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Transcript of the Testimony of Lynn Onstot
Date: December 17, 2013Volume: I
Case: In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation
Printed On: December 27, 2013
Holliday Reporting Service, Inc.Phone: 417-358-4078
Fax: 417-451-1114Email:daholliday@hotmail.com
Internet:
Lynn Onstot In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation
417-358-4078
Holliday Reporting Service, Inc.
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IN RE: JOPLIN CRITICAL INVESTIGATION
SWORN STATEMENT OF
LYNN ONSTOT
Taken on Tuesday, December 17, 2013, from 3:07 p.m. to 3:41
p.m., at the law offices of Juddson H. McPherson, LLC, 626
S. Byers, in the City of Joplin, County of Jasper, State of
Missouri, before
SHARON K. ROGERS, C.C.R.650,
a Certified Court Reporter and a Notary Public within and
for the County of Jasper, and State of Missouri.
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APPEARANCES
MR. THOMAS E. LORAINE
Loraine & Associates, LLC
4075 Osage Beach Pkwy., Suite 300
Osage Beach, MO 65065
tellaw@loraineandassociates.com
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S T I P U L A T I O N
IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED that this Sworn
Statement may be taken by steno-mask type recording by
SHARON K. ROGERS, a Certified Court Reporter, and
afterwards reduced into typewriting.
It is further stipulated that the signature of the
witness is hereby waived, and that said Sworn Statement of
said witness shall be of the same force and effect as
though said witness had read and signed Sworn Statement.
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I N D E X
Page/Line
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE . . . 6-19
E X H I B I T S
Exhibit #A. . . . . . . . 6-8
Advice of Rights
Note: Exhibits in separate binder
(sic) - typed as spoken
(ph.) - phonetic
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1 BY MR. LORAINE:
2 Q. Ms. Onstot, I'm going to read the Advice of
3 Rights. I know you've already read it, but
4 it says in here I need to read it to you so
5 I'm going to read it to you. "I wish to
6 advise you that you are being questioned as
7 part of an official investigation by the City
8 of Joplin. You will be asked questions
9 related and specifically directed to the
10 performance of your official duties or
11 fitness for office. You are entitled to all
12 the rights and privileges guaranteed by the
13 laws and the Constitution of the State and
14 the Constitution of the United States,
15 including the right not to be compelled to
16 incriminate yourself. I further wish to
17 advise you that if you refuse to testify or
18 to answer questions relating to the
19 performance of your official duties, you will
20 be subject to departmental charges, which
21 could result in your dismissal from your
22 official duties. If you do answer, these
23 statements may be used against you in
24 relation to subsequent departmental charges,
25 but not in any subsequent criminal
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1 proceedings. I have read and fully
2 understand the Advice of Rights as it appears
3 above. This information has also been read
4 to me prior to answering any questions." Did
5 you understand that?
6 A. I did. Thank you.
7 Q. And you did, in fact, now execute your name
8 to this document, Exhibit #A?
9 A. Yes, I did.
10 Q. And you did print your name next to your
11 signature?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And I'm witnessing it with your permission.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. Did you swear her in yet?
16 LYNN ONSTOT
17 Having been first duly sworn and examined,
18 testified as follows:
19 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE:
20 Q. All right. You've been sworn in to tell the
21 truth. You're under advice for the
22 investigation. This is not about you and
23 it's not concerning you, and it's the same
24 procedure we've followed with every person I
25 have talked with with the City, it's just
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1 part of the procedure, okay?
2 A. Okay.
3 Q. I have no interest in having anything about
4 you, I just want information from you.
5 A. Okay.
6 Q. What is your name and position for the
7 record?
8 A. My name is Lynn Onstot and my position is
9 Public Information Officer for the City of
10 Joplin.
11 Q. How long have you been a Public Information
12 Officer?
13 A. I started in '03 so ten years, almost eleven.
14 Q. And what does a Public Information Officer
15 do?
16 A. I'm responsible for communications to general
17 audiences such as the public, news media, as
18 well as coordinating news media interviews
19 and external communications such as that.
20 Q. I notice that you said newspaper. Would it
21 be if the City had information to be placed
22 in the newspaper that you would be the person
23 to do that?
24 A. Well, I don't take care of advertisements or
25 those things, I don't do that. Mine is the
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1 general information news releases, things of
2 that nature. Corresponding to them, working
3 with as far as the written word, yes. Now I
4 also coordinate with the newspaper to set up
5 interviews for other people to speak directly
6 with them.
7 Q. So would it be fair to say that all official
8 contacts from the City really should be as
9 far as information on behalf of the City
10 regardless of who it is should be run through
11 your office when it comes to a newspaper?
12 A. That was the policy, yes.
13 Q. And that remains the policy, isn't it?
14 A. As I understand it, yes.
15 Q. Have you had exceptions to that policy?
16 A. Yes, it seems after the disaster, obviously
17 in 2011 in May as you know we suffered a
18 tornado, there was a lot of news media in
19 town and contacting us with all sorts of
20 aspects and they were able to coordinate or
21 contact rather directly with some
22 individuals.
23 Q. Who would be those individuals?
24 A. It wasn't necessarily an allowance, it was
25 just who they got to. Ideally we were trying
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1 to coordinate any critical information such
2 as the death count and things of that nature
3 through my office. Of course in that
4 situation you also want to clear it through
5 the City Manager's office as well as the
6 attorney's office.
7 Q. You've mentioned at least three offices,
8 yourself, the City Attorney, and City
9 Manager?
10 A. In the disaster stage, yes. In regular
11 stages typically when I release information
12 it goes through the City Manager's office for
13 approval.
14 Q. And are you part of the City Manager's
15 overall supervisory --
16 A. Yes, I'm part of his staff.
17 Q. Okay. So you are part of the staff. So the
18 City Manager when he has communications to
19 release should he go through you?
20 A. He has worked with me, yes. We typically
21 have them working directly to send
22 information. There are times where he is
23 directly contacted and he responds directly
24 to them and I am not involved.
25 Q. Are those only under emergency conditions or
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1 does he just not follow the policy?
2 A. I believe he has contacted them directly,
3 yes.
4 Q. Do you have any reason to explain why he
5 would do that in contradiction to the policy
6 of the City?
7 A. Other than a matter of convenience and
8 timeliness, that would be the reasons I
9 believe it would be done, but I don't know
10 why, you know, he would have to answer that
11 question.
12 Q. There has been discussion in the City Council
13 about certain information allegedly
14 concerning Councilman Scearce that was
15 communications directly between the City
16 Manager and the newspaper editor.
17 A. Uh-huh.
18 Q. Do you have any knowledge about that or why
19 that came about directly without involving
20 your office?
21 A. No, I do not.
22 Q. In fact, it should have involved your office,
23 don't you believe?
24 A. It was not a news inquiry made into my office
25 so I was not aware of the situation at that
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1 time.
2 Q. You would likely be or should be made aware
3 of a situation that would be critical like
4 that I mean because here I am and the whole
5 thing has now resulted in probably tens of
6 thousands, and maybe hundreds of thousands of
7 dollars over this matter and I'm just
8 wondering why normal procedures would not
9 have been followed. Do you have any excuse
10 for that?
11 A. No, I do not. I did not know about it until
12 Bill Scearce called the press conference.
13 Q. So do you have any personal information about
14 the alleged note that Bill Scearce was given
15 or how he acquired it?
16 A. I was told it was found on the floor.
17 Q. Who told you that?
18 A. Brian Head.
19 Q. Did Brian Head tell you who had found the
20 note?
21 A. He said he found it.
22 Q. He found it?
23 A. Uh-huh.
24 Q. Okay. So as far as you know there was no
25 official communication through the
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1 appropriate source as to contact with the
2 newspaper editor for any matters involving
3 that incident?
4 A. No.
5 Q. Are you aware of when Mr. Steve Cope, his
6 office was accused of some wrongdoings?
7 A. I was brought in when there were going to be
8 some staff changes, yes, and we had to
9 address that in the public's eye.
10 Q. Wasn't there already a leak to the newspaper
11 prior to that?
12 A. I can't recall the order of activities, but
13 that is not unusual for the media to have
14 information sometimes before my office does.
15 Q. And the only place that information would
16 come from would be the City Manager, isn't
17 that true?
18 A. It depends on who all knows it. It just
19 depends. I'm not really sure how that
20 information could get there. There's a
21 variety of different - again in each
22 circumstance it depends on which party is
23 involved, what parties are involved, and what
24 the relationship is with the news media.
25 Q. Well, I understand the information that was
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1 released was that Mr. Cope and several other
2 engineers above him were actually accused of
3 stealing from the City hundreds of thousands
4 of dollars. Is that generally your
5 knowledge?
6 A. Well, I don't know if the accusation of theft
7 was made at that time. Wrongdoing and
8 clerical errors and a lack of supervision of
9 his own staff and deposits and things like
10 that was what I understood to be done since
11 there was a police investigation I know
12 because of those errors.
13 Q. Now the police investigation, would that have
14 occurred prior to your receiving information
15 from outside sources back?
16 A. Sometimes there would be, you know, on
17 internal matters sometimes the police may get
18 involved before any information is released
19 to the public. In this case we did release
20 information to the public and then after that
21 a police investigation was discussed.
22 Q. Who released the information that money was
23 missing from the City?
24 A. It came through a news release from my
25 office.
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1 Q. And who was responsible for the contents of
2 that?
3 A. I was working with Assistant City Manager Sam
4 Anselm and City Manager Mark Rohr.
5 Q. So the information about whether there was
6 money missing or whether or not there had
7 just been improper billing or whether or not
8 there was clerical errors you didn't have any
9 inside information on that at all, did you,
10 personally?
11 A. No.
12 Q. So whatever information was released came
13 from either the City Manager or the Assistant
14 City Manager?
15 A. Yes, they provided me with the information
16 and asked me to craft a news release in
17 relationship to that.
18 Q. And they gave you specific directions on what
19 to say?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Is that normal procedure that the City
22 Manager or the Assistant City Manager
23 actually tell you what to release, or are you
24 normally at liberty to develop the form of
25 the press release?
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1 A. In general matters such as parks and
2 activities, parks openings, activities,
3 things of that nature that are general
4 knowledge I usually work with the department
5 heads. In this matter since it was a City
6 Manager issue, so to speak, he was handling
7 it, it came directly from him working as the
8 department head, per se.
9 Q. And as a result of that one of the engineers
10 was demoted, wasn't he?
11 A. Yes, he was.
12 Q. And who was that?
13 A. That was David Hertzberg.
14 Q. And did you ever talk with Mr. Hertzberg
15 about his knowledge of why all this happened?
16 A. I'm trying to recall.
17 Q. I mean prior to issuing any statements.
18 A. Oh, prior to? No.
19 Q. What about Mr. Cope?
20 A. I know Mr. Cope was on our floor quite a bit
21 and he was very frustrated, but I did not
22 know to the nature of what it was.
23 Q. So would it be fair to say that there was no
24 input from any other City employee other than
25 the City Manager or the Assistant City
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1 Manager directly you what to say about that?
2 A. No. Yeah, there was no other involved.
3 Q. No other involved?
4 A. Uh-huh.
5 Q. So no chance for exchange of information
6 between any of the other parties?
7 A. No.
8 Q. It seems like sensationalism to me, but I
9 mean I would normally think that a gatherer
10 of facts would gather the facts.
11 A. Right. Let me back up a little bit. Brian
12 Head I believe during that time was on
13 vacation or was out of the office, I'm not
14 sure what the nature of his absence was, but
15 Peter Edwards, our Assistant City Attorney
16 was also in the room a couple of times we
17 discussed the press release.
18 Q. Did he contribute anything?
19 A. He worked very closely in the wording, to be
20 careful of how we worded it, yes.
21 Q. In the wording it actually pretty well - I
22 mean I don't have that in front of me right
23 now, but I have read it. It's pretty
24 accusatory as I read it. Do you agree with
25 that?
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1 A. Yes, it was pretty strong.
2 Q. Let me ask you this question. Have you ever
3 seen the note between the City Manager that
4 was allegedly taken from some information
5 over the phone?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Do you know he was talking with when he took
8 that information?
9 A. No, I just heard what was on the note, but I
10 don't know.
11 Q. What did you hear?
12 A. I heard the name Carol Stark I believe was on
13 the note, I believe her phone number, and I
14 can't remember what else. It related, yeah,
15 to the investigation of the incident so I
16 can't remember if there was a gentleman's
17 name that had rented from Bill Scearce or
18 there was some sort of connection there with
19 the FBI, the investigation that had taken
20 place in Bill Scearce's rental matters.
21 Q. And once again you never subsequently were
22 involved in any press releases about that,
23 the City Manger dealt with that directly?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Okay. Did you ever make any effort to put
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1 any information in from Bill Scearce if he
2 had additional information or corrective
3 information?
4 A. No, Bill Scearce issued a statement at a
5 press conference I believe the second week in
6 August and that was my first knowledge of it.
7 Q. So he went around you, also?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Well, it must be a little bit insulting for
10 you to have your career like that and have
11 people go around you, I would think. You
12 would like the procedure to be such that you
13 would be involved I would think in any
14 release, wouldn't you?
15 A. It would sure help when I get calls from the
16 media, yes.
17 Q. And you would normally receive the calls
18 back?
19 A. Yes, and that's actually how I learned about
20 the press conference of Bill Scearce, or Bill
21 Scearce had called one of the news media
22 sources that had called about Bill Scearce's
23 press conference.
24 Q. Okay. I guess an elected official, the City
25 Manager or in different positions, I suppose,
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1 but it seems to me the City Manager should
2 follow his own procedures. Would you agree
3 with that as far as information released?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Can you tell me have you had occasion to work
6 with the City Manager closely at any time
7 during your career?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Can you tell me what observations you have
10 made as being someone that works under his
11 supervision and within his department? How
12 is his managerial style exhibited?
13 A. He lets you do the work, he supervises when
14 the matter is close to his office, so to
15 speak, when it's involving City wide efforts
16 that obviously the Council and his office
17 would be interested in. I do try to keep him
18 apprised of anything that would relate to
19 that before we go to the public.
20 Q. Have you had any experiences with so-called
21 the wrath of the City Manager? I've had
22 people discuss his style with me and I
23 wondered if you had made any observations
24 about that?
25 A. Yes, I have seen that.
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1 Q. And what observations can you make so I can
2 record that?
3 A. There is frustration on his part, I believe,
4 when a situation is not out of control, but
5 there's something that is very difficult to
6 control and possibly will make the City look
7 bad as a whole.
8 Q. And what kind of reaction does he exhibit?
9 A. He's loud.
10 Q. Is it threatening gestures, slamming doors?
11 A. Slamming doors, loud. At one matter there
12 was a threatening gesture, I can't exactly
13 remember what it was, we were across the
14 desk. I was at my desk and he was in a chair
15 and he stood up and bellowed for a moment,
16 but then I just --
17 Q. But you were put aback by that?
18 A. I thought I would lose my job at that time,
19 yes.
20 Q. Not conducive to good management in the
21 public sector, I wouldn't think, is it?
22 A. It was a difficult situation because of the
23 disaster, but it's somewhat intimidating and
24 very disrespectful.
25 Q. Have you experienced that on other occasions
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1 with the City Manager?
2 A. He does get frustrated when there is some
3 disagreement with maybe an opinion or a
4 decision to move forward on some matters and
5 he will dismiss you, you know, or dismiss any
6 opinion or other comments you might have.
7 Q. Publicly?
8 A. Publicly he just doesn't acknowledge you.
9 Q. Which is probably just as bad?
10 A. It can be. You know, it's interesting on how
11 he aligns co-workers.
12 Q. When you say co-workers or aligned, I mean I
13 guess you've seen it with other co-workers,
14 also, with the City Manager exhibiting these
15 tendencies?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. How many different people have you seen that
18 with?
19 A. Probably --
20 Q. I mean lots?
21 A. No, usually the department head level, yeah.
22 Maybe occasionally as staff I will hear about
23 it, but our offices sit on the same floor. I
24 sometimes hear door slamming. Sometimes a
25 loud voice, but not knowing what the words
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1 are.
2 Q. As working under him would you be critical of
3 yourself if you performed like the City
4 Manager does to your employees?
5 A. Would I be critical of myself if I behaved
6 that way?
7 Q. Yes.
8 A. Yes, I would.
9 Q. You don't think it has a place in the City
10 government?
11 A. No.
12 Q. I mean I've talked with other people. This
13 is not the first time I've heard this. Is
14 this such that has this been continuous
15 throughout his period of reign in this
16 community? I mean it seems to me that this
17 has been a longstanding problem?
18 A. There's a divide and conquer mentality. Not
19 too many sit at a table in a meeting on a
20 project, but that's the way he chooses is to
21 work one-on-one with people on a lot of
22 different projects.
23 Q. So he doesn't work with the consensus of his
24 employees?
25 A. Not what I've seen, no.
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1 Q. Have you ever worked under another City
2 Manager?
3 A. Yes, I have.
4 Q. Who was that?
5 A. I worked under Steve Lewis originally for
6 approximately eleven months, and then Harold
7 McCoy was interim for about a year.
8 Q. And Harold has done it more than once?
9 A. Yes, yes, but I had it on his last stint
10 after Steve left before Mark came.
11 Q. Was there a marked difference between those
12 styles and this individual's style, Mark?
13 A. Yes, considerably.
14 Q. To the worse, I assume?
15 A. Yes. Well, as far as in the Public
16 Information Office position typically Mr.
17 Lewis, it was a new position and would bring
18 me in originally to talk about the perception
19 and how we were going to discuss different
20 matters and felt it was a value of opinion
21 there in discussions.
22 Q. Well, at least you were able to express your
23 concern and he took it into consideration?
24 A. Correct.
25 Q. You're not able to do that with Manager Rohr?
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1 A. No, not unless asked, but that's infrequent.
2 Q. And I guess the same thing would be true of
3 Harold?
4 A. Harold, yes, Harold had a different style as
5 well, but never to the temper level.
6 Q. You actually work under his supervision as a
7 department head?
8 A. Well, I'm not officially a department head, I
9 don't supervise anyone, but I do go to all
10 the meetings and such. It's because I
11 believe it's the communications person. I do
12 now work with Sam Anselm, the Assistant City
13 Manager. He kind of serves as what I call a
14 buffer between Mark and I.
15 Q. And you appreciate that buffer, I assume?
16 A. I do. Yes, I feel much more relaxed in my
17 job.
18 Q. Would it actually be true that Mark Rohr does
19 not have a conducive atmosphere for good
20 working conditions under his supervision with
21 the higher ups?
22 A. Yes, I would say that's true.
23 Q. I mean if anything that has gotten worse, it
24 certainly hasn't diminished any?
25 A. No, it has not diminished.
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1 Q. Do you believe the City Council is aware of
2 this? I mean if you know. You may not know
3 how many of the City Council members know.
4 Have you ever discussed with any City Council
5 members Mark's conduct?
6 A. Not specifics, no.
7 Q. That would be kind of like putting your chin
8 out of line, wouldn't it?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And Mark has changed a lot of faces since
11 he's been here in all the department heads,
12 hasn't he?
13 A. Yes, he has.
14 Q. I've heard that the City Clerk has expressed
15 concern about working under his supervision.
16 Have you heard that?
17 A. Yes, there was a discussion of that under the
18 Charter review that is currently taking
19 place. That was a question brought to the
20 Charter Review Commission to consider. Since
21 then they have decided that's not a
22 recommendation they're going to put forward
23 to the Council. We have our final report
24 meeting tonight, but that's what I understand
25 they're going to report is not to recommend
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1 that.
2 Q. And that's because Barb won't work under that
3 condition?
4 A. I'm not sure exactly the reason, just that
5 discussion.
6 Q. If you had your choice would you like to be
7 in a different department with someone else
8 buffering between you and Mark Rohr?
9 A. I would like to continue doing
10 communications, yes, and it would be
11 beneficial, I think, for the City to have
12 better communications for my position with
13 the supervisor, yes.
14 Q. And that's expressed - I mean what is your
15 background in your position with public
16 information?
17 A. I have a Bachelor's of Arts Degree in
18 Communications if that's what you're asking,
19 Public Communications. Have worked 15 years
20 prior to coming to the City in communications
21 and media relations, special event planning
22 and marketing and some paid advertisement
23 positions, but feel pretty well versed in
24 dealing with media relations and the public
25 and customer service, yes.
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1 Q. I mean it's an expertise?
2 A. Media relations is something that, yes, it
3 can be taught, but you really need to do it
4 to learn it and you have to know your market.
5 Q. Does the City Manager have any background in
6 that that you know of?
7 A. No, I don't believe he does.
8 Q. So would it be a fair statement that he
9 really doesn't know how to use your
10 expertise?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Do you have any statements about Mr. Head
13 that are of significance or anything the
14 Council should know?
15 A. Brian is a hard worker. It's unfortunate
16 that we call it, you know, the City Manager's
17 office and the Attorney's office is always at
18 odds and it creates a large divide in any
19 kind of project development.
20 Q. So there's internal politics that disturb the
21 performance of the employees because of the
22 divide between those two?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Let me ask you, I was hired to discuss two
25 problems, one with Bill Scearce's alleged
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1 activity in some kind of a gambling ring. Do
2 you have any knowledge of that of your own
3 self?
4 A. Of the gambling ring?
5 Q. Yes.
6 A. I knew that there were bookies in town, but I
7 had no idea about Bill Scearce renting
8 property to them. I knew nothing about that,
9 but I knew there was, you know, what I
10 consider amateur bookie operations.
11 Q. And you don't know if Bill was ever involved
12 in that personally, do you?
13 A. No.
14 Q. There's an allegation that Mr. Woolston is a
15 Councilman that engages in matters with real
16 estate that causes frequent conflicts of
17 interest. Do you know of any information
18 about that that I should know about?
19 A. No.
20 Q. And would you have an opinion that the
21 divisiveness between the City Manager and the
22 City Attorney is negative to the City's
23 involvement in public matters?
24 A. I believe there are often conflicts or
25 discussions that aren't brought forward until
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1 the very last minute making it difficult for
2 the Council to make a decision, difficult for
3 the City Attorney and the Finance Director to
4 read contracts and make sure it's to the
5 benefit of the City because things aren't
6 discussed soon enough.
7 Q. And that would be at the discretion of the
8 City Manager of not getting that information
9 out sooner?
10 A. I believe so, yes.
11 Q. Would that divisiveness that exists there, do
12 you believe that the City Manager has any
13 role in divisive nature between the present
14 Council members that sit on the City Council?
15 Does he play a role in that divisiveness
16 also in your opinion? If you know?
17 A. I don't know any specifics, but obviously
18 there's two different factions on the
19 Council.
20 Q. Does he have favorites?
21 A. I don't know. I mean I don't know his
22 specific favorites necessarily, but he's
23 obviously aware of those who are not in favor
24 of it.
25 Q. And that would be because of public votes, I
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1 would assume?
2 A. I would assume so and probably discussions in
3 his office and just the general questioning
4 of projects and things of that nature.
5 Q. So there certainly is a divisiveness that
6 exists on the Council as well as in City
7 government?
8 A. Can you define the word divisiveness in this
9 case?
10 Q. Well, I mean we know there seems to be two
11 major sides?
12 A. Uh-huh.
13 Q. I mean one seems to favor the City Manager
14 and one seems to favor the City Attorney in
15 the City management issue, and then also on
16 the Council I see a reflection there. I
17 wondered if you did?
18 A. I don't know if it's necessarily specifically
19 related to the people or to the positions.
20 Again I think it goes back to not having
21 enough time to go over the information.
22 Q. And who gets the information early?
23 A. Right.
24 Q. And who does not?
25 A. Yes, but I understood, and again I'm not sure
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1 how this is done, but I understood when one
2 Council member gets it they all get it. That
3 is what I understand should be happening.
4 Whether it does or does not I do not know.
5 Q. Okay. You don't know whether or not he
6 brings certain people in at certain times or
7 whether he discloses this information to them
8 all at the same time?
9 A. Right.
10 Q. Okay. Thank you for your time. Is there
11 anything that I should have asked you or
12 should have inquired about that we have not
13 had an opportunity to do that?
14 A. No, not that I can think of.
15 Q. I'm not giving the specific transcripts to
16 the City, but I'm excerpting things so that
17 no one will have these transcripts.
18 A. Will my name be used at all?
19 Q. I don't know. I mean as a practical matter
20 your name will be used from the standpoint of
21 how many people have I talked with. I don't
22 know if the court reporter has a better idea,
23 but I think there's at least 30. I haven't
24 counted them yet, but there's a lot of people
25 I've talked with.
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1 A. Well, with this type of questioning I would
2 say it sounds like you may have talked to all
3 departments and I'm not sure exactly where
4 you're going, but I'm sure you have talked to
5 quite a few.
6 Q. That's right. So thank you very much for
7 your time.
8 A. Thank you. Appreciate it.
9 Q. And your efforts?
10 A. This would be more my position question. Is
11 there a time line when you'll be releasing
12 this information in the process or is that
13 something Brian will know?
14 Q. Yeah, Brian will know. I'll make a report of
15 sorts, a written report concerning my
16 recommendations to the City Council in
17 chambers and then who knows what they're
18 going to do with my report, probably publish
19 it the next day, I don't know.
20 A. Is that a closed meeting where you make your
21 report into the investigative matters?
22 Q. Yes, it will be, but I'm certain the next
23 minute they go into open meeting they'll
24 probably throw my report on the table so
25 that's probably the way it goes. And you
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1 would hope that you would have that a little
2 bit ahead of time?
3 A. Again for my job so I would know.
4 Q. I would suggest that you talk with Mr. Head
5 because I will be running my information at
6 some point to him. Not ahead of the
7 information to the Council, but he will know
8 more specifically my deadlines so I would
9 think, I would hope that between the time the
10 City Council gets it you'd have an
11 opportunity to brief yourself but I can't
12 promise that. That's way out of my control.
13 A. Right. Brian and I will discuss it.
14 Q. You and City Attorney Head should talk.
15 A. On how he wants it handled. Like will you be
16 doing this prior to the new year or will this
17 be in January?
18 Q. No, it will be probably in February.
19 A. Just holidays are always hard.
20 Q. Yes, they're already hard enough.
21 A. Right. Just timing. So that's just part of
22 my job.
23 Q. I understand.
24 A. Thank you.
25 Q. Thank you.
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1
2 (SWORN STATEMENT CONCLUDED)
3
4
5
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REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE
STATE OF MISSOURI
ss.
COUNTY OF JASPER
I, SHARON K. ROGERS, Certified Court Reporter in the
State of Missouri, do certify that pursuant to the
foregoing Stipulation the witness came before me on the
17th day of December, 2013, was duly sworn by me, and was
examined. That examination was then taken by me by
steno-mask recording and afterwards transcribed; said Sworn
Statement is subscribed by the witness as hereinbefore set
out on the day in that behalf aforesaid and is herewith
returned.
I further certify that I am not counsel, attorney, or
relative of either party, or clerk, or stenographer of
either party or of the attorney of either party, or
otherwise interested in the event of this suit.
_________________________
SHARON K. ROGERS, CCR-650
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