looking back on our archives I found out that the number that Immel claimed to have worked back April was 55, like I said in my previous post, but that he was only charging the city for 50. I see the Daily Herald is using the “more than forty” number in their reports. Regardless, there is some inconsitancy if Mr. Nagle is saying 40 when Immel said 50. That is troubling.
Also Immel claims that meetings with local media slowed his delivery of the report. He did not meet with the station I work at since his report at the end of April, I don’t know which local media outlets did meet with him that caused this delay. Make of that what you will.
I think you bring up a lot of great questions, Dino. Questions I think you should urge your local media to take a look at, call the papers, the tv and radio stations, tell them this is information you want. I can provide you with the information from our archives and what I’ve gathered, but I do not make the decisions on what’s covered here, nor would I wager any members of the media that partake of the CW right now. We’re all a bit too low level.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:14 pm #
Dino Corvino said:
Then let us start with a question…how much was budgeted for Immel? What was he allowed to spend? What if he said 200 hours? What if he said 1000 hours?
Why was the HR Committee or Finance Committee not consulted when bringing in a consultant, expecially one with such vast exploratory power?
Again, this comes down to our City Council, and its acceptance of a weakened position. Where were they at this point? All so enthralled in the veto, or the election, that no one was governing?
What role does the HR Committee have in choosing consultants?
What over sight does Finance have in the budget of said consultants?
Cut DJ loose WDH. Let DJ go get em.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:39 pm #
drrent said:
Dino…
Your questions and concerns are valid… however there is something that needs to be understood.
The City Council and there associated committees govern the City, but they do not manage its day-to-day operations. If every single decision made by the city had to go through a committee (and I have worked with cities like that), absolutely nothing gets done.
The council and its associated committees establish policy and conduct oversight of those that have been hired for the day-to-day management.
Mr. Immel was hired to investigate if certain allegations had merit. The City has budgeted certain funds in their legal budget for such things. The amount of the expendature is really not that much if you do some research into what the City’s insurance company is spending on their for the investigation that is being handled there.
In my humble opinion, it is not the job of the HR Committee to run the HR operations of the City… it is the job of the HR Committee to establish policy and to oversee those hired to do the job of management.
If Wausau citizens and taxpayers feel that the policies are bad, the HR Committee needs to look at that… if Wausau citizens and taxpayers feel that the policies are good but the management is bad, the HR Committee needs to look at the management staff (not take over management themselves).
June 13th, 2008 at 7:04 am #
Dino Corvino said:
I agree that this is not a matter of day to day operations. But a consultant doing an investigation of senior managers and allegations of this sort, is not a day to day activity.
I am a proponent of the We are A Growing City, so give it some time theory, but not in this case.
This was an allegation of wrong doing at the highest levels of management, professional staff.
We have, to just focus it down, a DJ Slater piece in the WDH where Nagle said he was going to be paid for or allocated for 40 hours, and now it is 50, and somewhere someone said 55.
How does that work??
I am sure that 5 grand is not a big deal, it is not even the pay of one summer part time staff member. Okay, I agree.
But this is a further example of where our city, and its elected leadership, and professional leadership, have once again failed to communicate with each other, and with the people that elected them.
In my humble opinion, this was bungled on a massive scale from the very beginning, and I think that as a result two people that were benefits to this city, are now gone.
I think that the three people involved, all lost. I think they lost, because HR did not have policies in place, and did not have the oversight to lead.
I think that this failure falls on the past and current HR Committees that failed to act to create policy, and instead use this time to REACT.
Mr. Rosenberg has repeatedly asked me to stay on policy, and not personality. So that is what I am trying to do.
The HR Committee, and I fear most of the city council and leadership has been voting blocked into submission and reaction. Not leadership. Not vision. Not vision. NOT VISION.
http://citizenwausau.com/janeneal/
June 13th, 2008 at 9:45 am #