During last week’s City Council meeting, former alderman and current Whitesboro citizen Ben Edwards addressed the City Council, criticizing their leadership.
Edwards said two council meetings ago an employee (Whitesboro Police Chief Alex Coss) spoke to the council about concerns the employee had about division. He quoted Coss as needing assistance in resolving division amongst City staff and the City Council.
“Now, good leadership would have appreciated that employee having the willingness and resolve to speak publicly before a superior, which is never easy, but good leadership was not on display that day,” Edwards said. “Instead, that employee received a verbal official reprimand for speaking up.”
When Coss’s concerns were picked up by the press and made public, Edwards told the council they were once again given the opportunity to heed the concerns of the staff and begin to work to mend the divisions Coss spoke of.
“Instead, somehow you blamed the employee for the fact that it made the newspaper and placed [Coss] back on the agenda to discuss his job. Not because he had taken any further action, but because the citizens had been made aware. This is not leadership,” Edwards said.
He told the council that, in the next meeting, they claimed they weren’t trying to punish the Police Chief, but proceeded to berate the employee by questioning his motives.
“Asking him who put him up to it, why he gave his ‘little spiel’...that’s pretty insulting. Claiming that he broke the chain of command when in actuality, City Council is his direct supervisor,” Edwards said.
Edwards said the council made the statement, “We all have an issue with you coming and addressing us. Any concerns like that need to be addressed to us in private before going public.” Edwards asked why.
“Why shouldn’t it be in public? Why wouldn’t you want transparency?” he asked.
Edwards quoted the council’s sentiment that it is an embarrassment to the council that this ended up in the front page.
“What’s an embarrassment is y’all thinking that it’s okay to speak to your employees that way, to city staff. This is not leadership,” Edwards said.
“What kind of environment are we building here? One where employees have to fear for their jobs if they voice their concerns? This is how you lose good people. The last council worked to build up lines of communication with staff, worked to build a new culture with City Hall and in just four short months it’s already come to this,” Edwards said.
According to Edwards, members of the City Council are too secretive, little information being made public, refusing to communicate with much of city staff, an unwillingness to fulfill public information requests and no one knowing the council’s plans or goals. Edwards said that silencing opposing views and suppressing the voices of those they oversee is not what real leaders do.
He ended his address by saying, “You have a great opportunity to do much for the town in this role, but this is not a good start. I encourage you all to set aside your personal agendas and grudges and begin to do what’s best for Whitesboro.”