Letter Signed by 18 Whole Cleveland Heights Employees Denies Mayor and Wife Have Created a Hostile Work Environment

Accusations of a hostile work environment at Cleveland Heights City Hall have narrowed to Mayor Kahlil Seren and his “first lady” Natalie McDaniel Credit: Mark Oprea

For the past four months, Cleveland Heights City Hall has landed itself in local media headlines for a string of controversies stemming from Mayor Kahlil Seren and his wife Natalie McDaniel — incidents involving police, incidents involving allegations of a hostile work environment, incidents involving alleged antisemitic remarks.

Council says it has lost faith that Seren can continue to lead the city, and residents have begun a signature drive to recall Seren from office.

Support appears lacking, and an open letter signed by Cleveland City Heights employees arguing that the uproar is manufactured and the city continues to run smoothly doesn’t do much to change the calculus.

As the letter, which defended Seren and McDaniel, only has 18 signatories. (Cleveland Heights has more than 430 employees.)

But its organizer, Frances Eugenia Collazo, a communications specialist with the city, argues the small majority speaks the truth.

“We’re here, just doing work,” she told Scene in a phone interview. Not enduring in a culture ripe with “toxicity.”

“Like, you come here, people are here to help you,” she added. “People smile at you. And they’re happy to work here.”

She sent the letter out this week “in response to toxic workplace allegations and media coverage.”

It came a day before Seren’s deadline to collect enough signatures to secure his position on the September primary ballot for re-election. And a little more than a week after a coalition of his critics formed a recall campaign.

All inappropriate and misguided, according to the letter: Seren’s City Hall isn’t dysfunctional; it’s a high-octane factory zeroed in on bettering the city—even if that means losing a few employees along the way. (Including three city administrators.)

“The mayor has challenged the way things have always been done,” the letter reads. “He has pushed for transparency, accountability, and change—and not everyone has welcomed that.”

“Yes, there has been tension,” it adds. “But it’s not because of abuse. It’s because change is uncomfortable—especially for those used to calling the shots without accountability.”

Even uncomfortable to those enlisted to implement that very change.

Last summer, Seren hired a performance coordinator, Andrea Heim, who was tasked with outfitting City Hall’s offices with a Lean Six Sigma brand of workflow, a management tool used often at high-level corporations that want to cut fat, eliminate “waste” and “remove the causes of defects,” a guide on the practice reads.

On March 13, Heim wrote HR director Tanya Jones about an alleged “incident in the Mayor’s wing,” in which McDaniel, Seren’s wife, was reportedly “yelling and swearing” to the point that Heim relocated elsewhere to work.

“I do not feel comfortable returning to City Hall until I am assured that the Mayor’s wife, who is NOT and [sic] employee,” she wrote, “and who is NOT an elected official is no longer present and exerting her influence.” (Heim eventually resigned.)

Seren at a Cleveland Heights City Council meeting scheduled to handle his ability to lead, in May. Credit: Mark Oprea

Although City Hall responded to public records requests by releasing an incident report and CCTV footage of a similar episode on December 6, it has not yet produced police bodycam footage.

And on May 14, former employee Patrick Costigan and his attorney filed a charge of discrimination complaint to the Ohio Ethics Commission citing various incidents of alleged antisemitism, mostly texts and comments from McDaniel.

When asked about those incidents, Collazo refused to comment, adding that she was not familiar with Heim’s emails.

“I don’t want to talk about any of that,” she told Scene. “I want to talk about our experience as employees. That this isn’t a negative or toxic work environment. That’s the long and short of it.”

Collazo said that Tuesday’s letter was not approved by the city’s communications department, and that Seren himself “was unaware of this.” A City Hall spokesperson declined to comment to Scene on the matter.

As of Tuesday, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has recognized six candidates for the Cleveland Heights mayoral race later this year, potentially including Seren himself, if he garners enough signatures.

On Tuesday morning, Seren posted on his Instagram to highlight a pop-up petition signing event at 1 Monticello Boulevard, after a weekend spent collecting signatures in and around Lee Road.

“KEEP BLACK MEN ON THE BALLOT,” he wrote, then advertised the appearance of two city mascots, Al Capony and Macaroni. “Come for the ponies,” he added, “stay for democracy.”

Earlier, Seren had posited in a Facebook post that there was a nefarious movement to oust Black Democratic mayors across the country, including himself.

“At the African American Mayors Association Conference this year, I heard stories of really dirty political attacks against Black mayors and their family members. Stories of rumor mongering, character assassination, false accusations that organized groups spin as proven,” he wrote. “It seems to be coalitions of mostly white liberals (or faux progressives), amplified by right wing propagandists with a few Black people recruited to add a veneer of racialized credibility. Clearly these stories feel familiar to me.”