Annette Slack files lawsuit against county for 'retaliatory termination'

Annette Slack, the former executive director for St. Louis County’s Office of Community Empowerment and Diversity Program Manager, filed a lawsuit against the county government today for “retaliatory termination” and defamation.

“She was retaliated against for questioning the administration’s commitment to minority contractors and minorities in general,” said Slack’s attorney Robert Ramsey at a press conference on May 6, held in front of the St. Louis County Administration building. “In the process of eliminating her, they seem to go out of their way to go after her character.”

On February 28, County Executive Steve Stenger dismissed Slack, who was responsible for facilitating and overseeing the county’s disparity study. The study is meant to analyze the number of minority businesses in the region and help establish fair goals for employing minorities on government contracts. Ramsey said that Slack was dismissed for questioning why the county was not moving forward on the study – an action that the African-American community has long been pushing for.

Slack told The American she had no idea her dismissal was coming. She said Stenger’s team came to her at 4 p.m. on a Monday and told her she had been using her computer to grade her students’ tests. (Slack teaches a night class one day a week.)

And they said that she helped her nieces out of a traffic ticket using county resources. She said that was not true. She did help her nieces, but did so as an attorney, not a county employee.

A county spokesman told The American in March that he could not explain why Stenger chose to dismiss her because it was a personnel matter.

The lawsuit states that Slack was hired on April 5, 2015 and was told that she would have “the power and authority to implement programs that benefitted African Americans in the community.”

“That representation turned out to be false,” the court document states.

She discovered that her department was “allocated little or no budget.” The lawsuit states that Slack completed a proposal for the disparity study and presented it to the “defendants,” which are Stenger, three of his staff members and the county government. After Slack produced her initial draft of the request for proposals (RFP), Stenger’s team did not allow her to participate in any further actions on the study, the lawsuit states, and her request for updates were ignored.

It states that Slack overheard Shannon Weber, Stenger’s legislative affairs coordinator, in the hallway outside of her office “graphically expressing her displeasure with having to conduct” the disparity study.

On Feb. 8, she was asked to attend a Missouri Department of Transportation Contractor Symposium, where many minority contractors often participate. She told Jeff Wagener, the county’s chief of policy, that she would likely be asked about the disparity study and inquired about its status. Wagener did not provide her one, and she was indeed confronted by contractors at the meeting.

While at the symposium, she sent strongly-worded text messages to county spokesman Cordell Whitlock and Wagener, one stating, “I should know this information, it’s embarrassing! [It]Proves what everyone is saying this is a name only position.”

Jared Boyd, president of the Mound City Bar Association, said he filed a Sunshine law request with the county on March 14 to obtain any documents related to policy and procedures that would support to Slack’s termination. He also requested any emails sent to members of the media, where Stenger’s office leaked documents regarding Slack’s alleged wrongdoings. Such documents would likely be considered “personnel matters,” he said, and closed to public view. He has not received any response and has filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office.

The lawsuit states that on March 1, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported information – which Stenger and Whitlock gave to the newspaper – that Slack “used a county computer to prepare a syllabus and exam questions for a course in ‘Human Resource Management.’” Stenger’s team also leaked to the press that they found graded student papers that were allegedly prepared by Slack while on duty, the lawsuit states.

Whitlock and Stenger “made false public statement on television implying that [Slack] was in effect stealing from the county by doing private work for profit on county time and using county computers,” the court pleadings state.

In a statement to the American, Stenger wrote, “This lawsuit is without merit and contains false allegations. All the personnel actions taken were proper.”

The court documents also state that she did not have a second job and the documents found on her computer were backups.

As far as using the county’s computer for personal use, Ramsey said the county’s leader has far more egregious abuses to answer for. The lawsuit states that Stenger and other employees “have long had a custom and policy of using their official positions to improperly further their private interests.

Defendant Stenger and St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar recently sent official letters to federal authorities to influence the federal court to grant leniency to a large scale drug dealer.”

Ramsey said at the press conference, “I don’t see them being terminated.”

Stenger recently created a furor when he wrote a letter to a district judge on behalf of Michael Saracino II, a nephew of John Saracino, then Stenger’s director of constituent services (he since resigned) and a key member of Stenger’s campaign team.

The younger Saracino was sentenced in December to 24 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession and intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilos of marijuana.

“Based on my experience with Michael and his family, I respectfully request that you grant him leniency in your sentencing for the crimes he has committed,” Stenger wrote to the court.

Stenger said he met Saracino when the young man served him at one of his family’s restaurants. “He provides excellent service to all of his customers,” Stenger wrote to the judge.

Rev. Darryl Gray, a representative of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, along with other clergy attended the press conference in support of Slack.

“The eyes of the civil rights community have not looked away from Missouri, since the ‘Ferguson Unrest,’” Gray said. “Missouri is targeted as ‘ground zero’ for the New Civil Rights Movement. Our organizations, our community, stand with Ms. Slack in her efforts to seek accountability, justice, restitution, and the clearing of her name and reputation.”

And they said that she helped her nieces out of a traffic ticket using county resources. She said that was not true. She did help her nieces, but did so as an attorney, not a county employee.

A county spokesman told The American in March that he could not explain why Stenger chose to dismiss her because it was a personnel matter.

The lawsuit states that Slack was hired on April 5, 2015 and was told that she would have “the power and authority to implement programs that benefitted African Americans in the community.”

“That representation turned out to be false,” the court document states.

While at the symposium, she sent strongly-worded text messages to county spokesman Cordell Whitlock and Wagener, one stating, “I should know this information, it’s embarrassing! [It] proves what everyone is saying this is a name only position.”

However, it states that she did not have a second job and the documents found on her computer were backups.

Defendant Stenger and St. Louis County Police Chief recently sent official letters to federal authorities to influence the federal court to grant leniency to a large scale drug dealer.”