Many mid-level HHSA managers oppose the appointment of Coleman as director

A labor organizer with Teamsters Local 137 is making the results of a union survey of mid-level HHSA managers public. They indicate 74% of respondents don’t support the appointment of Interim Director Christy Coleman as the new head of Health and Human Services. 

The Shasta County board will consider whether to appoint Coleman to the HHSA Director role during today’s meeting. There hasn’t been an open recruitment to fill the position, which oversees more than half the county’s budget and about 1,000 of its employees. 

Some of those employees aren’t happy with Coleman’s leadership, as documented by Heather McFall, Business Representative for Teamsters Local 137. In an email to supervisors sent late last week, McFall shared the result of the survey which was sent out to mid-level managers across the agency. About half responded. Of those, the majority said they do not support Coleman’s appointment.  A total of 82 staff voted, with 61 voting no.

McFall told Shasta Scout yesterday that she took definitive action in response to union members’ concerns about Coleman’s leadership a few months ago, issuing a warning to Coleman and several of her top staff that they were at risk of a vote of no confidence. The warning occurred in a meeting that also included CEO David Rickert and Support Services Director Monica Fugitt.

Coleman has since responded positively, McFall said, holding a number of one-on-one meetings with disgruntled employees, some of which McFall has sat in on at the employees’ request. 

But those efforts haven’t been enough yet, McFall said, to overcome many staff’s pervasive lack of trust in HHSA leadership. She said Coleman is part of what some view as a toxic workplace problem that they believe began under the leadership of former HHSA Director Laura Burch, who stepped down on medical leave last year before retiring August 1. 

Over the last few years, McFall told Shasta Scout, high-level HHSA staffers were placed in positions that they weren’t adequately prepared to hold. As a result, she said lmid-level managers were left to fill gaps in institutional knowledge and expertise as best they could while facing pushback from those placed in authority over them. 

Some HHSA leaders, McFall claims, have also been verbally abusive to staff behind closed doors. “The things they say and the things they think they can get away with saying are just outrageous,” she continued, explaining that some staffers refer to Coleman and others in top leadership positions as being part of “the mean girls club” because they either overlooked or participated in harassment and retaliation against employees.

Shasta Scout was unable to reach Burch for comment but Coleman responded by saying she believes in an open-door policy and will continue to foster open communication with HHSA employees. 

“I have met with all staff in the agency’s Administrative branch and have begun meeting with staff from other areas in the agency to ensure I and our entire HHSA leadership team are responsive to issues,” Coleman wrote by email. “Those meetings have been productive, and I look forward to learning more from staff, in whatever role I serve going forward. I take this responsibility seriously and hope to win over any staff who may have concerns.”

While Coleman has done an admirable job of working to regain trust over the last several months, McFall said, it’s not yet clear whether those efforts will be enough for Coleman to overcome the past and successfully lead the agency. 

Half-a-dozen mid-level managers and supervisors from within HHSA agreed to speak to Shasta Scout on the condition that their identities would be protected, due to fear that public statements could impact their jobs. 

One of them explained to a reporter that the toxic workplace they’ve experienced at HHSA has been worsened by financial mismanagement that’s occurred under the leadership of inexperienced top staff. Poor leadership at the agency, the supervisor said, has had an impact not only on staff morale but also on HHSA clients, many of whom are among the county’s most vulnerable populations. 

“One of the main issues with the toxic workplace,” the supervisor said, “is the turnover. When we don’t have enough staff we can’t serve the clients in the way they should be served. Also, morale. You can’t serve clients and help them when you’re suffering yourself. It’s hard to do and people just don’t have much to give because they’re just barely hanging on in these situations.”

Asked why some in HHSA’s top leadership have been referred to as “mean girls”, the staffer said some of their actions and words are “very petty”. 

“There is a lot of belittling,” the staffer explained.

Background and qualifications

Coleman, who holds a bachelors in business management and a masters in public administration, has worked for the Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency since 2019. Over her first few years she moved from her role as the head of the Housing and Community Action Agency to a position as Interim Director for Children’s Support Services.

In December 2022, Burch created a new top-level management position and hired Coleman to fill it as county’s first Assistant Director of HHSA. Coleman served as Burch’s second in command until the former director stepped away last year, at which time Coleman became Acting HHSA Director then later Interim HHSA Director.

McFall is urging the board to keep Coleman in the interim director role rather than promoting her to director, as HHSA’s leader continues to work to “address personnel issues and the toxic work environment that some employees have faced.” The labor organizer told the board that allowing Coleman a bit more time to tackle these issues could “greatly enhance her leadership effectiveness moving forward.”

In addition to concerns from staff about Coleman’s leadership, she also faces several additional challenges to being appointed to the HHSA director role. For one, she does not have the required qualifications to hold the concurrently required role of mental health director for longer than 12 months, a term that will expire in October of this year.

Also, in order for Coleman to be appointed to HHSA director role, supervisors will have to waive their own policy, which requires competitive merit-based practices, including an open recruitment process overseen by personnel.

In the past, Board Chair Kevin Crye has insisted on a national recruitment process when selecting for key positions including those of registrar of voters, county CEO, county counsel and the director of public works. 

Asked to comment yesterday on why he had put on the agenda a plan to waive the normal recruitment process for Coleman, Crye said he would articulate his thoughts on the matter during Tuesday’s meeting. 

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