ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

ST. LOUIS — Former Corrections Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah, whose tenure had for years drawn the ire of justice reform activists, faced disciplinary charges that led to her termination from city employment, a top city human resources official testified earlier this month.

And, the official said, the charges did not seem to be serious enough to warrant firing the jail commissioner.

The testimony from Deputy Personnel Director Sylvia Donaldson during an unrelated public hearing gave a rare peek into the city’s disciplinary system and shed some light on the departure of the controversial jail chief following the city’s Dec. 21 announcement that Clemons-Abdullah had been “separated� from city employment.

Mayor Tishaura O. Jones hired Clemons-Abdullah early in her term to clean up a jail with a growing reputation for mayhem and misery amid riots and inmate deaths. In the ensuing years, jail reformers, many of whom initially made up the mayor’s base of political support, blamed the jail chief for problems at the St. Louis City Justice Center, and the board the mayor appointed to oversee conditions there repeatedly clashed with Clemons-Abdullah. The mayor and Public Safety Director Charles Coyle, Clemons-Abdullah’s direct boss, largely defended the seasoned corrections official.

Then, in September, Clemons-Abdullah abruptly went out on leave, returning a couple months later in December. But on Dec. 21, the Saturday before Christmas, a mayoral spokesman announced Clemons-Abdullah no longer worked for the city. He did not say whether she had resigned or been fired.

Donaldson was working as acting personnel director around the time Clemons-Abdullah was on leave while her own boss, Sonya Jenkins-Gray, was on her own leave as she faced separate pre-termination charges from the mayor’s office. While most civil service employee disciplinary hearings are private, the city’s charter makes an exception for the city’s top human resources official. A lawyer for Jenkins-Gray, Ron Norwood, called Donaldson to testify on Feb. 4.

During Donaldson’s testimony, Norwood asked her whether she had experienced any incidents where the mayor’s office had tried to “work around� civil service rules.

Donaldson said she was involved in communications with Jones’ deputy chief of staff, Sara Baker, and Coyle, the public safety director, who was “looking for ... a position for commissioner Abdullah to land.�

“One of the positions they looked at was commissioner of towing,� Donaldson testified. “Well, commissioner of towing is not a position that belongs to the director of public safety. Towing is not a part of public safety, so it’s odd that he would ask for that.�

She said Coyle asked, if they did move Clemons-Abdullah to the towing position, “you’re the only person who can increase the maximum starting salary. We need an increase of about 40%. And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna be the only one who can do it, but I’m not doing that.’�

Later, she said she had a regular meeting with Jared Boyd, the mayor’s chief of staff, and Baker, the deputy chief of staff.

“One of the weekly meetings revolved around finding a place for Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah to land after she was terminated,� Donaldson said. “Now mind you, she hadn’t had a pre-termination review at all.�

She said they asked her to look at a resume of “the person they wanted to replace her with.�

“And I told Jared, I don’t have an action in front of me,� Donaldson said. “There’s no actionable item for me to look at. I have no interest in looking at somebody’s interview. And I made it real clear that Jennifer Clemons, like any other civil service employee, would have the right to due process and that means she has a pre-termination hearing, at which point she and or a representative that comes along with her would get a chance to talk about what the mitigating circumstances may have been around the situation.�

Donaldson said she insisted there was no vacant position to consider, and she called the request from the mayor’s office “inappropriate.�

Further, Donaldson suggested the charges against Clemons-Abdullah did not seem to rise to the level of immediate termination rather than discipline.

“There’s some things that are so egregious that they warrant termination,� Donaldson testified. “There’s a whole list of stuff we’ve been provided in regulation 117.�

That regulation lists a myriad of offenses that can warrant immediate termination rather than progressive discipline, including workplace violence, drug use, violation of federal or state laws, stealing city property, falsifying time sheets and other serious offenses.

“But those are not the things that happened, so there was no reason for me to likely assume that Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah was going to be terminated,� Donaldson testified.

Clemons-Abdullah was not at the Jenkins-Gray hearings that day. But she did attend several of the Jenkins-Gray hearings, along with other critics of Mayor Jones. She even appeared friendly with the Rev. Darryl Gray, the husband of Jenkins-Gray and an influential civil rights activist who as chair of the jail oversight board often criticized Clemons-Abdullah and the jail administration. Gray around the time Clemons-Abdullah left city employment that she had promised more transparency, and he dropped his request for her to resign in the hopes of better collaboration.

Told about Donaldson’s testimony during a later day of the public hearing, Clemons-Abdullah seemed surprised but declined to comment on the charges against her or whether she resigned or was fired. Afterward, she was seen speaking to Donaldson in the hallway outside the hearing room.

Mayoral spokesman Conner Kerrigan said the city didn’t comment on employee matters but that the administration was happy the jail “continues to improve� and is now safer and better equipped to reduce recidivism while building community trust.