Superior officials reprimand city clerk

Mar. 10—SUPERIOR — For about four hours Wednesday, March 8, the city's Human Resources Committee listened to testimony from employees past and present to determine if a written reprimand of a department head would stand.

More than five hours later, the committee affirmed it would.

City Clerk Camila Ramos requested the public hearing to appeal a letter of reprimand issued Jan. 19 by Mayor Jim Paine.

The letter was issued after repeated efforts to counsel Ramos since May about the culture in her office and noted several policy violations, including insubordination after disregarding a directive from the mayor.

According to the letter, the human resources director, Cammi Janigo, and the mayor counseled Ramos starting in May for inappropriate and unprofessional treatment of her staff after deputy clerk Stephanie Becken and clerk assistant Johanna Rowell resigned within 48 hours of one another.

After Becken resigned her position, Rowell said Ramos cornered her in a hall to talk.

"She had a big smile on her face and asked me, 'Aren't you happy?'" Rowell testified Wednesday. "She said she thought things would be so much better without the deputy in the way. It was like she wanted me to celebrate that her bullying had been successful in getting the deputy to resign."

Rowell said she was worried how things would go once Becken left and wrote her resignation notice that night.

"I came to believe there was no way to have a positive relationship with the clerk without alienating myself from everyone else in the building," Rowell said.

Becken, who was initially excited by her new job, said she started to look for new employment after six months. She left the clerk's office for a lower-paid position in the city's planning department.

Becken testified to a work environment in which she was called a "kiss-ass" by Ramos when other city staff complimented her work. She said Ramos credited her successes with residents and vendors to the fact that she was white and had a white-sounding name when Ramos had struggled with those same people.

It wasn't long after she resigned that Rowell also resigned, Becken said.

"Camila spent 20 minutes yelling at us about how we were ungrateful and demanding what we expected her to do," Becken said. "This was in a public area of the clerk's office. People down the hall heard the dressing down."

Janigo described Ramos as defensive and deflective in the meeting to discuss the issues after Becken and Rowell resigned.

"In her mind it was their fault," Janigo said, which left her "mortified" about how they were treated and "shocked" that Ramos didn't take responsibility for it.

"I did not want to hire two more people to be put through those same kinds of interactions," Janigo said.

She said she didn't believe Ramos' behavior would change.

In June, Heidi Blunt was hired as the new deputy city clerk. She said she noticed that Ramos often treated staff and visitors inappropriately.

"I have experienced Camila say inappropriate and unprofessional things to me in private as well," Blunt said, adding that her ideas were often dismissed and several times Ramos commented about the appearance of her face.

"It's simply inappropriate and unprofessional to assess someone's performance based on how you perceive their face to look," Blunt said.

However, it was Blunt's effort in November to request vacation during the week of the February primary that prompted the letter.

"The No. 1 job of the city clerk's office is to administer safe, secure and transparent elections," Ramos said, arguing the election was why she denied the request twice, first in November, then again in January after the mayor directed her to approve it.

Blunt, an artist, planned to attend an art show during the four days she had requested to have off and was able to do so because the mayor approved her vacation when Ramos denied it.

Paine testified that he was concerned about morale in the office and Blunt resigning over the issue.

"As the human resources director told you, we have grounds for termination," Paine said. "I have spent the last month and a half in extreme regret that we haven't pursued that path after having to watch these women endure this again, to relive all of this harm over the last month and a half. To be called liars in a public meeting for just trying to tell the truth for no reward. They were punished, humiliated in public, for trying to help the city, to protect the city from a supervisor that is abusive and disruptive to the work that we are trying to do here."

The only witness who spoke in Ramos's defense besides her was Richard Thomas, who was hired as clerk assistant in July and admitted to being a friend of Ramos prior to working for the city.

Ramos argued that the mayor's treatment of her was no different than what she was being reprimanded for.

"Where does that leave me?" Ramos asked. "Existing forever in fear that my subordinate would report me to the mayor every time she disagreed with me or vice versa. What kind of power was that to give to someone? I wasn't interested in giving up my backup plan for someone who should have been honest during their interview — that she would be unlikely to be able to perform the duties of the job if a scheduling conflict involving her true passion and second career arose in the future. I denied Heidi's leave to protect the integrity of the election."

After nearly an hour in closed session, the committee announced its decision to affirm the reprimand.

"The single, strongest reason for affirming the reprimand was the evidence of insubordination," said Councilor Ruth Ludwig, the committee chairperson. "The committee suggests that Ms. Ramos be afforded the opportunity to receive additional professional leadership training."