By Ward Peck

Editor

    A tense debate about the need to evaluate South
Portland City Manager’s six-month tenure has spilled into the public
with charges of inappropriate behavior and poor judgment being leveled
against the manager, Mayor and the city’s legal counsel.

The debate is rooted in differing interpretations of City Manager Ted
Jankowski’s employment contract, which stipulates a six-month
probationary period, after which the council could evaluate his
performance.

    Several councilors, including Mayor Claude Morgan,
as well as Jankowski himself argued any such evaluation should be
conducted informally and have resisted using the word evaluation to
describe the executive session meeting held March 12 in which the
manager’s performance and current accomplishments were discussed.

    A smaller group of councilors lobbied unsuccessfully
to have a formal evaluation complete with performance review
questionnaires distributed to the manager’s colleagues, including city
hall staff and city department heads.

    Morgan, councilor Jim Hughes and out-going Human
Resource Director Bryan Smith, developed those evaluation
questionnaires, or “tools,” known as 360-degree evaluations. Morgan
said the evaluation forms were not finalized by the time of Jankowski’s
review. However several other councilors have said they were under the
impression the evaluation tools were ready to roll out.

    “In my opinion they’re ready to be used,” said
Councilor Maxine Beecher, who supported the decision to conduct an
informal review.

    “Those evaluations were ready, according to Jim
Hughes,” said Councilor Linda Boudreau, who supported a formal
evaluation process.

    Boudreau said she couldn’t understand why four
councilors– Morgan, Hughes, Beecher and Ralph Baxter– resisted a formal
evaluation.

    “There could have been a process, follow it and see
what you have,” Boudreau said. “The trouble is four councilors are
closing themselves out of having more information.”

    Baxter said he resisted a formal evaluation because
he felt six months was too short a time frame to determine anything,
especially considering Jankowski is the first manager to be hired from
outside in several decades.

    The debate spilled into the public following a
reporter’s request to see emails related to the decision to enter into
executive session regarding the evaluation.

    After councilors and staff had an opportunity to
release any such correspondence, the city’s attorney, Mary Kahl,
released a series of e-mails between Morgan and Jankowski preceding the
executive session that the city’s information technology department had
discovered.

    “I reviewed it and determined it was not protected
by any confidentiality,” Kahl wrote in a message attached to the
forwarded emails.

    Those e-mails reveal Morgan and Jankowski
strategizing over how to handle the evaluation process as well as
specific councilors in favor of a formal process.

    In the exchange, Jankowski writes about “Linda”
(Boudreau) “expanding this probationary check-off into a full-fledged
review.”

    Further on in the email Jankowski wrote, “However,
the broader concern is managing this place. If one councilor in
particular senses that there is any derision it will be difficult to
make some of the necessary changes to move the city forward in a
positive way.”

    The disclosure prompted Morgan to pointedly
criticize Kahl, replying in part, “I no longer have faith in your
ability to provide objective legal advice to this council.”

    Councilor Jim Soule, who has been critical of
Jankowski, wonders if that “one councilor” is him. Soule said he and
Jankowski have “butted heads” on several issues, including some that
preceded Soule’s November election to the council. Soule specifically
noted the manager’s handling of the Edgewood Road closure, which Soule
voted against. Soule, who requested to hear from public safety and
public works officials about their opinion on closing the road, said he
believes they were told by Jankowski not to show up at two council
meeting when the issue was being discussed. He also criticized
Jankowski’s decision not to take a position on the matter even as he
was negotiating a compromise solution with Cape Elizabeth officials.
Soule also questions whether three recent departures of city staff
members is an indication of problems with Jankowski’s management style
and are related to an alleged direction from Jankowski that city staff
and councilors not communicate directly. Soule said such questions
could have been resolved with a formal evaluation process.

    Morgan and Beecher reject the idea that Jankowski’s
style led to the recent departure of the Human Resource Director,
Deputy Appraiser and Library Director and say each had legitimate
reasons to leave that had nothing to do with the manager.

    The manager’s backers describe Jankowski’s role as
an outsider within the city administration as critical to changing some
bad habits that have developed over the past, and doing so is bound to
ruffle feathers.

    “He’s the first manager in 30 years who was not hired from within.” Morgan said

    Jankowski, Morgan, Beecher and Baxter all say
Jankowski’s direction regarding communication between staff and
councilors has been misinterpreted. Each said Jankowski has encouraged
communication between staff and councilors. They said Jankowski was
requesting that council not direct staff members to take specific
actions.

    Morgan cited several reasons for having specific
direction coming only from the manager, including reducing the
duplication of requests, creating a more efficient delivery of services
and elimination of what he described as “the buddy system.” Morgan
described a system that has developed over the years in which staff
members prioritize certain projects as favors for specific councilors.

    “The inverse of that is department heads would lobby
specific councilors during budget time to preserve certain line items,”
Morgan said.

    Whether there is still  a window of opportunity
to conduct a formal evaluation before Jankowski completes a year of
service is unclear, but Boudreau does not see why the council could.

    “I don’t know why council can’t sit down with its employee and do an evaluation at any time,” she said.