CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Kerston Abbott worked at the Montgomery County E-911 Center for nine years before she quit in October 2020, taking a massive pay cut and giving up her county benefits.
She said she never had any intention of leaving until Hope Petersen was appointed director of E-911 in January 2020, launching a tenure that employees have characterized as high-stress, unprofessional and hostile.
Petersen has worked as a dispatcher in Clarksville and Montgomery County since 1996. She was director of Robertson County dispatch from 2014-20 before being hired to her current position.
Abbott has known Petersen since she was born, as her grandmother worked as a City of Clarksville dispatcher for 30 years. She said that regardless of that connection, Petersen still treated her poorly.
Several other employees of E-911, a taxpayer-supported government agency, allege the same treatment, and they’re concerned about what it means for public safety.
“The people in this county are not getting cared for because people are so stressed out,” Abbott told Clarksville Now. “Like we already have a stressful enough job. We have to deal with people taking their literal very last breath on the phone with us – their very last breath.”
E-911 employees said those answering the phone are stretched to their limits.
“I’ve taken calls where 3-year-olds have shot themselves in the head, like very serious calls that go on around here,” current employee Stephanie Nickell said. “And it’s not even that that stresses me out – like, those are stressful calls – but it’s being harassed.”
During a nearly five-month investigation, Clarksville Now spoke to several employees – former and current – of the E-911 Center and uncovered several documented complaints against Petersen.
These include accusations of a hostile workplace, harassment and violations of TOSHA and COVID-19 safety regulations, and they culminated in two Montgomery County Human Resources investigations whose results were largely ignored.
Hostile workplace complaints
After receiving a tip about the issues in June, Clarksville Now made a request to review Petersen’s personnel file, then housed at Montgomery County’s HR department.
There was no documentation of the complaints or of the HR investigations in her file. Clarksville Now later obtained many of those documents through requests for emails between the E-911 District Board and the HR department. Other documents were leaked to Clarksville Now by current and former employees.
The earliest complaint was filed by a supervisory employee in late July to early August 2020. According to the three-page complaint, Petersen showed favoritism toward employees with close ties to her family, threatened termination in conversation with employees and physically and verbally harassed them.
“It is my feeling that since Hope has become the director of this department, the work environment has been hostile and overall morale is down,” the employee wrote.
“I feel that my performance and the performance of others is under a microscope, and we are all concerned with making professional decisions on our own for fear of inappropriate retaliations. I feel I cannot do anything right by her and am not given proper guidance on how to improve my performance, and I cannot express my concerns with her directly for fear of retaliation.”
Shortly after the complaint was filed, the employee was demoted from the supervisory position through an email that Petersen sent to the entire department.
Fear of retaliation was cited by many current employees who declined to comment for this report on the record.
COVID-19 safety, lunch break complaints
At least three separate complaints have been made to the Tennessee Division of Occupational Safety and Health about conditions at the center.
One of those complaints, received July 14, 2020, during the first COVID outbreak in Clarksville, alleged that employees were being made to work despite having possible COVID-19 exposure, and they were not able to quarantine.
It also said employees were forced to work without a lunch break. Several told Clarksville Now this has been an expectation at the department: They have been allowed only an eight-minute break every 1 1/2 hours and have had to eat at their work stations.
State law requires that employees be provided a 30-minute, unpaid meal or rest period during any six-hour shift, except in workplace environments that, by their nature of business, provide for ample opportunity to rest or take an appropriate break.
According to Chris Cannon, assistant administrator at the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, a county 911 dispatch center could fall under the “ample opportunity” workplace environment exception if the employees could take that 30-minute break at some point during their shift.
That does not seem to be the case at E-911.
“Yes, this break must be a 30-minute consecutive break,” Cannon told Clarksville Now. “If the employees aren’t receiving this uninterrupted 30 minutes, the employer is in violation.”
In response to the complaints, TOSHA officials requested that Jennifer Hood, the risk and safety manager for E-911, correct the conditions and submit photo documentation of some of the COVID precaution corrections.
Photos were submitted to the state of employees wearing masks and face shields, and of the work stations in the department, according to records obtained by Clarksville Now. Hood made a report and submitted it back to TOSHA, along with the explanation that employees are given 1 1/2 hours of paid breaks daily. It is unclear if this break is consecutive. The TOSHA file indicated that no further follow-up was required.
Medical privacy complaints
One letter of complaint filed with county HR alleged that Petersen was accessing employees’ COVID-19 test results before the employees themselves had been notified of the results.
Abbott also said when she was tested for COVID-19, Petersen got her results before she did.
“She said she contacted her hookup at the state and got my results and I could come back to work,” Abbott said.
Nickell told Clarksville Now the same thing, and wrote about it in her complaint, filed on Aug. 3, 2020.
“Hope Petersen let it be known that she had a ‘contact’ with the State of Tennessee, and was able to obtain a copy of this specific employee’s test results and notified the employee herself with the negative result finding,” Nickell wrote in her complaint. “I feel as though this is a HIPAA violation and very unprofessional to obtain something like this without any permission.”
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act makes it illegal to release an individual’s private medical information without their consent. The Tennessee Department of Health, as a healthcare entity, must comply with HIPAA rules, according to federal law.
Clarksville Now reached out to TDH officials about these claims.
“The Tennessee Department of Health holds protecting patient information and patient privacy as our utmost concern,” said Sarah Tanksley, director of communications and media relations for TDH. “We were unable to find any evidence to substantiate the claims.”
Discrimination complaint
Another letter of complaint, dated Sept. 14, 2020, alleged similar behaviors. This employee, who asked to remain anonymous, resigned in November 2020 after Petersen refused to allow them to participate in annual shift bidding, which, according to E-911 policies and procedures, is done by seniority. This employee told Clarksville Now they had served for 18 years with E-911, with seven of those years in a supervisory position.
On Sept. 15, 2020, this employee met with Michelle Lowe, then-interim director of county HR, to file the complaint against Petersen regarding the shift bid, along with allegations of age discrimination, harassment and the creation of a hostile work environment.
“Several employees have been witness to, or on the receiving end of her anger and outbursts. Some have been threatened with termination and have opted to take her abuse out of fear of retaliation,” the employee’s letter read. “Her actions have created an atmosphere of undue stress, hostility and lack of trust within the work environment.”
This employee filed an inquiry about possible age discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March 2021 and has since received a Notice of Right to Sue from the EEOC.
Fear of retaliation
Abbott told Clarksville Now that when she resigned from E-911, she had just adopted three young children. Despite the pay cut, she said quitting was worth it.
“That extra money would have been helpful, but I had to get out of there,” Abbott said, adding that she was worried about her former co-workers and understood their reluctance to come forward.
“I think it’s because they’re terrified they’re going to retaliate against them, and people have to have their job. And this is a good-paying job,” Abbott told Clarksville Now.
The final straw for Abbott was when her cousin died last fall, and their family did not have enough money for a burial. A local funeral home allowed the family to come view him and say their final goodbyes. Abbott asked for four hours of time off for the visitation. Petersen declined her request, even though Abbott said she had accrued that time off.
Abbott said multiple employees were working who had COVID-19, and no contact tracing was being conducted.
This claim is also presented in a letter, signed “Calltakers and Dispatchers of E911” that was sent to HR in February 2021 that resulted in the second internal investigation, during which Petersen was placed on leave.
“For several months the calltakers and dispatchers of the E-911 center have been subjected to Director Hope Petersen’s unprofessional offensive behavior. In the past six months several employees have made official complaints to the Montgomery County’s Human Resources Department with no feedback or follow-up,” the letter read.
“Due to Mrs. Petersen’s consistent aggressiveness, several employees have decided to look for employment elsewhere due to the fear of bodily harm while working with Mrs. Petersen,” the letter continued.
The letter called for Petersen’s removal.
County HR investigations
According to emails obtained by Clarksville Now, the E-911 Board was made aware of all these complaints when they were brought to county HR. Two HR investigations were conducted.
The first HR investigation was conducted in the fall of 2020 by Michelle Lowe, who is now the county’s HR director. At the time, she was serving as interim director. Lowe generated a 49-page report based on the grievances. The report found that of the 32 employees surveyed, 16 said Petersen was responsible for the creation of a hostile workplace.
Findings included concerns about Petersen’s “loss of control,” and stress and intimidation because of her behavior. 100% of the employees working the day shift – the same shift as Petersen – noted low morale.
“Director Petersen is seen by many employees as hateful, rude, loud, intimidating, harsh and unprofessional,” the report read. “There are also numerous claims of Director Petersen belittling and disrespecting employees and supervisors in front of subordinates.”
The HR report resulted in the recommendation that Petersen take the three courses on workplace behaviors, according to emails obtained by Clarksville Now. But there is no record of this investigation in Petersen’s personnel file.
The second investigation was conducted by Alyssa Pierce, who was appointed HR director in December 2020. Her investigation was a result of the anonymous letter submitted in early February 2021.
Petersen was placed on paid administrative leave during this second investigation.
On March 2, the day Pierce was scheduled to meet via Webex with the District Board to discuss Petersen, Lis Henley, the board’s chair, emailed other board members to let them know that Pierce was no longer with Montgomery County.
Clarksville Now reached out to Pierce for comment, and she did not respond.
All of the employees, former and current, that Clarksville Now spoke to were concerned about the E-911 District Board’s disinterest in addressing the issues, despite the county Human Resources investigations.
This led to several resignations over the last few months, leaving the remaining staff on the hook for covering over 900 hours of overtime combined in the month of September alone, according to several employees.
There is no evidence of either HR investigation in Petersen’s file.
Where are the public records?
In working to track down records of these complaints and investigations, Clarksville Now discovered that all of E-911’s records – including personnel files and documents related to the HR investigations – had been turned over by county HR to the E-911 District Board.
Montgomery County Government decided in July to transfer all public records of E-911 and Bi-County Solid Waste Management to those agencies, since they are managed by boards and are not county departments, according to county spokesperson Michelle Newell.
While payroll and benefits are handled by the county HR department, “because it is the most efficient solution” Newell said, employees of the board-run agencies no longer have access to county HR support for hiring, employee relations, complaints or discipline.
When asked who the E-911 personnel records were turned over to, Newell said Petersen had picked them up on Aug. 2. Several employees said they were told by county HR that their complaints would remain anonymous, and that Petersen would never see them.
After this report initially published, Newell added that Petersen’s personnel file and the complaints against her were picked up separately by E-911 employee Angela Koski.
Lis Henley, the board chair, when asked about her involvement with record keeping, told Clarksville Now that Assistant E-911 Director Shane Givens was the records custodian.
But Givens told Clarksville Now he did not have access to the file cabinet where those records are stored, and that Henley had the key. Givens resigned from E-911 on Oct. 12.
When pressed further about who has access of the department’s personnel files and HR investigations, Henley declined to comment and deferred to the District Board’s attorney, Mike Mahn, a Chattanooga-based attorney who handles representation for several government boards in Tennessee.
But Mahn told Clarksville Now he had no knowledge of any allegations or complaints against Petersen, and he was unaware of who had access to what records. He also declined to comment on any action taken or not by the District Board regarding Petersen.
Another incident that arose in several complaints – and that was referenced in the first HR investigation – involved Petersen verbally accosting a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office K-9 deputy for conducting bomb-sniffing training at the E-911 Center. Nickell wrote to HR in February about the incident.
When asked about the altercation, MCSO spokesperson Sandra Brandon said an investigation was conducted and a file on the incident exists, but it was not in the possession of the Sheriff’s Office.
E-911 and Montgomery County both told Clarksville Now they did not possess the file.
Clarksville Now reached out to Hope Petersen, who declined to comment, and several members of the E-911 District Board, who either did not respond or declined to comment.