Fort Thomas is looking to hire a human resources consultant to address ongoing city issues.
Those problems include Fort Thomas City Administrator Matt Kremer’s relationship with the Fort Thomas economic development director. The city discussed the idea of hiring an outside HR consultant at a special council meeting on Wednesday, where council met in an executive session to address the relationship and a pension payment that Kremer submitted to the state without council approval.
The HR consultant will conduct surveys and interviews with city employees to gauge any issues while working for the city. Currently, the city’s human resources officers are Kremer and Mayor Eric Haas (who has been absent from the city for weeks on medical leave); therefore, the council wants to hire a permanent HR person to address future issues. The hire is also needed because of Kremer’s relationship with a city employee, which may violate city personnel policies and procedures.
The Fort Thomas Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual states, “The city’s managerial and supervisory employees are not permitted to date or become romantically involved with, and/or engage in similar conduct, attempted or otherwise, with any city employee with whom they have a supervisory relationship. Such prohibited conduct may result in disciplinary action, up to and including discharge from employment with the city.”
The city council tasked the Fort Thomas Interim Finance Director, Linda Chapman, to recommend three to five HR firms for the council to interview. Chapman previously served as the Florence Finance Director for 21 years and has over 40 years of experience as an auditor and finance director.
Conversations also continued from the Oct. 20 regular meeting, where Kremer said he submitted a pension payment to the state without council approval, in violation of city and state law.
“There was enough money in the budget to make that payment,” Kremer said at the Oct. 29 meeting. “So, it was not illegal. What I should have done is notify council that there was a spiking bill. There was adequate funding in the current budget for the bill that I had paid.”
“You amended the budget to try and hide it and didn’t tell us about it,” Fort Thomas City Councilmember Adam Blau said. “Period.”
That issue was brought up amidst the city writing off $322,000 as an “error of the past” following an audit that revealed major accounting issues.
“Addressing a violation creates order. Ignoring it encourages disorder,” said Fort Thomas Councilmember Andy Ellison. “We have to do something. We can’t just allow things to be done wrong and then just say ‘we’ll fix it.’”
At the end of the meeting, Blau said he thinks the cleanest option for the city administrator is to resign.
A Fort Thomas finance committee meeting will be held on Nov. 5 at 9 a.m.