Suit: Sheely warned city to be more transparent with public safety project

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: O-TOWN INTERNAL CRISIS

The fired communications manager for the City of Owatonna claims she specifically told city leaders at the onset that they needed to be more transparent over the public safety project that has created a huge uproar over the past several months.

Ever since the proposal to build new police and fire stations in Owatonna for $65 million came to light earlier this year, many community residents have revolted and criticized the city for its lack of transparency.
 

Add to it now a former communications manager who basically reaffirms what residents have been critical about for months.

In a 38-page complaint filed by Deanna Sheely in her lawsuit against the city, she hints at how city leaders didn’t want to hear about her ideas to come clean with the public and basically had no plans to be forthright with the public over the issue.

“Ms. Sheely repeatedly advised early and robust community engagement and transparent communications on the project, as she had urged on City initiatives throughout her tenure,” the lawsuit alleges. “Her advice was dismissed. Ms. (Jenna) Tuma responded that the City was building a public safety facility, not a community center, and the City instead followed its outside consultants’ preference for minimal public communications.”

The suit pointed out how in January a community member who toured comparable facilities told Tuma the City needed to improve its communication about the projects—the same advice Sheely had been giving and being ignored on for months.

“The project’s political sensitivity gave (Tuma and others) a powerful motive to control the city’s public messaging, and to silence the communications professional who kept insisting that the City’s public communications be accurate, transparent and engaged,” the suit said.

Sheely’s claims seem to align in part with a public outburst from Tuma at a February open house about the project. At the time Tuma told Melissa Zimmerman, a community resident seeking information, “This is a done deal; we are not looking for any input.” Zimmerman said she then asked where residents could submit comments about the facilities; Tuma’s answer was that the city “is not seeking any comments from the public.”

Another source of transparency issues from the city appears to be with last year’s city budget. In her lawsuit, Sheely details how she was reprimanded for pulling an alleged incorrect number for the city’s tax levy increase.

After consulting with various leaders within the city as well as researching what had been certified by the state, Sheely found the tax levy would increase 13.9%, a figure she believed in good faith to be the increase that had been certified. Sheely had not published the figure.

However, Sheely placed the 13.9% figure in a draft of communications that would go out to the public. At an internal meeting, assistant city administrator Emily Thamert allegedly directed Sheely to use a figure of 13% and warned her that a different figure “would spark a red flag out in our community if it’s something different than 13.”

Sheely defended her use of the 13.9% figure. “This is the number that was certified. It’s not that, it’s inaccurate,” Sheely said referring to the city’s 13% figure.

She claims she told her superiors that the city must communicate accurate information to the public amidst ongoing public criticism that the city was not being transparent.

“Ms. Sheely’s reports were also forward-looking: she reported, in substance, that if the city continued communicating a levy figure to the public knowing that the underlying figures were different, the city would be making knowingly inaccurate official communications,” the suit said.

The suit added the irony bears noting that Tuma and other city leaders disciplined Sheely in the name of accuracy for attempting to verify a public figure herself at the very time the budget figures the city was presenting to the public did not add up.

Sheely’s lawsuit was filed in Steele County District Court Oct. 15. The city has responded by denying most of Sheely’s claims. No timeline has yet been established for the lawsuit.

To read the entire complaint against the city, go to https://steelecountytimes.com/sheely-lawsuit.