Local opinion: A call for civility for our civil servants

As Tucson’s city manager, I have the privilege of working with thousands of dedicated City workers to provide a wide range of services to the community I love. Our staff members build, maintain, and protect our city. They are there for you in times of crisis; they deliver your water and collect your refuse, and they manage our roadways, parks, and other amenities. Frankly, all their efforts on behalf of our community are too numerous to list here. They do this work with passion, pride, and purpose because they choose to work for the betterment of Tucson.

Recently, especially on social media, there has been a significant increase of very personal attacks on individual City staff members and in some cases, have extended to volunteers that serve on our Boards and Commissions, committees, and task forces – the very institutions that are designed to keep us accountable to the community.

One of the most egregious examples of these attacks has been a sustained smear campaign against a number of City employees driven by a disgruntled former employee. It is not surprising to me that someone terminated by the City would bear some hard feelings against our organization, or even toward me as its administrative leader. But the current, targeted campaign of intimidation and harassment against individual staff members is way out of bounds.

Attacks like these, which are largely untrue and certainly misguided, are ultimately harmful to the reputations and spirits of these hard-working community members who have chosen careers of, or have been called to, service.

Our City organization certainly has its faults and many opportunities to improve. I also acknowledge that we have team members who sometimes make a bad choice or fail to perform their duties. We are human after all. Rest assured that our leadership team has taken great strides over the past few years to increase training opportunities for staff, document appropriate work practices, and hold individuals to account when necessary.

But the active employees and volunteers that are subject to the current online abuse are not the problem – they are the path to improvement.

While public criticism, reports of concerns about staff or activities, the occasional praise of the City organization and its policies is expected — and is indeed welcomed as it can help guide the work that we do and take action on issues that we must address — personal attacks on individual employees and our volunteers are simply unacceptable.

How you as citizens engage with these attacks matters — and I know that you love your city. Please join me in supporting our team members who serve it by refusing to engage in these personal attacks, and to deny the instigators the attention that they seemingly crave.