By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson Human Relations Commission met in special session on Tuesday to address the now-vacant position for Human Relations Director.
Datjaeda Moore offered her resignation on Monday. Moore was already on suspension for what City Manager Jeff Cantrell said were a number of city handbook violations. During the meeting, the public and commissioners took time to express their feelings about Moore’s suspension and eventual departure.
“I’m extremely perturbed and frustrated by the events currently happening with the Human Relations Officer position,” said Rebecca Shetler, who is a part of Hutch in Harmony. “One of our biggest objectives as an organization was to secure that position, because immediately after our first event, the citizens of Hutchinson started coming to us and sharing stories of things they have endured.”
The commission and many of those who spoke fear that the position will be eliminated before it can get started. Moore was to take on her duties full time at the start of the year after funding was made available by an outside agency.
“I think it’s important that the future of the position is insured by more than just a small handful of people,” Miriam Kahn-Kitson said. “I’m really concerned about oversight within the city to make sure this situation doesn’t happen again.”
Following the comments, Cantrell had time to speak on Moore’s suspension and to address many things that have circulated, which he says are not accurate.
“I was a proponent of Datjaeda’s, and I’m not running for office, I don’t care,” Cantrell stressed. “My job is to make sure we uphold the regulations of the city.”
Cantrell says there were several instances that led to the suspension of Moore.
“There were several instances of political activity that Datjaeda and I have discussed,” Cantrell said. “There were other items too that followed the investigation. I’m not at liberty to express them all or share them all, but there were other items that were worthy of conversation.”
Commissioner Jesse Juma said the public has lost trust in the city because of the actions against Moore, including Hutchinson Police Chief Jeff Hooper, who addressed Juma’s claims that the trust does not exist.
“Most of you, I have had one-on-one conversations with, and I think that I have shown that I’m a strong believer in equal rights,” Hooper said. “I have held this department accountable . . . accountable for treating everyone equally.”
Members of the Human Relations Commission and Hutch in Harmony have been critical of Cantrell since Moore was suspended while taking to social media. Cantrell says the bigger picture is where to go from here.
“This is not about Datjaeda doing something bad and demonstrating whether or not I acted or conducted myself accordingly,” Cantrell said. “The bigger question is, where do we go from here, and if we’re going to dig in and continue slinging mud at each other, we can do that. I don’t think it’s constructive.”
Commissioner Natasha Russell was also critical of Cantrell, saying the new allegations that were brought against Moore on Monday at the time she resigned was a tactic to get Moore to leave the position. She also accused Cantrell of making the rules up as he goes. Cantrell told Russell, while he respects her heart in this matter, she needed to get the facts.
“Freedom of speech elements for you, there are no limitations other than yelling fire in a theatre,” Cantrell said. “But as a public employee there are rules that we govern by. I certainly don’t make the rules up as you mentioned, just going along at my whim. These rules were adopted by the city long before I arrived.”
Cantrell suggested that the chair of the commission, Dave Sotelo, meet with him and listen to a recording of the conversation he had with Moore on Monday.
“There’s only certain portions of the tape that I’d be allowed to release because some of them are still protected. Datjaeda has rights as an employee that resigned,” Cantrell said. “The portion of the conversation where she clearly says she is resigning now and she’s going to leave immediately was not my doing, I did not coerce that. In fact you will find language, Mr. Chairman, if you take the opportunity to sit in on this, to listen to this tape, you will probably express to your board members that in fact I was to the contrary.”
Cantrell said that, yes, other matters did arise during their investigation. He stated during the meeting that they had to address those issues if things were going to move forward with reinstating Moore.
“We didn’t like the fact that we stumbled on to them, it’s not something we were hunting for,” Cantrell said. “But we did do our due diligence.”
The city manager says the position is open. He hopes to put the job out for publication soon and says that he hopes to get the community involved in finding Moore's replacement.