Former city manager’s deleted emails highlight clashes with Palmer police leadership, review shows

What you need to know:

• Messages found among about 600 emails deleted by former Palmer City Manager Stephen Jellie and obtained through a public records request offer a glimpse into his strained relationship with the city's public safety officials, including Police Chief Dwayne Shelton.
• The emails were originally requested for review by the Palmer City Council. The vast majority of the deleted messages relate to general city business, meeting notices or junk mail. The collection does not include any redacted messages.
• The council is expected to discuss its ongoing investigation into Jellie's actions at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

PALMER – Ousted City Manager Stephen Jellie's deleted emails, currently under investigation by the Palmer City Council, offer a glimpse into his strained relationship with the city's public safety officials but reveal little new information about his final days on the job, according to a review by the Mat-Su Sentinel.

Jellie resigned Oct. 9 after 53 days on the job and received a $75,000 payout as part of his separation agreement. His resignation followed an outcry over his personnel practices and rumors of upcoming cuts to the city's public safety budget. It was his third such exit from a city in less than two years, with previous payouts totaling $200,000.

The City Council requested the deleted emails for review last month. Initially, about 120 files were thought to be involved. The final results included 600 deleted emails, which were delivered to council members Thursday. The Sentinel obtained the emails through a public information request.

The files include messages and notifications deleted by Jellie between his first day on the job in late August and Oct. 10, the morning after he resigned. The release excludes emails that fall under attorney-client privilege or contain protected police information or employee records, city officials said. It was not immediately clear how many messages were redacted.

In an interview Friday, Jellie said he never intended to permanently delete emails or hide his actions through deletions. He said he deleted emails to remove unneeded messages from his inbox.

“Putting emails in a deleted file is not the same as me, quote, deleting — meaning wiping out from existence — emails,” he said.

Most of the discarded messages involve electronic clutter or emails that were no longer needed, including more than 100 meeting notifications, about 50 junk emails, hundreds of messages about general city business, and a handful of personal attacks against Jellie submitted through the city's website contact form. One such message includes a reply address from the domain turdburgler.com and refers to Jellie as a "piece of [EXPLETIVE]."

But buried among the junk and routine business emails are several dozen messages that provide insight into Jellie's deteriorating relationship with the city's public safety staff. They include a series of messages between Jellie and Police Chief Dwayne Shelton, in which Jellie gives orders about police vehicles and the two discuss closing Palmer's police dispatch center.

“Boss, I am fairly certain that the city will need to contract dispatch services with MATCOM. It is not my first choice, but it may be time,” Shelton told Jellie in a Sept. 19 email. “The overall communication center budget is roughly $1.26 million. I will still need a chunk of that for equipment and software. It will take a bit to see what needs to stay and what can go.”

“Let’s talk later today or tomorrow,” Jellie replied about 10 minutes later. “Please do NOT have discussions with any others about this....”

Shelton said in an interview Friday that his Sept. 19 message was prompted by news that Palmer dispatchers were interviewing for jobs at Wasilla-based MATCOM dispatch. He later told Jellie in person that he had received additional information and no longer felt closing dispatch was necessary.

Jellie referenced that follow-up conversation in an Oct. 1 email to the council.

“On Sept. 25, 2024, after our city staff meeting, he approached me and stated he may have been premature in his email as his personnel were having second thoughts about taking positions with MATCOM,” Jellie wrote. “I stated plainly that I was concerned about his actions, the employees’ intent and that the city would not allow employees to manipulate operations.”

An Oct. 2 email exchange between Shelton and Jellie about the department's vehicles also shows strained relations. In it, Shelton lays out a rationale for keeping certain vehicles in the fleet and defends a program that allows officers to take their patrol cars home.

“When your brief is complete, I will decide the overall number of vehicles PPD is authorized,” Jellie responded to Shelton’s explanation and ordered him to surplus an unmarked vehicle used to transport evidence because it was “beyond the service life that we will maintain.”

When Shelton asked what they should use instead, Jellie replied, “Whatever one you assign....”

That tone was typical of Jellie's interactions with him, Shelton said.

“There was never an olive branch extended from him, like ‘hey let’s work together and do things,’” Shelton said. “It was very belittling and talking down.”

Jellie said the tension stemmed from his attempts to manage the police department during his tenure.

“There certainly was a period of what I would say is normal, kind of what we want to call the organizational elements — the storming, the forming, the norming,” he said in an interview Friday. “I think the police department has largely been left to their own devices.”

Jellie placed Shelton on paid administrative leave Oct. 8 after intercepting police department emails in which the chief allegedly criticized Jellie's management. Shelton's leave ended Oct. 23.

The deleted emails also include a handful of messages coordinating meetings about updates Jellie ordered for the design of Palmer's new library, including a larger floor plan and a budget increase that had not yet been approved by the City Council. The emails do not appear to reveal any new details about those changes or the process by which they were made.

The files end with a series of messages that Jellie deleted in his final days on the job, including a previously released warning to department heads not to communicate directly with City Council members.

An overview of the council's ongoing investigation into Jellie's actions is scheduled for Tuesday's council meeting. An update on the council's review of the emails is expected as part of that discussion.

A special meeting regarding Palmer Mayor Steven Carrington and the actions of the Palmer City Clerk's office is scheduled for next Thursday. City Council members Victoria Hudson and John Alcantra requested the meeting.

An application for a recall petition for Carrington was filed last month by citizens in response to his handling of Jellie's employment and rejected by the city clerk because it did not contain sufficient justification, according to a memo. The application has not yet been resubmitted.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at abushatz@matsusentinel.com