Transcript of the Testimony of Steve Curry

Date: November 20, 2013 Volume: I Case: In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation

Printed On: December 1, 2013

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 1

IN RE:

JOPLIN CRITICAL INVESTIGATION

SWORN STATEMENT OF

STEVE CURRY

Taken on Wednesday, November 20, 2013, from 5:24 p.m. to

5:38

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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In Re: Steve Curry

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 2

APPEARANCES

MR. THOMAS E. LORAINE Loraine & Associates, LLC 4075 Osage Beach Pkwy., Suite 300 Osage Beach, MO 65065

tellaw@loraineandassociates.com

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 3

S T I P U L A T I O N

IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED 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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Steve Curry

In Re:

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Page 4 I N D E X Page/Line

DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE

5-4

E X H I B I T S

Exhibit #A.

6-5

Advice of Rights

Note:

Exhibits in separate binder

(sic) - typed as spoken (ph.) - phonetic

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 STEVE CURRY Having been first duly sworn and examined, testified as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE: Q. Steve, I'm going to read you this Garrity. "I wish to advise you that you are being questioned as part of an official investigation by the City of Joplin. will be asked questions related and specifically directed to the performance of your official duties of fitness for office. You are entitled to all the rights and privileges guaranteed by the laws of the Constitution of the State and the Constitution of the United States, including the right not to be compelled to incriminate yourself. I further wish to advise you that You

if you refuse to testify or to answer questions relating to the performance of your official duties, you will be subject to departmental charges, which could result in your dismissal from your official duties. you do answer these statements may be used against you in relation to subsequent department charges, but not in any subsequent If

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. criminal proceedings. I have read and fully

understand the rights as it appears and this information has also been read to me prior to answering my questions." Have you signed and

executed this form for me? (Exhibit #A) Yes. Steve, what is your full name? It's Stephen, S-T-E-P-H-E-N, Curry. And what department are you with, sir? Parks and Recreation. And how long have you been with them? Been with the City 28 years. And what is your background, sir? Before the City? Yes. Construction trade. You're known as an engineering tech? I'm a Maintenance Supervisor. Maintenance Supervisor? Uh-huh. And what do you do in that capacity? Like take care of parks facilities, buildings and grounds, and various city buildings. And that's what you've been doing for all those years?

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. A. Q. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. I worked with Community Development for about 8 years before I transferred to Parks and Recreation. Any degrees? No. No college? No. All real training? On-the-job. Okay. I've been asked to question people on

some items, one item would be do you know anything about Bill Scearce and his alleged rental to an illicit gambling facility and subsequent statements about that? Do you know anything about that? Just what I've heard in the Joplin Globe. Can't believe that, I can guarantee you that. All right, what about the other gentleman, Mr. Woolston, do you know anything about Mr. Woolston's alleged misconduct as a developer and as an alderman and some conflicts of interest that might arise thereof? Just what I've read in the Joplin Globe. You can't believe that either. Okay, the

third area that I'm inquiring about is City

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. A. Q. A. A. Q. A. Q. A. Manager Rohr. Do you have any knowledge as

to his style of management, and if so have you had a chance to personally observe that? I worked as the Interim Parks Director for 3 or 4 months, I think it was in '09, and I reported to Mr. Rohr during that time. What year was that? I think it was '09. And what observations can you make in regards to that? It was a different experience than what I was used to with the City. And in what way? Well, his management style conflicted with me with my management style. In what way, sir? Well, I try to promote and encourage teamwork. He seemed to love discipline and There was

we clashed over that a little bit. other issues I didn't like.

He was very

vague with instructions and then would - it was kind of a gutsy management style. He'd

give you a very vague instruction of what he wanted done and then if you didn't figure out what he wanted to get it done correctly it

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Q. A. Q. A. was pretty hard to deal with. You had to

guess what he wanted and I prefer to have some instruction, more specific instruction on what somebody wants me to do. read people's minds. Any other comments? Well, on a couple of occasions, let's see, when we were building the athletic complex the H.R. director called me in and wanted me to hire his brother-in-law. names. Who was the H.R. Director? It was Reba Snavely. Asked me to hire his I don't remember I can't

brother-in-law as a construction manager on the athletic complex and I told Reba that we didn't need a construction manager, that I was the construction manager and we were doing just fine. And I left and she called

me back a few days later and told me I needed to be a team player and I needed to hire this guy, and I refused to hire him. hire him. I wouldn't

And one of the reasons I didn't

hire him was I didn't want the City Manager's relative in the middle of my crew because I could see problems coming from it. Then a

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. couple of weeks later they pulled me off the project as Construction Manager and put somebody else in charge of it. You said the H.R. Director? Uh-huh. Who was that? That was Reba Snavely. She wanted you to hire her relative? No, the City Manager's brother-in-law. Oh, she asked you to hire the City Manager's brother-in-law? Yeah, and I wouldn't do it. I refused twice.

And it wasn't a demotion or anything, but I got pulled off the project and another guy got put on it that didn't even know what he was doing. I still had to get the project

completed from the background working through this other guy trying to get the job done all because I wouldn't hire him. That was the City Manager's vindictiveness towards you in regards to refusal to go along with his suggestion? That's my assumption. Do you have any other experiences like that with the City Manager?

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In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. A. Q. A. This summer he wanted - I have a tree watering crew for the new trees and he wanted his stepson hired as a tree waterer, and once again I don't want to mix the City Manager's relatives with my crew. I mean I have a

construction crew that's kind of rough and tumble and they don't always do things by the books and I don't want somebody reporting back to the City Manager that my guys use bad language and stuff. My supervisor came to me

and wanted me to hire - well, he didn't exactly want me to hire, he came to me and told me what was going on and I said I don't want him on my crew. Who was your -Chris Cotten. And Cotten told you that he had gotten instructions from the City Manager? Yeah, he said that if possible I needed to hire him. I said, Chris, I don't want him We didn't even need a tree I just hired a tree guy. We

with my crew. watering crew.

didn't need anybody.

And that's what I told

Chris and I didn't hear anymore about it because I don't know what happened.

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In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. Q. Q. Have you suffered any consequences from that? A. No. I don't know if he has, but I haven't.

Have you witnessed the City Manager - these are two instances where he was asking for special preferential treatment as I understand it and he didn't get it because you kept your City hat on, if you will. Right. But he certainly suggested that to you? Well, and it never was from him directly. You knew where it was coming from? Through H.R., right. Do you have any other experiences with the City Manager, his style or anything? When I was Interim Director I had an employee that had a police charge filed on him, sexually abusing his daughter, and I sat in on the meeting with the H.R. Director where she was telling the City Manager that we needed to go by the book, we needed to let the charges be filed, and the City Manager said, no, I want him fired and I want him fired right now. Reba kept saying, no, we

need to go by the book on this, and eventually what happened was the guy didn't

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. report for three days. If you don't report

for three days you get fired anyway so he got fired for that, but he didn't want to follow City procedure. I mean he was throwing a fit

because the H.R. Director wouldn't go along with him firing somebody on the spot. He

didn't want the bad P.R. of a Parks employee being involved in a child molestation case, it would have been a big deal for him. In any case he tried to go around -The procedure. -- the procedure because whether he had a good or bad intention it doesn't matter, he still wanted to go around and ask for special treatment? Even after being advised it wasn't the right way to do it. The guy ultimately got fired? Yeah, but it was -For the three days. Procedures were still

not being fired as far as getting rid of them, they fired him for some other reason? Right. Anything else that you remember on that? I think that was pretty much my dealing with

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. him. You were Interim Director of what? Parks Department. Have you witnessed his management style on others when he hollers at anybody or screams or anything like that? No, I haven't witnessed that one. You've heard about that? I have heard that. scream at me. him. All right. Anything else you can think of? I think he was afraid to

I don't think I'd listen to

Your name was given to me that you needed to talk with me about this. else I need to know? One of my former supervisors, Jerry Calvin, he was the Parks Director a few years back, he came to me once about a reprimand that he'd received, and I wish I could remember what it was about, but he was very professional. He was two times Missouri Park Is there anything

and Recreation President for the whole state. He said he got a reprimand for something. He said there was no case to it and it was the first reprimand he'd ever gotten in his

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A. Q. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. 30 some years in public service over - I wish I could - you'd have to ask Jerry Calvin. That's his name, Jerry Calvin? Yeah. Is Jerry still around? Yeah, he's here in Joplin. Do you know him still? Yeah. If I give you one of my cards would you ask Jerry to come in and see me? Jerry would love to come in and see you. Well, I'd like to talk to him. He can tell you a lot more than I can. treated Jerry pretty badly. BY MR. LORAINE: arrange it through yours? number? BY COURT REPORTER: (By Mr. Loraine) 437-3983. Do you want to What's your He

You can have him call my

court reporter and she'll set up an interview with him. Sure. And I'd like to chat with him. BY THE WITNESS: What's your name? Sharon.

BY COURT REPORTER:

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Steve Curry

In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Q. Q. A. A. A. Q. That's really all I know. (By Mr. Loraine) Do you have any opinions on

financial matters, the way the Manager runs things or anything? No, the only comment I can make is I told my supervisor, I said if you ever quit or get fired don't ask me to be Interim Parks Director while Rohr is here because I won't do it. You wouldn't work under him? No, I wouldn't work for him again. I'm too

close to retirement, they can't do anything to me. All right. Thank you.

(SWORN STATEMENT CONCLUDED)

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In Re:

Joplin Critical Investigation

Page 17

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 20th 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

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