Pekarek, Dan | Testimony transcript

Transcript of the Testimony of Dan Pekarek

Date: November 6, 2013Volume: I

Case: In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation

Printed On: November 13, 2013

Holliday Reporting Service, Inc.Phone: 417-358-4078

Fax: 417-451-1114Email:[email protected]

Internet:

Dan Pekarek In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation

417-358-4078

Holliday Reporting Service, Inc.

Page 1

IN RE: JOPLIN CRITICAL INVESTIGATION

SWORN STATEMENT OF

DAN PEKAREK

Taken on Wednesday, November 6, 2013, from 3:53 p.m. to 4:11

p.m., at the law offices of Juddson H. McPherson, LLC, 626

S. Byers, in the City of Joplin, County of Jasper, State of

Missouri, before

SHARON K. ROGERS, C.C.R.650,

a Certified Court Reporter and a Notary Public within and

for the County of Jasper, and State of Missouri.


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APPEARANCES

MR. THOMAS E. LORAINE

Loraine & Associates, LLC

4075 Osage Beach Pkwy., Suite 300

Osage Beach, MO 65065

[email protected]


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S T I P U L A T I O N

IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED that this Sworn Statement may be

taken by steno-mask type recording by SHARON K. ROGERS, a

Certified Court Reporter, and afterwards reduced into

typewriting.

It is further stipulated that the signature of the

witness is hereby waived, and that said Sworn Statement of

said witness shall be of the same force and effect as

though said witness had read and signed Sworn Statement.


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I N D E X

Page/Line

DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE . . . 5-4

E X H I B I T S

Exhibit #A. . . . . . . . 5-6

Advice of Rights

Note: Exhibits in separate binder

(sic) - typed as spoken

(ph.) - phonetic


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1 DAN PEKAREK

2 Having been first duly sworn and examined,

3 testified as follows:

4 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE:

5 Q. Mr. Pekarek, I'm going to hand you what's

6 been marked as Exhibit #A, an Advice of

7 Rights form. Have you read that?

8 A. Yes, I have.

9 Q. And did you understand it?

10 A. Yes.

11 Q. It basically tells you you have to answer me,

12 you have to answer truthfully, and if you

13 don't you can't be held criminally

14 responsible, but you can be held for your

15 job. You understand that?

16 A. Yes.

17 Q. I do not have the right to fire anybody.

18 A. Sure.

19 Q. But recommendations are made. I'm witnessing

20 your signature and that you understand this

21 form, and with that stated I would like to

22 ask you a couple of questions. There are not

23 many, but they're important.

24 A. Okay.

25 Q. Have you talked with anybody about why you're


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1 here?

2 A. No, Brian just asked me to come over.

3 Q. Do you have any idea why you're here?

4 A. No.

5 Q. You're the head of a department of the City

6 of Joplin?

7 A. Yes, I am.

8 Q. And what is that department?

9 A. The Health Department.

10 Q. Who is your immediate supervisor?

11 A. The City Manager.

12 Q. Mark?

13 A. Mark Rohr.

14 Q. Mark Rohr is your City Manager, and how long

15 has he been your supervisor?

16 A. I don't know, as long as he has an employee

17 of the City. I don't recall exactly when he

18 came.

19 Q. You were here before him?

20 A. Yes, I was.

21 Q. And were you a department head before him?

22 A. Yes, I was.

23 Q. And who did you work for before that?

24 A. Steve Lewis.

25 Q. How long did you work under Lewis?


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1 A. Several years. I don't know how many years I

2 was here before Mark came, but it was several

3 years.

4 Q. Have you noticed a difference in the

5 management style of the two?

6 A. Certainly there's differences with every

7 manager I've ever worked with.

8 Q. But can you tell me a little bit about Mark's

9 management style?

10 A. You know, I think generally speaking, at

11 least with my department my experience has

12 been pretty hands off. You know, I think

13 that tends to be probably true for most City

14 Managers and Health Departments. I think

15 most City Managers, we're kind of a

16 department that it's a little bit unusual for

17 a City Manager to manage and so I think most

18 City Managers that I've worked for have been

19 kind of hands off in that regard.

20 Q. What does your department do?

21 A. Well, I mean sort of consistent with what you

22 might normally associate with a Health

23 Department. I mean we've got child

24 immunization programs, adult immunization

25 programs, the WIC program, we have an infant


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1 children program. All of the environmental

2 services. Restaurant inspections, day care

3 safety and sanitation inspections, swimming

4 pool sanitation inspections, animal control,

5 emergency preparedness activities relative to

6 public health activities, those kinds of

7 things.

8 Q. What's your background?

9 A. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental

10 Health from Missouri Southern State

11 University here in Joplin.

12 Q. This is your first city job?

13 A. No, I started with a local industry right out

14 of college and worked there for several years

15 in their Environmental Compliance Division,

16 and this came to the City in 1986, I believe,

17 '87, something like that.

18 Q. There's been some statements that I should

19 talk with you about Mark's management style.

20 A. Okay.

21 Q. I don't want to poison my discussion with you

22 by suggesting what it is, but can you

23 describe, do you have difficulty working for

24 Mark?

25 A. No, I mean as a department head you're always


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1 going to have an occasion disagreeing with

2 your supervisor, with the City Manager, but

3 generally speaking over the years I think in

4 most issues related to public health we've

5 been fine with my decisions, I think.

6 There's always going to be a few that we have

7 disagreements on.

8 Q. What about the disagreements, the nature of

9 the disagreements?

10 A. Let me think of some. I don't think of any

11 specific.

12 Q. Are you intimidated in any of those decisions

13 by Mark?

14 A. Not more than I would I guess any other

15 supervisor that I've had in the past.

16 Q. Has he yelled at you?

17 A. You know, he's raised his voice at me.

18 Q. Publicly?

19 A. Not that I can recall publicly ever.

20 Q. Has it been in front of other employees?

21 A. I don't believe so.

22 Q. Has there been anything in front of -

23 something about a homeless task force?

24 A. I serve on a Homeless Coalition, I also serve

25 on a homeless what they call Implementation,


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1 but this was a task force that was formed

2 several years back relative to homeless

3 issues and I serve on that as well.

4 Q. Have you experienced difficulties within that

5 regard?

6 A. You know, we've had some disagreements about

7 what I thought was maybe a portion of that

8 task force work and he certainly had

9 different opinions about that.

10 Q. How did he express those differences?

11 A. You know, I mean some of it was just, Dan, I

12 don't agree with you on this, I think, you

13 know, I think one way and you think another.

14 Generally speaking I think in most cases he

15 understood, tried to understand why I

16 disagreed with him, you know. He certainly

17 didn't always agree with me and why I thought

18 things were going to go a certain way.

19 Q. Any implications from disagreeing with him?

20 A. No, I've never had any. I mean my

21 evaluations have always been very good and

22 throughout all of the homeless activities

23 he's never reprimanded me in any way.

24 Certainly he's never asked me to change a

25 vote in my votes in the coalition or anything


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1 like that.

2 Q. Any comments about his presence or bullying?

3 A. You know, like I said it was obvious in

4 certain situations, certain times in those

5 coalition meetings that he disagreed with

6 maybe some of the activities of the homeless

7 coalitions. Myself being a member of that

8 coalition it was obvious, I mean, but he

9 never indicated to me that like I said that I

10 should change my vote, that I should vote a

11 certain way, that I should - never

12 reprimanded me for any of the work that we

13 did on the homeless coalition activities.

14 Q. Any ramifications from voting not his way?

15 A. No. I mean certainly any time you're serving

16 on a committee like that and the committee is

17 going one direction with what they think is

18 the one way we ought to approach something

19 and he as my supervisor, you know, doesn't

20 agree with that it's a little bit of an

21 uncomfortable situation, but he never asked

22 me to change any votes, never reprimanded me

23 for voting the way I voted, or thinking the

24 way I thought.

25 Q. You have no problems with his style?


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1 A. You know, nobody likes to think that they are

2 getting sideways with their boss, but, you

3 know, he never ever reprimanded me in any

4 way, shape, or form.

5 Q. Okay. Any other comment?

6 A. No. Mark generally speaking has been hands

7 off with my department, he's been supportive

8 of 99 percent of the things that I've done

9 over the years. We have had some

10 disagreements in that coalition, but nothing

11 to the point that he's ever other than

12 saying, Dan, I disagree with you, I think

13 you're wrong on this kind of a thing, that's

14 the substance of our conversations.

15 Q. That's it?

16 A. Yeah, he's never --

17 Q. No vindictiveness that you've noticed?

18 A. Never threatened me, never anything like

19 that. Do I feel, you know, at certain times

20 I felt a little bit uncomfortable going

21 sideways with my boss, no doubt about it, but

22 --

23 Q. Because of his physical presence?

24 A. No, not physical presence. What do you mean

25 by physical presence?


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1 Q. Any gestures?

2 A. No, no, no, no. No, he's my boss. My job is

3 to serve my boss and do a good job for him.

4 I take that very seriously.

5 Q. And the job is to do the best job you can for

6 the City?

7 A. Absolutely.

8 Q. If there is a conflict between that and your

9 boss then you've got a problem.

10 A. Well, and where we disagreed on some of those

11 things he certainly listened to my

12 disagreements, certainly said, you know, why

13 do you think this way, and I would tell him,

14 you know, tell him in a few situations I

15 disagree with you, I think that this is going

16 to go a different way. But never, ever did

17 he threaten me in any way, shape, or form. I

18 mean I'm the kind of guy that likes to make

19 sure that I'm doing my job and doing as good

20 as a job as I can for my boss so I don't like

21 it when I think I'm doing something that's

22 not, you know, to be what he wants me to do,

23 but in those situations in that homeless

24 coalition there were some situations where I

25 thought unfortunately we were having to have


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1 those disagreements.

2 Q. Well, you followed your conscience in those

3 matters regardless of his decisions?

4 A. Yes.

5 Q. And no ramifications to you?

6 A. No, he never - I mean he's always been very

7 good to me in my personnel evaluations and I

8 would have thought it would have shown up

9 there.

10 Q. Well, I'm not so interested in your

11 evaluations, I'm more interested in his

12 evaluations, you know, what you think of his

13 work. That's where I'm coming from. If your

14 evaluations were inappropriate he would have

15 fired you or dismissed you. I'm more

16 interested in what you have perceived as an

17 employee of his.

18 A. I think most of the time we have been in

19 agreement over the years on the projects that

20 I've worked on that he's tasked me with. The

21 homeless work we don't always agree and he

22 hasn't always agreed with the direction that

23 committee has gone.

24 Q. Why is that? What's happening?

25 A. Oh, I don't know. I guess some of it has to


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1 do with just some of the direction of the

2 committee relative to what we think might be

3 beneficial and help the community on the

4 homeless situation. You know, he just feels

5 one way and we feel a different way.

6 Q. What is the difference?

7 A. Some of it has to do with probably the

8 perception of - some of the committee members

9 felt like - I'm trying to think of some of

10 the specific projects. There were a whole

11 host of projects that were outlined in the

12 report, potential projects that the City

13 might implement or the community, not

14 necessarily the City, but the community at

15 large by doing it over a portion of time

16 relative to improving homelessness in the

17 community. Some of those projects - I think

18 somewhere along the line we got I think his

19 perception of where some of those projects

20 were going to go and some of the committee

21 members perception of where some of those

22 projects might go somehow got divergent. I'm

23 not quite sure where all that occurred.

24 There was a project here in the community

25 that had to do with construction of it's not


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1 a shelter, it's more of a, it's not really a

2 treatment center, it's a faith based - in a

3 way it's a shelter, I suppose, where an

4 individual could check into this facility and

5 over the course of say six months of not

6 inpatient treatment but a lot of faith based

7 treatment, a lot of things like that,

8 counseling and so forth, that hopefully you

9 could solve some of their problems that are

10 causing them to be homeless. I think the

11 committee felt about that project and some of

12 the other projects that they should be best

13 done by individual organizations in the

14 community, you know, a church or some sort of

15 individual faith based entity that wanted to

16 take that on to go ahead and do it. That's

17 kind of the way I think most of the committee

18 felt. Mark, he didn't feel that way, he felt

19 like that there should be more of a central

20 core control over these various projects.

21 Q. Under his supervision?

22 A. Well, not necessarily. I don't know that it

23 was necessarily going to be under his

24 supervision or even the City's. It was

25 always kind of hard to I think make everybody


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1 understand those of us that worked on that

2 plan I think we perceived that several of

3 these projects would, in fact, be owned, if

4 you will, have ownership by individual

5 entities in the community. Because frankly

6 the City didn't want to be the operator of

7 shelters. They didn't want to get in the

8 business of operating shelters. And you've

9 got to kind of understand where this all

10 started. There was a shelter that had opened

11 up in the community that was not well run

12 frankly, it was a real unsafe situation for

13 the individuals that were staying there, and

14 it just kind of cropped up overnight in a

15 location. And that was kind of the reason

16 that this whole committee was formed, you

17 know, is there some way we can improve

18 communication among those folks in the

19 community that do homeless services, those

20 folks that might want to do homeless

21 services. Because there's a whole host of

22 entities in the community that provide some

23 level of homeless services. And I think part

24 of Mark's vision was that we create - and

25 from this plan there was certainly some


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1 direction that we wanted to go towards some

2 sort of coordination of those services so

3 that we could avoid those kind of bad

4 situations from popping up again. I think

5 the committee felt that we could do this

6 without having any kind of central real

7 strong control over those projects. Mark

8 felt differently, that there needed to be

9 some sort of more centralized control over

10 it, but as a committee we were wrestling with

11 how we could do that and not have City

12 control over it. You know, how does the City

13 have control over it without having control

14 over it kind of a thing. So I think it was

15 kind of a fundamental just difference of

16 opinion of how do you exercise that level of

17 control over those projects without really

18 owning them, you know. We were trying to

19 approach it one way and he was wanting us to

20 approach it a different way.

21 Q. Who won?

22 A. It's really not gone anywhere. We were right

23 to that point of trying to figure out how to

24 do that, the tornado hit literally, and

25 everything got shelved for quite some time.


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1 Q. For obvious reasons.

2 A. Yeah.

3 Q. The homeless needs went up?

4 A. Yeah, I think they went up over the course of

5 time after the tornado. A lot of that was,

6 some of that was because of the tornado,

7 people becoming homeless because of the

8 tornado, some of them frankly because of

9 individuals that just came to the community

10 from other places that were already homeless.

11 FEMA tells us that's a phenomenon that

12 occurs with disasters. Homeless will flock

13 to your community from other locations in the

14 country looking for free stuff, free

15 services, lots of free stuff, and that

16 happened here as well. Those numbers have

17 largely decreased and we are probably back

18 more to what we traditionally experience in

19 homelessness. I think it's more of a

20 philosophical difference, Mark is trying to

21 keep us from getting into those situations

22 where you have that bad actor pop up in the

23 community again. He sees it I think more of

24 we can accomplish that by having some sort of

25 centralized control over homeless services.


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1 He would like to see us have better

2 coordination of those services, and we would,

3 too. Just philosophically how do you get to

4 that coordination, how do you get to that

5 control.

6 Q. Okay. Thank you for coming over today.

7 A. You bet.

8 Q. Keep what happened in here between us.

9 A. Okay.

10 Q. Any discussion of this discussion could

11 result in some kind of violation of the

12 secrecy.

13 A. You bet.

14 (SWORN STATEMENT CONCLUDED)

15


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REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE

STATE OF MISSOURI

ss.

COUNTY OF JASPER

I, SHARON K. ROGERS, Certified Court Reporter in the

State of Missouri, do certify that pursuant to the

foregoing Stipulation the witness came before me on the 6th

day of November, 2013, was duly sworn by me, and was

examined. That examination was then taken by me by

steno-mask recording and afterwards transcribed; said Sworn

Statement is subscribed by the witness as hereinbefore set

out on the day in that behalf aforesaid and is herewith

returned.

I further certify that I am not counsel, attorney, or

relative of either party, or clerk, or stenographer of

either party or of the attorney of either party, or

otherwise interested in the event of this suit.

_________________________

SHARON K. ROGERS, CCR-650

Documents

Pekarek, Dan | Testimony transcript