St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones announced former Deputy Personnel Director John Unnerstall as the city’s new personnel director.
Unnerstall was sworn in Monday. A spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement that Jones looks forward to working with Unnerstall. As personnel director, he will be responsible for hiring and firing city employees. He begins his tenure under an emergency appointment, which according to a mayor's spokesman ensures that essential personnel business can continue.
Unnerstall’s hiring follows a series of tense hearings in which the city eventually fired former Personnel Director Sonya Jenkins-Gray following a recommendation from the city’s Civil Service Commission.
The hearing centered on a trip when Jenkins-Gray drove a city vehicle, accompanied by a subordinate, to Jefferson City last summer to retrieve personal documents. The city argued she put that worker in a precarious situation.
Jenkins-Gray was also fired for violating a city policy prohibiting employees from using city property for their personal use.
Jenkins-Gray’s team argued the city was engaged in political attacks against her.
The job of personnel director has been controversial as of late. Richard Frank, the director before Jenkins-Gray, is suing the city for preventing him from being hired to replace Jenkins-Gray and for stripping away his reemployment rights.
Last week, the commission planned to vote on a rule change that would have prevented the personnel director from receiving reemployment rights, though a judge stopped that from going through.
