Pulp Nonfiction: Mpls Civil Rights gets Jordan shakedown

Controversy grows over director’s leadership style

By Anna Pratt (January 16, 2008)

Originally published in The Spokesman-Recorder

To dramatic effect, Michael Jordan, director of the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights (MDCR), indicated bold changes were in store for the department when he intoned a biblical passage, Ezekiel 25:17, to a roomful of staffers this past summer.

Intentional or not, his unforgettable speech has been likened to that of the redemptive gangster in the hit film Pulp Fiction (Jules, played by Samuel L. Jackson), who recites the scripture ritually just before opening fire on someone (illuminated by a January 9 Star Tribune story, “Minneapolis civil rights director feels heat turned up”).

The familiar verse goes: “And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to destroy and poison my brothers… And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”

With that, Jordan says, he wanted to send a clear message: that he wouldn’t put up with the kind of stuff that had historically plagued the department, such as infighting, nepotism, and much more.

Despite that legacy, those bearing the brunt of his sermon seem to be some of the MDCR’s newest employees. While its 2008 budget stresses eliminating a backlog of civil rights complaints, Jordan fired the investigator who had made the biggest dent in it. Ingrid Tollefson was let go in July, just before reaching the end of her one-year mandatory probationary period, sources say.

By contrast, one employee that Jordan has pointed to as indispensable for his singular knowledge of the Contracts and Compliance Unit database is Thmaris Richardson. Richardson, whose year-to-year contracts defy AFSCME union rules, has a criminal record and was incarcerated in the Hennepin County Jail on Monday, January 14, according to online records.

On December 28, Jordan terminated another investigator, Susan Benjamin, also barely before the cut-off date of her one-year preliminary period. Shortly thereafter, investigators Doug Belton, Maria Just and Meilin Opinata turned in their two-week’s notice, en masse. That left supervisor Ron Brandon (a.k.a. “AC” or “Al Capone” from fraternity days) as the sole investigator, while civil rights complaints continued to mount.

Meanwhile, Brandon is himself the subject of an ongoing human resources investigation in response to an internal complaint that was filed nearly a year ago. In the interim, his managerial duties had been taken away. Jordan restored his authority over the rest of the investigators sometime in October, according to a source who wanted to remain anonymous.

Jordan’s lax response to five prominent Black police officers has also been scrutinized; the officers had approached him before they filed a recent federal lawsuit against the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and Police Chief Timothy Dolan, citing allegations of racial discrimination.

Over the past six months, Jordan has served the remainder of a term begun by previous director Jayne Khalifa, who is now the deputy city coordinator for Minneapolis. Michael K. Browne headed the department during the interim. On December 21, the city council approved Jordan’s appointment to a full two-year term.

City Council Member Elizabeth Glidden (Ward 8) opposed Jordan’s appointment, while City Council Member Ralph Remington (Ward 10) abstained. “I’m very concerned,” said Glidden. “I had heard of some things happening within the department, including from outside parties such as attorneys.”

But City Council Member Barb Johnson (Ward 4) continues to be upbeat about the new director, praising him as someone who has “leadership and management experience needed in the Civil Rights Department… It’s important to have a department that’s not beset by personnel and morale issues to increase the capacity of the department.”

In this case, “The folks who left were short-term employees. They were hired under the previous director. It’s not shocking that they would leave,” she said.

‘Not here to be friends’

Jordan ascribes to what he has dubbed the T.A.S.T.E. model for the workplace — that stands for truth, accountability, support, trust and empowerment. “Anyone who does not follow this, those are the people who are not allowed to stand in the organization,” he said during a phone interview Friday, January 11.

What that has to do with the investigators who were fired or quit, however, is unclear. None of the investigators agreed to be interviewed. In Tollefson’s case, Jordan said he had not had enough time to adequately review her performance, even though he says he didn’t have any particular concerns about her work. He asked that her probation be extended by 60 days, an offer she refused, according to an undisclosed source.

Belton, who he hired in September, is the only investigator for whom Jordan administered a kind of informal exit interview. “He seemed like he wanted to talk to me… The others did not,” Jordan explained. An ex-cop who had given 15 years to the force, Belton left for a better job with the Target Corporation, according to Jordan.

Although he hasn’t himself verified the contents of the complaint against Brandon, Jordan says an HR manager gave him the gist of it: “…basically an employee who didn’t get along with Brandon,” he said. Since 10 months had lapsed since the complaint was filed, Jordan assumed there were no significant problems to restrict Brandon (who, according to data from the department, has been its least productive investigator over the past year).

“Having been around the investigation world, I made an educated decision that [the complaint] doesn’t have the validity to keep him [Brandon] from a supervisory responsibility,” Jordan said. But, some undisclosed sources say the complaint points to allegations of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and a hostile work environment, among other things. Brandon declined to comment.

“I’m not here to make sure everybody likes everybody… I’m not here to baby-sit,” Jordan retorted, with the mayor’s policy aide and Communications Manager Jeremy Hanson present during the phone interview.

As a matter of fact, there must’ve been a similar exodus about a year-and-a-half-ago, Jordan reasoned, pointing to several close-together start dates among the investigators. However, upon MSR’s closer inspection, it turns out that some of the departed investigators had been around on a temporary contract before they became full-time employees, according to an undisclosed insider. For example, Opinata had been an intern and a contract employee before becoming a full-timer over a three-year period.

Still, turnover is nothing new for the department, Jordan maintained. That may be true; over half of the department’s staff has been hired within the last five years while its turnover rate is as much as three times higher than in many other City departments, according to the 2008 City budget that can be found on the City’s website (ci.minneapolis.mn.us).

To counteract that, “Affirming and training the current workforce is crucial to employee retention and satisfaction, as well as cross-training for positions identified as critical to ensure essential job functions continue without interruption,” as stated in the budget document.

Not just investigators have recently come and gone in the department, however. The Civil Rights Commission liaison, who acts as the gopher between the department and the Civil Rights Commission, working closely with the director, has been a revolving door since Jordan’s arrival (changing over several times), as noted by several civil rights commissioners.

Former commission liaison P.J. Hubbard, who left soon after Jordan was put in charge, remarked over the phone, “I was not happy with the direction things were moving in.” For one thing, pertaining to some of his job duties, he was in an awkward position. “I was being pitted against the body of individuals [commissioners] I was there to support,” he said.

Increasing professionalism?

Last year, the Complaint Investigations Unit (CIU) focused on staff training, as referenced in the MDCR’s budget for this year. CIU altered procedures to account for “deficiencies,” which has “significantly improved the writing, legal analysis and overall quality of CIU’s work product.”

On then-interim director Browne’s last day on the job, the investigators, who had law degrees, thus raising the bar for the job, were to be rewarded for having closed over 100 cases so far that year (late June), as confirmed by sources who declined to be named. However, the ceremony was cancelled and was never rescheduled.

Sometime during Jordan’s tenure, the investigators’ productivity plummeted; eventually they were getting half as much done as they had before (which had gone well above and beyond that of previous investigators). Now, Jordan says he is hiring four contract investigators who have “equal and better capabilities” than their predecessors.

Bringing in more expertise will enhance the level of professionalism to be found throughout the 25-person office, he emphasized, including someone with 20-plus years of experience working in the justice system who speaks three languages, he boasted.

But with so many contract employees in the office, there might be problems further down the road, others say. The new investigators are currently enlisted for six months. Jill Kielblock, business representative for AFSCME Council 5 that represents the investigators, said via email, “The Union does have a concern about the hiring of individuals on individual employment contracts instead of under Civil Service rules.”

Although the union and the City had previously reached an agreement about contract employees, “Given Mr. Jordan's statement to the press that he has individuals on contract, the Union has requested more information about those individuals and their contracts,” she said.

Jordan would not say what would likely happen in six months, when the investigators’ contracts are up. What he would say was that, “I can guarantee that we’ll have more accurate, more thorough investigations than we have in the past.”

Direction for the department

Jordan says he is focused on carrying out the mandates of the Civil Rights Ordinance. Looking forward, “We support the [Civil Rights] Ordinance to eradicate discrimination… That’s what the results will be,” said Jordan.

A work plan has been developed to address the Contracts and Compliance Unit’s policies and procedures for a better use of resources and greater efficiency (something a Humphrey Institute study released in May pointed out as needed). The work plan went before the city council in October, said Jordan.

Additionally, the Contracts and Compliance Unit has been beefed up with highly skilled staffers, he said. Systems will be put in place to engage small and underutilized businesses, which are disenfranchised due to lack of capital and other resources.

Meanwhile, the Multicultural Unit is doing things to make the city more welcoming, specifically for immigrants and minorities, “which is impactful for service and employment,” Jordan said.

As a testimony to its progress so far, “We’ve got people coming here to work in the department of civil rights. People are leaving good jobs to come here to work. I hope that’s because of me, for creating a positive image,” Jordan added.

Jeremy Hanson, the mayor’s policy aide and communications manager, said via email that, on top of the department’s core responsibilities, the mayor is especially supportive of Jordan’s strides to “improve outreach to the community and increase support for small, minority-owned businesses to thrive and grow.”

The mayor has directed MDCR to work with the Community Planning and Economic Development Department (CPED) to ensure small and underutilized businesses are included in City-funded projects in addition to the purchase of goods and services, underscoring the issues illuminated by the Humphrey study, according to rtrybak.com.

But some members of the Civil Rights Commission, which openly supported former interim director Browne, and other community members are more critical. Some commissioners say Jordan has an abrasive leadership style that lacks transparency. They’ve had a tough time getting answers on some things — the way Contracts and Compliance works, for instance.

One particular concern among some commissioners is the information that Jordan had met with a complainant to talk about the terms of his or her settlement without his or her attorney present, serving to “pierce the veil of the attorney-client privilege,” as described in legal terms. Jordan declined to comment on that, shrugging it off as irrelevant.

Going back to intra-office affairs, however, Commissioner Vladimir Monroe mainly regrets the loss of institutional knowledge, time and money that went away with the investigators who quit or were fired. He considers that shortsighted: “How do you replace experience?” he asked.

Not to mention that operating with a large number of temporary contracts seems counterproductive, as it disallows people to become vested in the department. In general, “We have to make sure people investigating civil rights don’t have a cause themselves. That’s dangerous,” said Monroe.

Commissioner Brian Pasko agreed. As a consequence of some recent events, he worries about the commission’s ability to do its job. It raises concerns about how the department and commission can serve complainants.

“My initial reaction is that it’s very clear something is going wrong in the department. Things need to change,” he said.

But one longtime connection of Jordan’s, former St. Paul Police Chief William Finney, has more hope for the future. In the 1990s, Jordan served as his public information officer for the St. Paul Police Department. Pointing to Jordan’s impressive resume, which also includes public safety commissioner (a post he was fired from under Gov. Arne Carlson), Finney gave him a sparkling endorsement:

“[Jordan] did an outstanding job. He was more than a public information officer. I confided in him and always regarded his counsel highly,” said Finney. “He helped us quite a bit with local law enforcement, especially with the recruitment and hiring of women and minority officers. He was always a positive person, a solution person. He was fair and just.”