City Councilwoman Trisha Raney: Why I voted not to release investigative report

In a post on her Facebook page last night, Joplin City Councilwoman Trisha Raney explained why she joined Mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean and Councilman Jack Golden in voting against the release of the investigative report that led to the firing of City Manager Mark Rohr. The report is scheduled to be released today:

Regarding tonight’s vote related to the release of the documents from the investigation.

The vote was to not appeal the recent court order that we release all of the documents. I voted no.

I believe in the protection of employees. City employees who testified in the investigation were told their testimony would remain private. It can be considered part of their personnel file. Personnel files are and should be private, even for public employees.

My vote had nothing to do with me trying to hide anything. I can't even imagine what I could be hiding.

My vote was about our responsibility as a City to appeal the court decision and try to protect our employees and their rights.

I would have voted for a partial appeal. What I wanted to do was go ahead and release most of the report and appeal the release of employee names and their testimony. The public still would have had the information, but the employees could have been protected.

If you don't want corruption and mismanagement in your city government, then employees need to feel comfortable talking in an investigation. How can they feel safe when there is a history of testimony being made public? I doubt that if there is another investigation in the foreseeable future that any City employee will talk.

I could not in good conscience vote to not do everything we can to protect our employees. To me, this was a call between people and politics. I knew my vote might prevent my re-election, but for me, people always win over politics.