‘We are not nameless.’ Bradenton city staff detail Sanders’ hostile workplace in letter
As Bradenton leaders considered new rules to hold city council members accountable for their behavior, City Hall employees shared a joint letter describing the “hostile” workplace conditions created by Councilman Bill Sanders.
Earlier this year, a formal investigation found that Sanders has shown “abusive and threatening behavior” toward staff, but the elected official has repeatedly downplayed the report, calling it “frivolous” and “phony.” In their letter, city employees pushed back on his attempts to minimize the investigation.
“We are not nameless or faceless or anonymous. Our names are all listed in the investigative report, which is public record,” employees wrote in the letter, obtained by the Bradenton Herald. “We are employees who long ago reached our limit, but who have been trying to carry on with our duties despite Mr. Sanders’ bullying, intimidation and manipulation.
“But the ability to do our jobs has been impacted over time, sometimes severely. Our levels of stress and anxiety increase markedly when he is in the building,” the letter continues.
A dozen City Hall employees, including high-ranking staff such as Assistant City Administrator Cristophe St. Luce, City Clerk Tamara Melton and Public Information Officer Jeannie Roberts, attached their handwritten signatures to the letter.
The report into Sanders’ alleged behavior toward city staffers was shared with City Council in August, but Sanders has not faced any disciplinary action despite the report’s recommendation that the city take “any appropriate action” to hold Sanders accountable.
In a Wednesday morning workshop meeting, the Bradenton City Council took steps toward ensuring city staffers are treated with respect in the future.
Bradenton considers new behavior guidelines
City Attorney Scott Rudacille shared a draft ordinance that could allow Bradenton officials to prohibit the mayor and members of the City Council from “engaging in violence, threats of violence, harassment, intimidation or the use of abusive language, directed towards any employees of the city.”
In previous interviews with the Bradenton Herald, some council members spoke in favor of similar rules, pointing to the investigative report into Sanders’ behavior and the city’s responsibility to create a safe workplace.
Officials doubled down on those comments Wednesday, noting that the new policy is in direct response to Sanders’ behavior.
“I asked for some kind of policy that sets some decorum for the way we’re treated, how we treat each other and people who come before us,” said Councilwoman Jayne Kocher.
“If there’s an opportunity to help our employees be safe at times, then why would we not take that?” Mayor Gene Brown said.
Sanders pushed back on the proposed ordinance and reiterated his attempt to discredit the investigation, which was conducted by a third-party labor attorney.
“You created this frivolous, false investigation, in my opinion, that wasn’t documented. There was no affidavits. I don’t want to hear about that frivolous investigation,” Sanders told City Administrator Rob Perry during Wednesday’s workshop.
Employees push back on Sanders’ claims
Sanders’ main criticism has been that the investigative report, which included interviews with more than 20 current and former city staffers, did not attach names to their various allegations, making it impossible for him to face his accusers. He has also suggested that employees were coerced into participation.
But the joint employee letter, provided to the Bradenton Herald ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, predicted Sanders’ comments.
“He has called it ‘frivolous’ on more than one occasion,” the employees wrote. “And there is certainly nothing frivolous about the increased stress we are under, about our nightmares of workplace violence or about being afraid to come to work. It is infuriating to hear him cast aside our concerns in this way.”
The letter is also the first time employees have publicly detailed their experience working under Sanders. Employees wrote that they avoid one-on-one conversations with the councilman and they seek a partner when heading to the parking garage so that there’s always a witness.
Sanders first came under scrutiny in April when three people — the city’s records clerk, the city administrator and the city’s former conflict attorney — submitted complaints alleging that they believed the councilman had acted inappropriately.
Since then, city officials have mulled which approach to take in order to hold Sanders accountable without tilting the scale before Election Day. Sanders, a first-term councilman, is up for re-election in a citywide election against challengers Kurt Landefeld and Lisa Gonzalez Moore.
What would Bradenton’s new rules do?
According to the proposed ordinance, the code of conduct rules could be enforced by legal action. If there is “reasonable concern” that alleged misconduct occurred, the board, by majority vote, could direct the city attorney to “initiate a civil action for injunctive relief” in circuit court.
A judge would then issue a ruling on whether the elected official in question must refrain from the alleged misconduct.
Despite the fact that the proposed ordinance would apply evenly to the entire board, Sanders claimed the city’s proposal is a violation of election laws.
“You’re bringing this up just before an election so that there’s an opinion out there one way or another,” said Sanders, who also described the proposed rules as an attempt to “neuter the board.”
Perry noted that the city has been working to formally address the issue ever since the complaints were filed earlier this year.
“This isn’t a mushroom patch that just popped up overnight. This is a problem that this administration and the staff is having,” Perry explained. “I have to take responsibility for it. I’ve been working hard for a long time here in my career, and frankly, I’ve never seen anything as problematic as dealing with the professional staff as some of the interference from (Sanders).”
Council members did not vote on the proposed rules Wednesday, but the city attorney plans to make slights update to the ordinance before bringing it back to the board later this year.
