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ST. LOUIS — A high-ranking official in the city’s Personnel Department says the department and Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ administration skirted hiring rules last year when they filled two of the most important jobs in city government — police chief and personnel director.

The eight-page letter from Deputy Personnel Director Bryan Boeckelmann alleges rules violations in the high-profile and politically sensitive job searches, claiming that Personnel Director Sonya Jenkins-Gray was “unlawfully appointed� and the process to hire police Chief Robert Tracy was “blatantly unlawful.� He also says that Jenkins-Gray bypassed normal testing procedures for some hires and an interim director picked by the mayor served despite rules giving former director Rick Frank the right to return to his old job.

Boeckelmann referred questions to his attorney, Paul Schmitz, who declined to comment.

A 17-year veteran of the department, Boeckelmann cites arcane department hiring and promotion rules that he says were ignored by interim Personnel Director John Moten, who was appointed in February 2022 by Jones. But he also details a larger pattern of “political interference� from the mayor’s office, violating a separation laid out in the city charter intended to insulate the department and civil service from patronage politics.

The letter, , was sent to the Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick’s office. A spokesman for the state auditor said the office isn’t currently investigating but plans to notify the city of “our intent to investigate in the near future.�

Jenkins-Gray did not respond to specific questions sent via email but said her office “will comply and cooperate with any complaint process that we are the subject of.� A spokesman for Jones’ office did not respond to specific allegations and referred a reporter to Jenkins-Gray’s statement.

Boeckelmann’s complaint follows nearly two years of tumult in the powerful yet low-profile Personnel Department. It started when Frank, who had held the job of personnel director since 2004, abruptly resigned in November 2021.

That briefly made Boeckelmann the acting director.

But the Civil Service Commission quickly appointed Sylvia Donaldson, a longtime Personnel Department employee, to the post.

Personnel directors can’t be fired by the mayor — Frank was only the fourth director since voters approved civil service reforms in 1941 — so the opening presented a rare opportunity for Jones. Past mayors have chafed at the behind-the-scenes power wielded by the department, which some say makes it difficult for mayors to implement their agendas. Some employee unions, though, argue the insulation is by design and promotes professional, rather than political, hires.

Days after Frank retired, Boeckelmann said Jones “authorized her staff to lock� both him and former deputy director Linda Thomas “out of their offices.� Also locked out was a human resources manager, Biannca Lambert, and Frank’s executive secretary, Christine Dussold.

The lockouts “gave the mayor, her staff, and other unauthorized individuals unrestricted access to extremely confidential civil service records, including personnel files with social security numbers and dates of birth; and testing materials, including information pertaining to the test for police commissioner,� Boeckelmann wrote.

Frank had insisted in 2021 that his department control the search for police chief, a departure from the 2017 search for Chief John Hayden, when the city used a consultant. The Personnel Department-conducted search and testing yielded only two internal candidates as finalists, both white men. Jones called the process “not very transparent� and pushed for a redo.

By February 2022, Jones managed to get the Civil Service Commission to change its rules so she could appoint an interim director — Moten — while a search for a permanent director began. The rule change and appointment drew a lawsuit from the union representing the city’s firefighters over the mayor’s involvement, litigation that is still pending. Jones’ office has said the firefighter union is trying to block the city’s attempt to “modernize� the Personnel Department.

One of Moten’s first acts, according to Boeckelmann, was to change the job classification for Heather Taylor, the former high-profile head of the city’s Black police officer association, who Jones wanted hired as deputy public safety director.

But civil service rules precluded her hiring at that level, so she was technically categorized as an “executive assistant.� Moten agreed to change her job classification to deputy director despite Boeckelmann and another employee advising him the rules didn’t allow it. Moten told them “the Mayor wants it,� Boeckelmann wrote. The change resulted in a modest pay increase for Taylor.

Under Moten, the police chief search began anew and resulted in Tracy’s hiring. But Boeckelmann says that hire didn’t follow civil service rules that require eliminated candidates to be told their scores and appeal rights.

Moten’s hiring was also improper, Boeckelmann wrote. After his February 2022 appointment, he wasn’t put on the payroll until the following month because a “reemployment list� existed for director of personnel. Under the civil service rules, that gave Frank the option of returning to his old job. He sent a letter to the department in May 2022 saying he reapplied for his position in January 2022.

Boeckelmann said Donaldson, the first interim director, sent him an email in March 2022 to cancel the reemployment list for director so Moten could be added to the payroll.

Moten “could not be appointed by the mayor if an eligible list for director of personnel already existed,� Boeckelmann wrote. “This is further proof that (Moten) working in the position of director of personnel prior to March 2, 2022 was unlawful.�

In September, when Jenkins-Gray was close to being hired, the Post-Dispatch asked for the “eligible list� for the director position. The department produced a list of three names that did not include testing scores, which eligible lists for other city positions regularly include.

Boeckelmann references the newspaper’s request and writes that not including a list with scores and rankings is “further evidence a passing point was never set on a civil service test and an eligible list was never established and certified.� That, he argues, means Jenkins-Gray was “unlawfully appointed to her position.�

Since her hire, she has used waivers to “bypass the normal merit and fitness hiring process� for “almost every one of her appointments.� One of the hires was a former co-worker of Jenkins-Gray and two attend her husband’s church, Boeckelmann wrote.