Dallas City Wire

The City of Dallas's nationwide search to fill the city parks director position has been narrowed down to a handful of individuals, including interim director John Jenkins who a local NAACP leader alleges has perpetuated a hostile work environment.

Jenkins, who currently makes $196,912 per year, has the attention of a state NAACP official. In February the board of commissioners received a letter from Bob Lydia, First Vice President of the Texas State Conference of NAACP Branches, detailing his concerns. 

Jenkins served as the Deputy Director of the Dallas Parks and Recreation Department until October 2019, when the then-Director Willis Winters retired. Winters was the highest paid parks director in the country with a salary of $254,678 per year. 

  “We believe it would be a major misstep and a travesty of what is deemed to be impartial should your board appoint Mr. John Jenkins,” said Lydia, in a letter dated Feb. 7.

In the letter, Lydia wrote that the local office of the NAACP had received numerous complaints about the department as Jenkins ran it, from previous and current employees. 

Those complaints include the following, according to Lydia’s letter: 

• Class-wide civil rights, harassment and discrimination claims based on race and/or national origin; 
• Class-wide workplace employment policies and practices; 
• Class-wide workplace situations claims based on including hiring (undocumented/unverifiable), firing, salary disputes, performance appraisals, job assignments, promotions, demotions, training, administrative leaves with or without pay and other terms or conditions of employment.

The letter also notes that the leadership of the local Units of the southern sector of Dallas for the NAACP have concerns about claims of class-wide retaliation and whistleblower issues based on a COD sanctioned ethics investigation that started in 2016, and during which a “complete and total breach of confidentiality ensued of all findings.” 

After this investigation, Lydia says that the employees named and deposed as part of the investigation were then targeted and retaliation ensued. 

"We further acknowledge to your members; diverse claims from previous to current employees, which includes a manifold of blatant violations, infractions, and questionable methods that are quite simply inhumane and unjust,” Lydia wrote. “All under the guidance and or initiated, approved and authorized by or on behalf of Mr. John Jenkins.” 

Lydia wrote that he has approached Jenkins to speak about these issues. 

“He vowed transparency and our office has yet to see such by his administration and staff; quite the contrary,” according to Lydia. 

There are three candidates in the running for this position. Jenkins, who has worked in the Dallas Parks and Recreation Department since 1995; Daniel Betts, director of recreation in Cincinnati, and Gordon Robertson, director of planning at Denver Parks and Recreation, according to a March 6 report by the Dallas Morning News.

The city received more than three dozen applications to fill the Parks Director position, and those applicants were narrowed by a Sacramento-based recruiter, CPS HR Consulting. The search committee interviewed seven candidates last month before narrowing the field to three contenders, according to the Dallas Morning News report.

The City of Dallas has 397 parks and more than 20,000 acres of developed and undeveloped park land, as well as more than 158 miles of trails for hiking and biking, in addition to nature areas, a disc golf course, and the 1,015 acre White Rock Lake in its system. The individual chosen to serve as Parks Director will be responsible for managing it all. 

Lydia did not respond to several requests for comment from Dallas City Wire.