St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter promised to think outside the box when it came to appointing directors to oversee the 3,000 public employees in city departments. But his decision not to reappoint the director of the Office of Technology and Communications — St. Paul’s IT department — even took some longstanding supporters by surprise.

Tarek Tomes, who had led the department of 68 employees for almost four years under former St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, had reapplied for the position but was moved into a new role within City Hall last December, despite winning high praise from Coleman.

Instead, Carter appointed a professional acquaintance — information management consultant Sharon Kennedy Vickers — to become the city’s new chief information technology officer.

Since then, departures and resignations within OTC have mounted.

Six full-time employees and three temporary part-timers have left since January, according to the St. Paul Department of Human Resources. They include Deputy Director Jeff Nyberg, who gave his two weeks notice but was instead escorted out of the building within a day.

“The mayor made a leadership change, that change didn’t work for me, and I decided to find other employment, which I did successfully,” said Nyberg, who said he accepted a new job in the private sector and declined further comment. “It’s unfortunate the way it all happened, but I really do like my new role and responsibilities.”

In total, the city documents seven “resignations” from OTC since January, as opposed to an internship or contract coming to its scheduled end.

All of the resignations have occurred within OTC’s Application Development and Support division, the most front-facing side of the department. None of the six full-time positions have been filled, leaving roughly half the division empty.

Among its duties, the application division oversees websites and interfaces that everyday residents might access for information, such as Stpaul.gov and Budget.stpaul.gov.

Former employees say the transition between department heads has been a difficult one, and several of the workers who have resigned were loyal to Tomes.

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MEETING THE NEEDS

On Monday, Carter said the Office of Technology and Communications was still meeting expectations and delivering new online products, such as the new “Serve St. Paul” website.

“I’m not going to go into specific HR decisions, but my specific expectations of our OTC department is that we are asking them to meet the needs of our city departments and our residents, and they are doing that,” Carter said.

Before joining the city in February 2014, Tomes had spent five years as an assistant commissioner at the state Office of Enterprise Technology, in addition to spending a decade before that in the private sector. Tomes now reports directly to Carter as the administration’s chief innovation officer, a new position within the mayor’s office in which he will earn $156,000 annually.

Under Coleman, the city’s Innovation Team — which drew talent from across multiple departments to brainstorm new initiatives, efficiencies and problem-solving — had been based within St. Paul’s Financial Services department. Shortly after Carter’s inauguration in January, Deputy Mayor Jamie Tincher said the mayor’s goal was to move its efforts more directly into the mayor’s scope.

“Tarek is exactly what we want,” Carter said. “He has the opportunity to look across our organization and lead real data-driven public engagement and innovation.”

Before being promoted to lead the Office of Technology and Communications in December, Vickers had spent the previous two years as a project manager and management consultant with the city.

She had spent five years as chief information officer of the Community Action Partnership of Scott, Carver and Dakota Counties. Her work history includes 10 years as a software developer or systems analyst for academic institutions, including seven years with the University of Minnesota and two years with Emory University.

Vickers also has been active in volunteerism.

She founded “Blacks in Technology Twin Cities” and was a co-organizer of “Code Switch,” a civic hackathon. She chaired the advisory board of the St. Paul Foundation’s Multicultural Endowment Fund from 2007 to 2010, and was recently appointed co-chair of Open Twin Cities, a group of civic hackers. As a department director, she draws an annual salary of $140,000.

INTERNAL HIRING?

Shortly after Nyberg resigned, the department created a new managerial role that was quickly filled by another longstanding OTC employee.

Joan Hoover is the manager of the OTC department’s Project Management Office, and one of Vickers’ close advisers.

Hoover’s son, Tim Schmidt, had been offered a position with St. Paul Regional Water Services in early February, but declined it and was promoted to OTC’s newly-created position of Enterprise Resource Plan Manager.

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St. Paul schools superintendent gets high marks, but board wants progress on equity, enrollment, student achievement He’ll oversee staff and responsibilities that were previously part of the Enterprise Applications division, which handles certain software improvements. Schmidt earned $89,000 in his previous role and earns $105,000 in his current one, an increase of two pay grades from “technical analyst 4” to “technical analyst 6.”

Schmidt has worked for the city since 1999, but the sudden reorganization nevertheless took current and former employees by surprise.

Andrea Turner, Director of the St. Paul Department of Human Resources, said in an email that the position was posted internally for 10 days, and Schmidt was the only applicant.

He will oversee the upgrade of Infor human resources and financial software, applications he had previously worked with in 2014 and 2015.