City dumps head of Solid Waste Division.
Fewer than five months before the opening of a new processing center for recyclable waste, the city has fired its director of solid waste management: Jill Holbert.
Holbert, who started her position in 2003, was axed on July 17 by City Manager Asenath Kepler, but continued to collect pay until July 28.
Holbert says she was given no
explanation for her firing; just a letter from Kepler informing
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Holbert of her immediate termination. Holbert's salary was approximately $69,000 a year.
In a July 31 e-mail to SFR, city spokeswoman Laura Banish says it is Kepler's policy to not comment on personnel matters.
Holbert says she was shocked by her dismissal, is considering legal action and exploring the possibility of filing a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Of the 68 employees who served under Holbert, only five were women, she says.
Although she's been given no reason for her termination, Holbert says differences between her and her staff on recycling practices could have played a role.
"Staff in general was resistant to change," Holbert, who notes that she attempted to update and intensify the city's recycling program, says. "Recycling was a big leap for them. Their mindset was that this is not the way they'd been doing it."
In an interview with SFR, Holbert says that when she first started, Santa Fe's recycling program was in decline because the city was shipping its recyclable materials to an Albuquerque processing center on a month-to-month contract. In addition, citizens struggled to separate their own recyclables from garbage.
"In Santa Fe, we only recycle three percent of our waste," she says. "There are some communities in California that recycle more than 50 percent."
Holbert says she worked with the Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency, an independent body governed by both the city and county, to help develop the forthcoming waste-processing center. That facility, which will sort city and other recyclables on its own, is slated to open in November. It will be operated by the Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency, which currently ships city recyclables to Denver.
Prior to taking the city job, Holbert served as solid waste manager for Santa Fe County from 1997 to 2003.
Jim Montman, former city public utilities director, was Holbert's supervisor from 2004 until May of this year.
"She was developing some excellent programs for recycling and for the utilization of the new recycling facility," Montman, now aviation division director at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport, says. "She did an outstanding job. I have no knowledge of the rationale of her firing."
Indeed, records show that Montman gave Holbert a 385 out of 400 score on an annual evaluation last year. Any score above 350 qualifies as exceeding expectations, according to city job performance evaluations.
City Councilor Karen Heldmeyer, whom Holbert called following her axing, would not comment specifically on the situation. But, like Montman, Heldmeyer supports Holbert.
"I think she was trying to do a good job," Heldmeyer says. " She was trying to make changes so that the trash gets picked up every week. Unfortunately, in order for that to happen, we need people to do their job."
Heldmeyer, who sits on the Public Utilities Committee, says a city assessment of the Solid Waste Division is currently taking place; She expects to receive the results at the committee's Aug. 2 meeting.
Heldmeyer also says Public Utilities Director Galen Buller didn't inform the committee of Holbert's firing until he was pressed on the issue at a July 19 committee meeting; the city's Public Utilities Department oversees solid waste.
"We were told Jill was no longer there," Heldmeyer says. "I thought it was odd that the head of the division was fired and we had to ask to get information on it."
Buller did not return repeated phone calls to his office. According to spokeswoman Banish, Holbert's position has not yet been filled-though the city is actively searching for a replacement-and Buller is serving in Holbert's stead.
Heldmeyer says since Holbert's firing, she's received an increasing number of complaints from her District 2 constituents about uncollected trash.
City Councilor Patti Bushee, also a member of the Public Utilities Committee, says Deputy City Manager Roman Abeyta told her Holbert was fired because "the relationship between management and staff had become irreparable."
Like Heldmeyer, Bushee says she has received a steady stream of calls from constituents complaining of irregular pickup of trash and recyclables.
"There are ongoing, systemic issues with solid waste," she says. "I am disappointed to learn Jill was fired. I thought she tried really hard."
AFSCME Local 3999 President Len Montoya says some of Holbert's staff did complain to him about Holbert's management style but that he never requested that she be fired.
"There were a lot of employees who felt she had no people skills and didn't like working with her," Montoya says. "I was working with Jill on those issues. I don't know why the city fired her."
For now, Holbert is looking for new work and mulling over a chance to work as private consultant on waste management issues.
She says: "I'm really trying to stay positive about the future."
