By Jeremy Kohler
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
CLAYTON, Mo. — Consultants working on contract for the St. Louis County legal department are asking employees of the county jail in a survey whether they have filed grievances at work, witnessed mistreatment of jail staff or inmates or have been the victims of misconduct or retaliation.
The survey was described in a news release from County Executive Sam Page last week as being mandatory and anonymous. The county’s chief lawyer intended for the survey be filled out only by the county’s roughly 280 Justice Services employees.
But a link to it was leaked online and apparently available to be filled out by anyone. The Post-Dispatch reported the breach to county authorities on Monday.
The survey asks employees to provide more details about instances of inappropriate conduct or retaliation they have experienced or witnessed — and for their names and the names of people involved.
The questions created yet another uproar in the county jail that continues to roil after the resignation of Raul Banasco as director on Aug. 26, and the subsequent request by his deputy to step down as interim director.
A jail employee who spoke with a Post-Dispatch reporter on background said Monday that employees don’t trust the survey and questioned how county officials could be sure that feedback from a mandatory, anonymous survey was really coming from jail employees.
Moreover, the employee said many other jail employees were perplexed about a survey that is supposed to be anonymous asks for names on most questions.
And the employee said some questioned the scope of the survey. While allegations of misconduct go back decades, the questions focus on problems experienced or witnessed in the past two to five years. Because of the narrow timeframe, some employees were concerned the county’s investigation would not look critically on what some have described as a dysfunctional culture that goes back decades.
The survey is part of the work being conducted by the Vera Causa Group for the county counselor’s office on a $9,750 two-week contract.
The principals of the group, former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer M. Joyce and communications consultant Susan C. Ryan, were hired to spend about two weeks in phone and video conferences with several jail employees and conduct a mandatory, anonymous online survey for every jail employee to complete.
In an email to the jail employees last week, obtained by the newspaper, County Counselor Beth Orwick wrote that she wanted to “make sure that each of you is working in an environment in which you feel supported and heard.” Orwick wrote that the data collected by Joyce and Ryan would be included in a confidential report back to her.
The news release last week from Page said Joyce and Ryan would identify areas for a comprehensive investigation of the jail requested by Page and members of the advisory board. The county has not yet announced a firm for that investigation.
A lawyer, who represented a Missouri corrections officer in an unsuccessful lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and retaliation, said it was important for the county’s legal staff to try to learn as much as it could about complaints of discrimination, harassment and retaliation “and equally important that employees are honest about it when they are doing these investigations.”
But the lawyer, Lara Owens of Kansas City, said it can be tricky when employees don’t trust the management.
“I do think that what an employer does with this information that comes to their attention tells you a lot about the workplace,” Owens said.
Marcia L. McCormick, a St. Louis University law professor and expert in employment law, told the Post-Dispatch the survey appeared to put employees in a tough spot.
If they answer that they didn’t witness problems, the report could be used to say there were no problems at the jail, she said. “But if they answer honestly, they have to say who they are and then worry about retaliation. So if I were an employee, I’d say I was in a real bind.”
While Orwick could be using the survey to identify all of the county’s potential legal liabilities in the jail, she said, “That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because if there is an internal complaint that gives the county counselor’s office an opportunity to resolve it. It allows for some fact gathering and can be used to positively resolve harassment and discrimination within a workplace.”
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