ST. LOUIS 鈥 The city employee who told the mayor鈥檚 office about Personnel Director Sonya Jenkins-Gray鈥檚 July trip to Jefferson City testified Tuesday she felt compelled to report the situation and later told the director that she should resign.
The testimony from Biannca Lambert, a human resources manager in the department, was the latest in an unprecedented public hearing that has stretched on for most of the month and could lead to the first-ever firing of a 蜜芽传媒 personnel director. After a pause last week, the hearing resumed Tuesday for its fourth day and will continue well into February. Jenkins-Gray鈥檚 legal team has not even begun to call its witnesses yet.
During her testimony, Lambert said Anthony Byrd, the department鈥檚 chief administrative officer, told her that he had used a city car to drive their boss to the state capital in an attempt to catch Jenkins-Gray鈥檚 husband, the Rev. Darryl Gray, meeting with his ex-wife.
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Lambert said she considered quitting, and for weeks she wasn鈥檛 sure who to tell about what Byrd told her. She also testified that she considered Byrd, with whom she had been friends, a 鈥渘otorious liar鈥 and worried he told her the story about Jefferson City in order to poison her opinion of the director.
But she ultimately confronted the director on Aug. 15 with what she said Byrd told her. She testified Jenkins-Gray said it was true but that Byrd was a willing participant in the trip. On Aug. 19, she reported the incident to the mayor鈥檚 office.聽聽
鈥淭his is one of the oddest, most unprofessional situations I鈥檝e ever found myself in,鈥 Lambert testified.
Disciplinary hearings at the Civil Service Commission are usually closed to the public, but the city鈥檚 charter specifically requires a public hearing to consider charges against the director. The director, a powerful position that holds sway over hiring and promotions across the city鈥檚 5,000-person workforce, is the only position in the mayor cannot fill when she takes office. As a result, most personnel directors have served across mayoral administrations.
Jenkins-Gray, hired by Mayor Tishaura O. Jones in 2022, contends the mayor is now trying to fire her for political reasons, including a false belief that she is keeping critical city jobs unfilled and her public opposition to a Jones-backed measure that would give the mayor more power over hiring and firing the personnel director. She also says the mayor is angry that her husband backed Wesley Bell for Congress over Cori Bush, a close Jones ally.
Jones鈥 office, though, insists that Jenkins-Gray needs to go because she violated the city鈥檚 vehicle policy and put a subordinate in the middle of a potentially volatile domestic situation.
In a video deposition played Tuesday, Byrd testified that Jenkins-Gray eventually told him that she later learned the Rev. Gray was in Jefferson City to sign documents with his ex-wife relating to their child. He said the Rev. Gray also spoke with him about the incident later.
鈥淗e mentioned that, you know, she overreacts sometimes, she鈥檚 very emotional,鈥 Byrd said in his deposition. 鈥淪he just does what she feels in the moment sometimes, and that the assumption that he was there cheating was not correct.鈥
Editor鈥檚 note:聽The personnel director is the only position the mayor cannot fill when she takes office. A previous version of this story implied it was the only position the mayor could not fire at will. The mayor can only fire department heads for cause.聽
Biannca Lambert reported the Jefferson City trip to the mayor鈥檚 office on Aug. 19, after she confronted Jenkins-Gray about the incident.聽聽
Post-Dispatch photographers capture hundreds of thousands of images each year. Take a look at some from from just one week. Video edited by Jenna Jones.
