Curry, Steve | Testimony transcript

Transcript of the Testimony of Steve Curry

Date: November 20, 2013Volume: I

Case: In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation

Printed On: December 1, 2013

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

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

Internet:

Steve Curry In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation

417-358-4078

Holliday Reporting Service, Inc.

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.

Steve Curry

In Re: Joplin Critical Investigation

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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 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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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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1 STEVE CURRY

2 Having been first duly sworn and examined,

3 testified as follows:

4 DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LORAINE:

5 Q. Steve, I'm going to read you this Garrity.

6 "I wish to advise you that you are being

7 questioned as part of an official

8 investigation by the City of Joplin. You

9 will be asked questions related and

10 specifically directed to the performance of

11 your official duties of fitness for office.

12 You are entitled to all the rights and

13 privileges guaranteed by the laws of the

14 Constitution of the State and the

15 Constitution of the United States, including

16 the right not to be compelled to incriminate

17 yourself. I further wish to advise you that

18 if you refuse to testify or to answer

19 questions relating to the performance of your

20 official duties, you will be subject to

21 departmental charges, which could result in

22 your dismissal from your official duties. If

23 you do answer these statements may be used

24 against you in relation to subsequent

25 department charges, but not in any subsequent


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1 criminal proceedings. I have read and fully

2 understand the rights as it appears and this

3 information has also been read to me prior to

4 answering my questions." Have you signed and

5 executed this form for me? (Exhibit #A)

6 A. Yes.

7 Q. Steve, what is your full name?

8 A. It's Stephen, S-T-E-P-H-E-N, Curry.

9 Q. And what department are you with, sir?

10 A. Parks and Recreation.

11 Q. And how long have you been with them?

12 A. Been with the City 28 years.

13 Q. And what is your background, sir?

14 A. Before the City?

15 Q. Yes.

16 A. Construction trade.

17 Q. You're known as an engineering tech?

18 A. I'm a Maintenance Supervisor.

19 Q. Maintenance Supervisor?

20 A. Uh-huh.

21 Q. And what do you do in that capacity?

22 A. Like take care of parks facilities, buildings

23 and grounds, and various city buildings.

24 Q. And that's what you've been doing for all

25 those years?


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1 A. I worked with Community Development for about

2 8 years before I transferred to Parks and

3 Recreation.

4 Q. Any degrees?

5 A. No.

6 Q. No college?

7 A. No.

8 Q. All real training?

9 A. On-the-job.

10 Q. Okay. I've been asked to question people on

11 some items, one item would be do you know

12 anything about Bill Scearce and his alleged

13 rental to an illicit gambling facility and

14 subsequent statements about that? Do you know

15 anything about that?

16 A. Just what I've heard in the Joplin Globe.

17 Q. Can't believe that, I can guarantee you that.

18 All right, what about the other gentleman,

19 Mr. Woolston, do you know anything about Mr.

20 Woolston's alleged misconduct as a developer

21 and as an alderman and some conflicts of

22 interest that might arise thereof?

23 A. Just what I've read in the Joplin Globe.

24 Q. You can't believe that either. Okay, the

25 third area that I'm inquiring about is City


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1 Manager Rohr. Do you have any knowledge as

2 to his style of management, and if so have

3 you had a chance to personally observe that?

4 A. I worked as the Interim Parks Director for 3

5 or 4 months, I think it was in '09, and I

6 reported to Mr. Rohr during that time.

7 Q. What year was that?

8 A. I think it was '09.

9 Q. And what observations can you make in regards

10 to that?

11 A. It was a different experience than what I was

12 used to with the City.

13 Q. And in what way?

14 A. Well, his management style conflicted with me

15 with my management style.

16 Q. In what way, sir?

17 A. Well, I try to promote and encourage

18 teamwork. He seemed to love discipline and

19 we clashed over that a little bit. There was

20 other issues I didn't like. He was very

21 vague with instructions and then would - it

22 was kind of a gutsy management style. He'd

23 give you a very vague instruction of what he

24 wanted done and then if you didn't figure out

25 what he wanted to get it done correctly it


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1 was pretty hard to deal with. You had to

2 guess what he wanted and I prefer to have

3 some instruction, more specific instruction

4 on what somebody wants me to do. I can't

5 read people's minds.

6 Q. Any other comments?

7 A. Well, on a couple of occasions, let's see,

8 when we were building the athletic complex

9 the H.R. director called me in and wanted me

10 to hire his brother-in-law. I don't remember

11 names.

12 Q. Who was the H.R. Director?

13 A. It was Reba Snavely. Asked me to hire his

14 brother-in-law as a construction manager on

15 the athletic complex and I told Reba that we

16 didn't need a construction manager, that I

17 was the construction manager and we were

18 doing just fine. And I left and she called

19 me back a few days later and told me I needed

20 to be a team player and I needed to hire this

21 guy, and I refused to hire him. I wouldn't

22 hire him. And one of the reasons I didn't

23 hire him was I didn't want the City Manager's

24 relative in the middle of my crew because I

25 could see problems coming from it. Then a


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1 couple of weeks later they pulled me off the

2 project as Construction Manager and put

3 somebody else in charge of it.

4 Q. You said the H.R. Director?

5 A. Uh-huh.

6 Q. Who was that?

7 A. That was Reba Snavely.

8 Q. She wanted you to hire her relative?

9 A. No, the City Manager's brother-in-law.

10 Q. Oh, she asked you to hire the City Manager's

11 brother-in-law?

12 A. Yeah, and I wouldn't do it. I refused twice.

13 And it wasn't a demotion or anything, but I

14 got pulled off the project and another guy

15 got put on it that didn't even know what he

16 was doing. I still had to get the project

17 completed from the background working through

18 this other guy trying to get the job done all

19 because I wouldn't hire him.

20 Q. That was the City Manager's vindictiveness

21 towards you in regards to refusal to go along

22 with his suggestion?

23 A. That's my assumption.

24 Q. Do you have any other experiences like that

25 with the City Manager?


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1 A. This summer he wanted - I have a tree

2 watering crew for the new trees and he wanted

3 his stepson hired as a tree waterer, and once

4 again I don't want to mix the City Manager's

5 relatives with my crew. I mean I have a

6 construction crew that's kind of rough and

7 tumble and they don't always do things by the

8 books and I don't want somebody reporting

9 back to the City Manager that my guys use bad

10 language and stuff. My supervisor came to me

11 and wanted me to hire - well, he didn't

12 exactly want me to hire, he came to me and

13 told me what was going on and I said I don't

14 want him on my crew.

15 Q. Who was your --

16 A. Chris Cotten.

17 Q. And Cotten told you that he had gotten

18 instructions from the City Manager?

19 A. Yeah, he said that if possible I needed to

20 hire him. I said, Chris, I don't want him

21 with my crew. We didn't even need a tree

22 watering crew. I just hired a tree guy. We

23 didn't need anybody. And that's what I told

24 Chris and I didn't hear anymore about it

25 because I don't know what happened.


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1 Q. Have you suffered any consequences from that?

2 A. No. I don't know if he has, but I haven't.

3 Q. Have you witnessed the City Manager - these

4 are two instances where he was asking for

5 special preferential treatment as I

6 understand it and he didn't get it because

7 you kept your City hat on, if you will.

8 A. Right.

9 Q. But he certainly suggested that to you?

10 A. Well, and it never was from him directly.

11 Q. You knew where it was coming from?

12 A. Through H.R., right.

13 Q. Do you have any other experiences with the

14 City Manager, his style or anything?

15 A. When I was Interim Director I had an employee

16 that had a police charge filed on him,

17 sexually abusing his daughter, and I sat in

18 on the meeting with the H.R. Director where

19 she was telling the City Manager that we

20 needed to go by the book, we needed to let

21 the charges be filed, and the City Manager

22 said, no, I want him fired and I want him

23 fired right now. Reba kept saying, no, we

24 need to go by the book on this, and

25 eventually what happened was the guy didn't


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1 report for three days. If you don't report

2 for three days you get fired anyway so he got

3 fired for that, but he didn't want to follow

4 City procedure. I mean he was throwing a fit

5 because the H.R. Director wouldn't go along

6 with him firing somebody on the spot. He

7 didn't want the bad P.R. of a Parks employee

8 being involved in a child molestation case,

9 it would have been a big deal for him.

10 Q. In any case he tried to go around --

11 A. The procedure.

12 Q. -- the procedure because whether he had a

13 good or bad intention it doesn't matter, he

14 still wanted to go around and ask for special

15 treatment?

16 A. Even after being advised it wasn't the right

17 way to do it.

18 Q. The guy ultimately got fired?

19 A. Yeah, but it was --

20 Q. For the three days. Procedures were still

21 not being fired as far as getting rid of

22 them, they fired him for some other reason?

23 A. Right.

24 Q. Anything else that you remember on that?

25 A. I think that was pretty much my dealing with


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1 him.

2 Q. You were Interim Director of what?

3 A. Parks Department.

4 Q. Have you witnessed his management style on

5 others when he hollers at anybody or screams

6 or anything like that?

7 A. No, I haven't witnessed that one.

8 Q. You've heard about that?

9 A. I have heard that. I think he was afraid to

10 scream at me. I don't think I'd listen to

11 him.

12 Q. All right. Anything else you can think of?

13 Your name was given to me that you needed to

14 talk with me about this. Is there anything

15 else I need to know?

16 A. One of my former supervisors, Jerry Calvin,

17 he was the Parks Director a few years back,

18 he came to me once about a reprimand that

19 he'd received, and I wish I could remember

20 what it was about, but he was very

21 professional. He was two times Missouri Park

22 and Recreation President for the whole state.

23 He said he got a reprimand for something.

24 He said there was no case to it and it was

25 the first reprimand he'd ever gotten in his


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1 30 some years in public service over - I wish

2 I could - you'd have to ask Jerry Calvin.

3 Q. That's his name, Jerry Calvin?

4 A. Yeah.

5 Q. Is Jerry still around?

6 A. Yeah, he's here in Joplin.

7 Q. Do you know him still?

8 A. Yeah.

9 Q. If I give you one of my cards would you ask

10 Jerry to come in and see me?

11 A. Jerry would love to come in and see you.

12 Q. Well, I'd like to talk to him.

13 A. He can tell you a lot more than I can. He

14 treated Jerry pretty badly.

15 BY MR. LORAINE: Do you want to

16 arrange it through yours? What's your

17 number?

18 BY COURT REPORTER: 437-3983.

19 Q. (By Mr. Loraine) You can have him call my

20 court reporter and she'll set up an interview

21 with him.

22 A. Sure.

23 Q. And I'd like to chat with him.

24 BY THE WITNESS: What's your name?

25 BY COURT REPORTER: Sharon.


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1 A. That's really all I know.

2 Q. (By Mr. Loraine) Do you have any opinions on

3 financial matters, the way the Manager runs

4 things or anything?

5 A. No, the only comment I can make is I told my

6 supervisor, I said if you ever quit or get

7 fired don't ask me to be Interim Parks

8 Director while Rohr is here because I won't

9 do it.

10 Q. You wouldn't work under him?

11 A. No, I wouldn't work for him again. I'm too

12 close to retirement, they can't do anything

13 to me.

14 Q. All right. Thank you.

15 (SWORN STATEMENT CONCLUDED)

16


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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

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

Documents

Curry, Steve | Testimony transcript