The first five
in this series of six articles about the investigation
into the city's 911
center follow -- ordered by date.
11/24/99
12/01/99
12/28/99
2/9/00
3/15/00
In the city that works, it seems, you can get away with
anything as long as you're a bureau director with diabetes,
psoriasis, a sharp tongue and a really bad memory.
At least, that's how it looks from details of a taped
interview last October between Sherrill Whittemore and
city auditors--an interview in which the embattled 911
center boss on three occasions directly contradicted a
key statement she would later use to keep her job.
You remember Whittemore: Last October, a Bureau of Emergency
Communications employee blew the whistle on the agency
director for a variety of alleged improprieties, including
being at the office so infrequently it was a running joke.
City Commis-sioner Dan Saltzman ordered a special investigation
by the city auditor to look into these and other allegations
at the bureau, which dispatches the county's emergency
services.
Saltzman eventually tried to fire Whittemore, but in
February her legal team threatened the city with a discrimination
lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The
disability claim, which came as a surprise to Saltzman,
forced the first-term commissioner to reinstate the BOEC
director to her $84,000-a-year post on March 6.
Whittemore told Saltzman that because of her diabetes
and other ailments, she had been authorized by his predecessor--Commissioner
Gretchen Kafoury--to work at home. That statement, however,
contradicts what she told audit services director Dick
Tracy on Oct. 25.
According to a transcript of the taped interview, obtained
by WW through a public-records request, Tracy asked
Whittemore three times about whether she received an authorization
from her bosses to work from home.
Twice Whittemore answered, "Never." Once she said, "There's
been no agreements."
Contacted by WW earlier this week, Kafoury was
perplexed by that response.
"That sounds kind of weird," says Whittemore's former
boss, who recalls giving her an "informal accommodation"
in 1996.
Whittemore attributes the confusion to stage fright.
"I felt like I was being interviewed by the Gestapo,"
Whittemore says. "I was shell-shocked."
She claims she went into the Oct. 25 interview thinking
it was about small matters, not possible payroll fraud.
The questioning was so intense that she was taken off
her game, she says: "It was like, "Have you stopped beating
your kid?'"
That explanation can't sit well with Saltzman. Owing
to privacy laws, however, he can't even say why Whitte-more
kept her job.
He's now looking at a way to keep this from happening
ever again.
"I am looking at referring a charter revision to the
voters for this November, which would change civil-service
laws for bureau directors," he says. Currently, only Police
Chief Mark Kroeker, Fire Chief Bob Wall and Water Works
Director Michael Rosenberger are at-will employees. All
others enjoy civil-service protections.
The October interview may have confused Whittemore's
personnel issues, but it reinforced her reputation as
a loose talker. When Tracy asked her about the propriety
of vendor gifts hitting the BOEC floor, Whittemore snarled
back, "OK, fine, slap my ass.... Discipline me."
It got better. Late in the interview she responded to
questions about BOEC's reputation as a place where employees
have historically been more likely to be chewed out than
have their egos massaged. "I try not to have the chains
and the rubber hose in the back room anymore," she said.
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 5,
2000
