More evidence surfaces in probe w/ emails exchanged between Joplin city officials

By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

E-mails from three more city employees that show a pattern of a former Joplin mayor issuing orders to city employees will be presented as part of the evidence against him during a City Council disciplinary hearing Monday night.

Copies of the e-mails were obtained by the Globe as the result of requests made to the city under Missouri’s open-records law.

Councilman Jon Tupper will be the subject of a hearing by the council at 6 p.m. Monday on allegations that he violated the city charter and the council’s code of ethics by interfering with the employment of Jerry Calvin, the former parks and recreation director, and some of the parks staff. Other allegations center around comments that parks department employees say Tupper made to them, to the city manager or about Calvin.

The city manager, Mark Rohr, has given a statement to the city attorney that will be presented at the hearing. It says that Tupper, who then was the mayor, threatened to force Rohr out of his job if Rohr did not get rid of Calvin and two of Calvin’s subordinates, Beth Peacock, facilities manager, and Paul Bloomberg, recreation programs director.

Rohr this week also alleged that Tupper and two other council members, Phil Stinnett and Morris Glaze, have filed a request for a closed meeting after the Tupper hearing to retaliate against Rohr for giving his statement in the investigation.

During the city’s investigation into the Tupper allegations, e-mails from three others have surfaced documenting instances in which Rohr learned that Tupper had assigned other city employees tasks or issued instructions.

The city charter and ethics code prohibit council members from directing city employees, and requires council members to direct requests for tasks to be accomplished to the city manager.

The additional e-mails involve the city’s finance director, Leslie Jones; the public information officer, Lynn Onstot; and the city’s grants coordinator, Becky Brill.

The e-mail involving Jones is dated Sept. 21 and addressed to the city manager. In it, Jones lists the duties she was to accomplish as the result of budget meetings last fall. After the list, she tells Rohr: “Also, I have been told that I can’t finalize the budget to be adopted until these work sessions next week and the review (employment evaluation) of the judge on Monday night. Is that correct?”

Rohr responds that it is OK to proceed with the list. But, referring to the instruction that she could not finalize the budget, he asks, “Who told you that part?”

“The mayor (Tupper), but you are my boss, which is why I am asking you,” Jones responds.

In the Onstot e-mail, she writes to the city manager that she has been working with Tupper and the city health director, Dan Pekarek, on setting a meeting for a summit on the homeless that Tupper wanted conducted to organize social services. She proposes an April 2 pre-meeting for the summit and a list of organizations to be invited, and asks for Rohr’s comments.

Rohr writes back, “We are getting ahead of ourselves on this.”