ST. LOUIS — A 2023 complaint filed by an employee in the city’s Personnel Department alleges former director Sonya Jenkins-Gray tried to recruit her in a “campaign” to get a top employee fired, saying they needed to “stick together as Black women” and offering to connect her with a “civil rights” attorney.
When the employee refused, Jenkins-Gray, now a member of the board that controls the St. Louis Police Department, retaliated by disparaging her and denying her transfer requests and pay raises, the complaint alleges.
The complaint, obtained recently by the Post-Dispatch, was filed confidentially with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. The employee declined to be interviewed and requested anonymity from the Post-Dispatch, saying she was worried about the impact on her job prospects in the city.
Her letter was one of several complaints about Jenkins-Gray and her management of the department. In June 2024, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed a resolution asking for a state audit of the Personnel Department, citing “several whistleblower complaints” sent to the state auditor’s office. The auditor’s office has declined to release the complaints, citing law that allows such records to remain closed.
The October 2023 complaint raises more questions about Jenkins-Gray’s tenure as St. Louis’ personnel director. She was fired in March for what the Civil Service Commission, which oversees the department, deemed “a gross lack of judgment.” She has an ongoing lawsuit against the city over her firing.
Before Jenkins-Gray’s firing, no mayor had ousted a personnel director since the 1941 creation of the city’s civil service. The director is one of the most powerful officials in St. Louis government, with broad sway over hiring, firing and promotions across the city’s 4,000-person workforce.
In June, a few months after Jenkins-Gray’s ouster, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe appointed her as one of the five voting members of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, following the state’s Republican-led takeover of the city police department.
Reached by phone Friday, Jenkins-Gray told the Post-Dispatch that there “have been no findings” from “anywhere” that “any of those statements are true.”
Asked whether she denied the allegations, she replied: “My comment is there are no findings that any of it is true.”
She followed up later with a written statement.
“The accusations from nearly three years ago led to an impartial investigation and a fact-finding mission which resulted in no findings of wrongdoing,” Jenkins-Gray wrote. “I remain committed to a fair and equal workplace for all.”
‘Keep an eye on him’
The complaint describes efforts by Jenkins-Gray to convince the employee to help get Bryan Boeckelmann, deputy director of the personnel department, fired.
The complaint says that in January 2023, a couple of months after she was hired by former Mayor Tishaura Jones, Jenkins-Gray contacted the employee with a question: was she aware that Boeckelmann was trying to get Jenkins-Gray fired?
The employee had filed a past complaint against Boeckelmann over a “derogatory” comment she said he made about her. Jenkins-Gray said she now was “having problems with him” and that he was complaining about her treatment of him, according to the complaint.
Jenkins-Gray told the employee to “keep an eye on him,” the complaint said, and that “she would work with me to get rid of him.” They needed to “stick together as Black women,” the employee said Jenkins-Gray told her. Boeckelmann is white.
The next day, according to the complaint, Jenkins-Gray called the employee and told her she had spoken with her husband, community activist Rev. Darryl Gray. Jenkins-Gray told the employee “because of their social advocacy they knew some of the best civil rights attorneys in the state,” the employee wrote.
When the employee said she hadn’t made up her mind, Jenkins-Gray told her she would be “very disappointed if I let this go” and then hung up, the complaint says.
A couple of days later, a department manager told the employee that Jenkins-Gray was trying to get Boeckelmann fired because he had filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the complaint says. It is illegal to retaliate against an employee for filing an EEOC complaint.
In the following weeks and months, the employee claimed, Jenkins-Gray retaliated against her because she had “not agreed to go along with assisting her.”
The director, she wrote, said in front of a co-worker that others in city government had warned Jenkins-Gray “to watch out for me.” Jenkins-Gray also said in front of co-workers that she had received four to five complaints about the employee being a “gossiper, liar and troublemaker,” according to the complaint.
The employee claimed Jenkins-Gray also denied her transfer requests and pay increases.
Boeckelmann filed his own June 2023 complaint, which became public, alleging multiple violations of civil service rules by Jenkins-Gray and a prior director. Boeckelmann had briefly served as acting director of the department following the November 2021 retirement of Rick Frank, who had held the job since 2004. The Civil Service Commission ended up choosing someone else for the interim post.
Boeckelmann ultimately was not fired and remains a deputy director in the Personnel Department. He declined to comment, citing advice from his attorney.
Previous allegations
The allegations in the complaint are different than those aired at the beginning of the year against Jenkins-Gray during weeks of public hearings that led to her firing.
Mayor Jones took the unprecedented step of trying to oust a personnel director after receiving reports that Jenkins-Gray had an employee drive her in a city car, and during work hours, to a Jefferson City hotel, where Jenkins-Gray’s husband was meeting his ex-wife.
Jenkins-Gray maintained she was retrieving personal papers from the car her husband took, though she has declined to say what those papers were. The driver testified he did not see her retrieve any papers.
Shortly after the July 2024 incident, Jenkins-Gray approved a promotion for the driver, former employee Anthony Byrd, though she has maintained the promotion was pending before the incident.
The hearings revealed the trip stretched on late into the night, including a stop at the Hollywood Casino, where Gray drove after learning his wife had traveled to the state’s capital city to look for him.
Jenkins-Gray and her lawyers cast the hearings as political retaliation because Jenkins-Gray resisted a City Charter change giving the mayor more power over the Personnel Department. The Rev. Gray had also been critical of the administration and dropped his support in the 2024 Democratic primary for former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a Jones ally.
The mayor’s administration defended the move, arguing action had to be taken after Personnel Department employees came forward about the Jefferson City trip. The Jones administration said the trip violated city policy and put a subordinate in the middle of a personal situation.
Prior to the public hearings, employees under Jenkins-Gray had already raised concerns. In June 2024, the Board of Aldermen passed a resolution asking for a state audit of the Personnel Department, citing “several whistleblower complaints.” State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick’s office never began the audit because of a dispute with aldermen over the city’s commitment to pay for the probe.
In July, a month after Gov. Kehoe appointed Jenkins-Gray to the police board, the Post-Dispatch reported that she was taking a job as human resources chief for St. Louis Sheriff Alfred Montgomery. The sheriff at the time was under investigation for handcuffing a city jail official, and federal prosecutors recently charged him with a misdemeanor over the incident.
After the governor questioned Jenkins-Gray’s decision to take the job, she reversed course and declined the position.
Earlier this month, Kehoe withdrew his nominees to the police board so their confirmations couldn’t be used to gum up a special legislative session to redraw legislative maps more favorable to the GOP.
This week, Kehoe reappointed the police commissioners. Jenkins-Gray was among them.
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Jacob Barker | Post-Dispatch
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