City of Carson Director of Human Resources & Risk Management Faye Moseley had to explain to the city’s Director of Finance and City Manager a questionable travel reimbursement request related to the interviewing of a candidate for the position of Principal Administrative Analyst. The May 14, 2020 email details how the top candidates for city manager were then considered for the lesser position.
According to Moseley, the city recruited for the position of City Manager from August 14, 2019 through October 3, 2019. Due to the city council defunding the position and instead funding Principal Administrative Analyst, the HR department recruited for the new position between November 26, 2019 through April 29, 2020. Moseley provided no explanation for why the recruitment lasted twice as long for the analyst position than that of city manager.
Darryl LeTroy Bell was flown out to the city of Carson to interview for the Principal Administrative Analyst position on January 21, 2020, via an American Airlines flight that originated in Chicago, IL. The roundtrip ticket cost was $455 + $80.59 in taxes.
He stayed in a hotel room in the Doubletree by Hilton Carson located adjacent to Carson City Hall. The total cost was $182.07.
These expenses wouldn’t be of concern had Ms. Moseley not paid for these costs out of her pocket, and then sought reimbursement from Carson taxpayers.
Bell has a troubled history with his previous employers, most recently being suspended on July 14, 2020, for improper payments to a city vendor and himself.
Related: Muskegon Heights city manager suspended over vendor contract, pay
Bell was forced to resign from the Chief Administrative Officer position in the city of Baton Rouge in 2017 for questions surrounding contents of his resume.
Related: Questions raised about new Baton Rouge Chief Administrative Officer Troy Bell’s resume
And in 2016 Bell had his employment terminated as city manager of the city of Walla Walla for not meeting performance expectations.
“While Troy has many positive attributes, the alignment of his skills and job expectations were not what was hoped for,” City Manager Nabiel Shawa wrote in a Monday email to the Union-Bulletin. He declined to provide more specific reasons for the termination.
It is unclear if the Carson Human Resources department did their homework on Bell before offering him the position of Principal Administrative Analyst which he declined.
“I have concerns about the city’s hiring practices specifically dealing with the questionable expenses related to this applicant,” said Ana Meni, President, AFSCME Local 809. “In my nearly 24 years of working for the city of Carson I have never known the city to pay for travel for non upper management positions.”
Meni further explained to 2UrbanGirls that she found it troublesome that Bell was given a tour of restricted areas of city hall, normally only accessible to city employees, prior to his interview questioning if other applicants were afforded the same opportunity.
“I was taught by my first boss City Clerk Helen Kawagoe that we have a responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayers money,” said Meni. “The lack of transparency has led the city to have to financially settle personnel related matters and they obviously haven’t learned their lesson.”
None of the members from city council were available for comment on why Moseley was reimbursed for this request nor was City Manager Sharon Landers who approved Moseley’s request.
The nefarious request was occurring simultaneously as non-essential city employees were being sent home to collect unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Is Faye Moseley qualified to be the city’s Human Resources Director?
Troy Bell documents
15 Comments
Carson needs a NEW COUNCIL . HR Director takes liberties because she is ruling over the CM who is smart, but not fit to be City Manager. HR Director feels she has as much power as CM
And you guys thought Gail was bad.
Interesting that Ana Meni, AFSCME President, states that she was taught how to be a good steward of City Resiurces when she has a history of absenteeism while she was in the HR Dept working Payroll. She personally benefitted by HR’s questionable hiring practices when she was awarded a position in accounting that she was not qualified for, passing over well qualified staff that had been doing the work for many years. In Accounting she got behind because she was doing Union business on City time.
Liz Foisia, mother of Therese Foisia is angry because her daughter is being investigated for wasting city resources by not doing her job with contracts which resulted in the repossession off City Uniforms and spending over 80,000.00 on the rental of a generator that could have been purchased.
Ms. Moseley and Ms. Sanders are looking into a lot more including the entire mismanagement of the Oublic Works Department and Recreation and Community Services Department.
I’m not saying they’re perfect but it seems that Therese Foisia and Ana Meni are up to their old trucks of getting upper management fired to hide their own mid deeds. 2 Urban Girls, there is plenty of material for you to Dobson investigative reporting. Don’t just listen to one faction.
I am no fan of Sharon and Faye, but this right here, you hit on the nail!!! Carson needs to have a clean-up from top to bottom! Our hard earned tax paying money is being wasted on employees who are continuously doing union business on Carson time and paying for employee hiatus when they don’t feel like doing the work. A lot of employees have been in Carson for ages, not because of how loyal they are to the City, but because the City/Taxpayers are providing one of the best benefit packages without requiring employee output! Just compare with neighboring cities. I would really want to see an efficiency analysis of not only the two employees mentioned above, but overall on all employees!
Good morning TG,
I don’t know who you are but lets get some facts straight. If you are going to hide and not reveal your name – at a minimum, please make sure you have my work timeline correct because you are completely off. This is what happens when people gossip and don’t have their facts together.
First – I never worked for the HR Department. The Payroll Office is a subsection of the Accounting Division which falls under the Finance Department. I am no longer in Accounting Division and had moved on to a different division years ago.
Second – I didn’t receive a promotion while I was in Accounting, I took a lateral transfer which happened more than I think 15 years ago.
Third – it’s not absenteeism when I am having to handle union related matters. The MOU provides for that. Since 2006 I have held some type of leadership role within the union. The last 3-4 years has been the absolute worst dealing with management. This is what happens when the City of Carson hires individuals as managers and directors that have no absolute Public Sector experience. Constantly having to explain to them the laws, policies, etc. In Public Sector, there are checks and balances that we must follow. Management thinks they don’t have to follow any of them.
Fourth – I’ve stated this to management and to some of our officials. I have had more meetings with the City in the past 3 years than I have overall total since 2006 when I got involved with the Union. This is a clear indication that management does not know what they are doing.
You also mentioned Mr. Sanders.
I wouldn’t be so quick to be touting his praises. Sanders as the Purchasing Manager has violated the City’s Municipal Code when it comes to purchasing. He’s also munipulated dollar amounts in the system to just pay bills (eventhough should have went back to Council for authorization).
Don’t be surprised if a vendor or bidder sues the City because of bids or RFP’s that he has processed. Bidders were not treated the same, some given preferential treatment.
There is a reason why 4 long-term Purchasing employees (out of main office of 7, including him) abruptly retired in a 5-months span in his first year as a manager.
Funny you should mention the generator. That’s okay, we as staff knows what happened and the documentation to back it up. Management dropped the ball on that one – former Public Works Director and Sanders.
I would be a little cautious of the additional info you have as you clearly didn’t have my information correct including other things.
One thing you don’t understand is why all of this bothers us, it’s because we live here in Carson. This is our hometown. We see and hear when management puts down our City and its residents. They may think that they are too good for our City but they don’t have any problem with taking our money.
We will always fight for our City and we will call out those not doing what’s best for our City.
Until then, I wish you well TG and continue to be the hidden keyboard warrior that you are!
If you really want to have a genuine conversation, feel free to call me at 310-507-4661.
Be safe and God Bless!
Ana Meni
You do realize, if City Management were doing their jobs, the amount of meetings and time off required of me would be considerably less?
Before the latest group of Management hired. We might have 1-2 meetings a month with the City (non contract negotiations). Now, the City will set-up anywhere between 2-4 in a week. If they knew how to do their jobs, I wouldn’t have to be an extension of the HR Department.
Just to give you a little taste of what I’m talking about. Having to deal with job specs. When the City wants to make changes to job specs or create new ones, they should be presented to the bargaining unit what I call “Council Ready”. What happens every single time, I end up becoming an extension of the HR Department and having to rewrite the specs because they are not acceptable for any employer. One time, I had to inform the HR Director and the new Public Works Superintendent that we can not have on the specs that the employee “must eradicate scavengers”. It is Management responsibility to make sure the specs are appropriate from an employer standpoint. In the past, meetings with job specs would normally not take more than 2 meetings. The 2nd time would just be to review the final language. Now because the work product coming from City Management is so bad, some have taken months.
Once again, this is what happens when we hire Management with no public sector experience.
You obviously don’t work for the City and are taking information second-hand. Feel free to pass my number to the employee that is telling you the information because they are seriously misinformed.
I can publicly stand by what I say. Can you and the employees that relay information to you do the same?
Continue to air these frauds out! Ridiculous !
Faye Moseley and Sharon Landers, HR Director and City Manager respectively, are Rogue Managers, period! You can mask the bad odor only so long before it seeps out – City Hall and all City Departments have been dealing with the stench for too long! It’s time to air things out and clean up! “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.” Martin Luther King Jr.
What’s so special about Carson’s hiring practices and processes?
Try to top this!!
Here in Compton, we got laid off attorneys being hired back as a secretary and a paralegal!! That’s going from 100K to maybe 60k. They either so bad they can’t get a job at another place or they just loyal to Compton. Shuffling shit around doesn’t make it smell any better. LMAF in the CPT.
I have a feeling this is going to be in the same place as the Harris contract that the HR Director and CM effed up and that Mayor Robles was oh so diligent in following up on and at the end resulted in nothing, just NOICE. MAYOR ROBLES: there are smart people in your city that know what you are all about and that all this is a show! We are educated, minority, successful people with multiple degrees and human heart. It’s just unfortunate that we are not big in numbers, but we KNOW! Anyone with a brain will know that these two are doing whatever they want with the City and everyone else are just puppets in their show! What happened to following protocol and being transparent?!? Friends of friends is what you need to be to be successful here. I’ve personally seen emails where there is no plan for employees but we are doing it as “a favor to council” verbatim! Let’s see if Councilwoman Holmes knows who I am referring to. Yes keep on paying unqualified employees because they are your goddaughter’s neighbor baby momma, although for the life of them could not survive in the real world!
Goddaughter’s neighbor baby momma? Wait, what???
This is ridiculous that professionals like this are allowed to manage a City. Isn’t there anyone that can assist in stopping their power trip? We clearly cannot rely on Council to get the job done because even though it seems like they are for the people, a simple pat on the hand is all they give. This is not about making everyone happy (because we know that you cannot make everyone happy all the time-CCM Holmes) but it is about doing the right thing. Who can we contact to investigate the wrongdoings of those in management roles? We definitely need external help to come and look from an unbiased point of view.
Wow… I’m an employee and she (Faye) comes off as if she(Faye) is full of integrity. This needs to be addressed immediately. My hard earned tax money is spent on someone who she thinks could be a candidate wow. The City of Carson is a joke come on residents wake up this lady and the City Manager are raping the city and you guys are just standing around watching.
This does not come as a surprise. The HUMAN Relations Director who lacks any HUMAN senses wants to on-board people just like her, with no ethics or morals, and help her run [down] the City. Yes, fly someone across the country when there are a lot of viable candidates in let’s say California, maybe even Carson. What’s sad is that her BFF the City Manager along with council, are allowing this type of behavior and adding to the problem by not acting and pretending that none of this is happening and turning a blind eye when they [and everyone else] hear the public comments at almost EVERY council meeting. If we cannot rely on the people-elected council to take care of our City, who can we trust? I understand it is an election year, but come on, leave politics aside for a bit and focus on US for a minute. Carson has lost a lot of great talent due to the unbearable micro-managed environment created by the “leadership” of the City. A team ideally would consist of people with different expertise sharing ideas to come to the same end result, improving the City. That doesn’t happen with them. Employees are discouraged from sharing ideas because if they are not on Faye or Sharon’s personal/political agenda, you can kiss them goodbye no matter how great those might be. Consider yourself lucky if you’re on their good side, you will get rules bent over backwards for you because they’re Faye/Sharon and they can do that for you. That’s an employee morale booster for sure right? Taxpayers’ money is going down the drain and there is nothing to show for it. It is very unfortunate to see that two female leaders [TWO.FEMALE. LEADERS!] are representing us in such a horrible way. This should make [positive] history, Carson’s first FEMALE City Manager! Wow, I want to be like her when I grow up. But wait, do I??
Is Faye Moseley qualified to be the city’s HR Director? Clearly not based on the revelations in this article. The Carson taxpayers want a full investigation into all of the recruitments conducted under her nefarious control. Perhaps the private industry standards that she is used to operating by have given her a false sense of entitlement and lack of public accountability. Newsflash: you answer to the people and residents of Carson! Some of whom are part of the workforce that you treat so callously! Your karma awaits!