Personnel file released for city of Jonesboro department head fired in January

Former city of Jonesboro IT Director Erick Woodruff was placed on a performance improvement plan (PIP) 10 months before he was fired in January after a 2015 audit revealed deficiencies in his department, according to his personnel file obtained by Talk Business & Politics.

The city’s computer systems were poorly maintained, thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment was bought and never installed, and other employee/supervisor issues were uncovered by the audit. It also showed that Woodruff was instructed to create a project-based budget which he failed to do. (Talk Business & Politics obtained Woodruff’s personnel file after an FOIA request was sent to the city. It was delayed after Woodruff requested the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office review his file and suggest it not be made public.)

His supervisor, city CFO Suzanne Allen, gave Woodruff two extensions on his PIP plan after he was placed in the program in March 2016. He was fired Jan. 9, and Mayor Harold Perrin upheld the decision two weeks later. City Communications Director Bill Campbell told Talk Business & Politics on Wednesday city officials hope this matter is resolved and no further comment will be necessary.

“For now the mayor’s intent is to not comment on the situation,” Campbell said.

Woodruff has not publicly said he will sue the city, but Talk Business & Politics has learned he may explore that option. The Jonesboro City Council denied Woodruff’s appeal in February. After the meeting, Woodruff was asked if he had any comment about his termination or a potential lawsuit and he smiled and said no.

The city underwent an IT review in June 2015. The review showed most of the problems in the department were administrative and technical. Woodruff was instructed to create policies and procedures to improve employee workflow and establish IT employee job descriptions. He was also instructed to perform employee evaluations and supervise employee daily activities, according to the PIP document dated March 16, 2016.

Woodruff was told to construct a project-based budget so city officials could understand what line items were directly tied to particular projects. The purpose was to inform the mayor and CFO the impacts of slashing selected line items from the budget. He was told to create a staffing plan to meet the IT needs of other departments within the city.
In a letter dated July 14, 2016, Allen told Woodruff he had not listened to advice from Cliff Rushing, a consultant with Edgewater Consulting Group, a Boston-based firm retained by the city to oversee the overhaul of the IT department. She noted he had used nine sick days from the start of his probation period and he still had not provided the documents Allen wanted to establish sound procedures in the department. She extended his PIP period until September.

Allen issued him a final warning in September. She told him he hadn’t composed an IT operations and maintenance plan; update ideas to the city’s network security policy and procedures were ignored; technical support procedure changes were not followed; and the requested project road map was nothing more than a list of tasks performed from June. He also didn’t formulate a staffing plan, but asked for additional employees, and two of them would perform the tasks of the director, she noted.

City officials have remained mum about Woodruff’s firing. Perrin has not publicly commented about it. The decision to fire Woodruff was Allen’s and the mayor affirmed her decision, Campbell said. The City Council met for several hours in executive session to discuss the matter.