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Sewer chief warns staff about using email

 
“The mayor does not support anyone obstructing transparen-cy. Actual or perceived,” said Rick Kriseman’s spokesman.
“The mayor does not support anyone obstructing transparen-cy. Actual or perceived,” said Rick Kriseman’s spokesman.
Published Jan. 25, 2017

ST. PETERSBURG — A Tampa Bay Times request for emails last month from interim Water Resources Director John Palenchar and Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley yielded a much different version of events than originally related by city officials regarding the courting of a Department of Environmental Protection employee involved in investigating the city's sewage mess.

First, the city said that Michele Duggan had merely been the best applicant who applied after a high-paying job was posted.

A Times public record request uncovered a much different scenario. Tankersley had reached out to Duggan weeks before the job was posted and invited her to his City Hall office to discuss job opportunities.

A day after the Times story ran, Mayor Rick Kriseman vetoed the hiring of Duggan, who has since resigned her state job.

Tankersley received a verbal reprimand from Kriseman.

Later that month, on Dec. 20, sewer officials met in a leadership meeting.

One agenda item? How to keep future embarrassing information out of the public eye. Palenchar laid out the following directive for emails in the besieged Water Resources Department.

The Times recently obtained the notes from that meeting. What follows is the item dedicated to email usage among sewer officials:

"Emails — Per John (Palenchar), be mindful of what you put into an email. You probably don't want to write anything in an email that you wouldn't want to see in the newspaper. If there is something that needs to be discussed, talk to the person/persons, you shouldn't be doing all of your back and forth discussions in an email. Yes, we want and need to be transparent, but be careful of what you are putting in writing. An issue and/or concern should be discussed, a decision made and then support of the decision — Discuss, Decide, Support."

The mayor has repeatedly said his administration, currently under a pending state consent decree, a federal lawsuit and an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency probe, wants to be completely transparent in the city's attempt to fix its broken sewers.

Since August 2015, about 200 million gallons have been spilled or dumped.

When alerted by the Times of the email warning, Kriseman's spokesman said the mayor didn't back Palenchar's directive.

"The mayor does not support anyone obstructing transparency. Actual or perceived. He will remind management of that," wrote Ben Kirby in an email.

Earlier that same day, though, Public Works Administration spokesman Bill Logan, whose immediate supervisor is Tankersley, defended Palenchar.

Avoiding email and talking face to face is the best course of action, Logan wrote in an email.

"The directive is merely making clear that cooperative and personal collaboration is preferred,'' Logan wrote. "Documentation and dissemination of correct and finalized information — rather than "in process" elements — is key in furthering the understanding of what is actually being done."

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Contact Charlie Frago at cfrago@tampabay.com or (727)893-8459. Follow@CharlieFrago.