Carthage city employees to submit letters supporting mayor, city administrator

Apr. 16—CARTHAGE, Mo. — A pair of letters supporting current Mayor Dan Rife and City Administrator Greg Dagnan have gathered a number of signatures from city leaders ahead of the Carthage City Council meeting slated for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.

A letter of support from employees of the city was signed by the heads of the parks and recreation, police and public works departments, as well as the city clerk, the human resources director and 64 others. In all, it was signed by 69 of the 89 people who work in those departments, according to human resources director Michael Miller.

Jason Martin, assistant fire chief, confirmed that he and fire Chief Ryan Huntley also wrote a letter of support.

Miller said both letters will be presented to the council at Wednesday's special meeting.

Miller confirmed that the letter from the city employees was "a group effort amongst employees of every department."

"Those employees who organized this letter wish to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation," he added.

Martin and Huntley said in their letter: "If the City Council wants our honest opinion of Mayor Rife and Administrator Dagnan, they can ask us. During the last few months, some council members engaged us about our experiences regarding their character, integrity, competence, honesty, professionalism, and trustworthiness. We gave honest assessments in those cases. The two names you need to know from the Fire Department are listed above and we are ready to go on the record as extremely supportive of Mayor Dan Rife and City Administrator Greg Dagnan."

The other letter from the city employees states: "We, the undersigned employees of the City of Carthage, submit this letter to express our unanimous support for our department heads, including the mayor, city administrator, assistant city administrator, and city attorney. This declaration of support is presented voluntarily by each of us, without any coercion, and reflects our honest and professional opinions based on our experiences within the city administration."

It also states that the city employees don't trust the newly elected council and that mistrust may cost the city some of its employees.

"To be clear, we fully support Mayor Rife, City Administrator Greg Dagnan, and City Attorney Nate Dally and have no mistrust in them as leaders and city staff members," the letter from the city employees states. "We are not hostages of this current administration, but rather employees who enjoy working together under their leadership. Due to this mistrust in most of the City Council, we are on the verge of losing multiple employees to other organizations. While these positions can eventually be replaced, you cannot replace the many years of knowledge, experience, and dedication that these employees have. Our organization has operated more efficiently and productively in the last two years than it ever has in recent memory. We feel that your actions will lead to a drop in employee morale, a halt of important city projects, and a decrease in efficiency and productivity."

Meeting motions

Since the election April 2 of five new members to the council, there have been two meetings with motions to fire Dagnan and impeach Rife. Rife, citing language in the city charter, says they cannot fire Dagnan without his approval, which he has declined to give. A motion of no confidence in the mayor was passed last week by a 7-2 vote.

Nate Dally, currently the city attorney, has supported Rife's interpretation of the charter. On Friday, he submitted his resignation, effective May 10. In his letter of resignation, he said: "The recent council meetings underscore a continuing trend in the operations of the city's governance that I find unsustainable personally and professionally. The role of the city attorney, designed to uphold the city's legal integrity, has increasingly been politicized and misused beyond its intended purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I find the environment no longer conducive to professional operation as per the ethical standards expected of my office. I want to emphasize that this statement is not a reflection on my colleagues. No mayor, officer, or any city employee has ever attempted to influence my legal opinions. In fact, although I have often disagreed with mayors and various department heads over the years, they have consistently shown respect and diligence in adhering to the law."

Alan Snow, a member of the Carthage City Council for six years and the member who made the first motion last Tuesday to fire Dagnan, said he doesn't believe the issues before the current council have anything to do with other city employees.

"I believe this has to do with the trust of the council of the mayor and Greg Dagnan," Snow said. "In order to get the citizens to stop showing up and taking up an hour of time with public comments about the mayor and Greg Dagnan, we need to do something different. I've said from the beginning the only way I believe the city can move forward and get this divide at least smaller is by replacing Greg Dagnan. I can tell you it's not been easy on me because I consider Greg a friend and I've said all along I hate to see him go, but if that's what's best for the city, that's what we have to do."

Snow said the voters of Carthage spoke April 2 and that he believes in the results of the election.

"As much as they tried to make the election about only 1,000 people voted in the election, guess what? It was the highest voter turnout in five years," Snow said. "So people were more engaged in the election, and they did vote. We certified the election, it was a legitimate election, they ran on a platform, I wasn't a part of that. At the same time, if they ran on it, I'm going to support that side."

Dagnan said he appreciated the letters looked to move past the current disagreements.

"As I've said before, our city staff is the best group of professionals that I have ever had the honor of working with," Dagnan said. "Their words were truly humbling and appreciated. I hope the council will listen to our employees. Let's get past this and get back to moving the city forward."