New interim director of troubled state history agency making changes, facing some pushback • Nebraska Examiner

“I’ve found staff crying at their desks. I’ve cried at my desk,” said Mary Schulte, who had replaced Drake as chief librarian until resigning recently amid what she described as unfair criticism. 

In an interview, Drake acknowledged that she’s gotten some pushback on the changes she has implemented and says she’s learning to be more patient about altering the organization, which has more than 60 full-time employees and a yearly budget of about $8 million. As librarian, she had supervised six or more employees until her department was slowly reduced to just herself before she was fired. 

During the interview, Drake said that some people might consider her unqualified to lead the agency. But she pointed to her 45 years with the Historical Society, being mentored by key agency staffers of the past such as Jim Potter, John Carter and Tom Buecker, and being focused on the agency’s mission — “to collect, preserve and open our shared history to all Nebraskans.” 

Roger Lempke, a former adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard who serves as chairman of the State Historical Society Foundation, said staffers “beholden” to the old administration are bound to be disgruntled, but he said changes were necessary to “get the agency back on track.”

“It’s important that they get back to some of their core functions and do them well,” said Lempke. 

Under Jones, he said, the agency had been too “inward looking” instead of serving the public.

“She knows right away some of the immediate things that need to happen,” Lempke said. “She’s already getting the organization back on its feet.”

Interviews with two current employees — who spoke on the condition they not be named — and Schulte, who has resigned, painted a different picture.

Talented and productive staff, they say, are being forced out in the name of erasing any remnant of the old regime. Job responsibilities and department structures are being revamped without explanation, they maintain, which has accelerated the exodus of staff. 

During the past two years, turnover at the society was 22.7% and 31.7%, respectively — among the highest among state agencies, according to state personnel figures.

‘Toxic work environment’

Schulte, who had replaced Drake as chief librarian, maintained that the library was running well despite the agency’s recent turmoil. But she told the Examiner that Drake had singled her out for criticism during a committee meeting and had told her she was being put “under the gun” for her job performance.

The former staffer said it has resulted in a “toxic work environment” where staff members are fearful for their jobs due to the “extreme stress” of all the changes. 

“It’s never been the perfect workplace, but everyone did their jobs well and, for the most part, supported each other,” Schulte said. “That’s all gone now.”

Drake dismissed the criticism, saying that at least two staffers had departed for better paying jobs and one person’s resignation had been announced before she took office.

“Some of it could be they didn’t like the changes I’m bringing in. But you can always look back at how many people we lost between 2018 and 2020 (when Jones was director),” Drake said. 

“I came in here determined to treat people with respect — the respect that I was not given,” she said. “They have no idea what it’s like to not be treated with respect.”

Drake, as well as other employees, had opposed some of the policies under Jones, including a management program called the “Entrepreneurial Operating System” that required employees to document regularly how many books they had filed and how many files they had scanned. One of Jones’ guiding principles was “fire fast and hire slow.”

While some employees said the EOS system made sure staffers were being productive, others complained that it was a waste of time — documenting what they did at work instead of doing the actual work. Drake, among others, said it was more appropriate for a private company than a history agency.

Message on a rock

In 2020, Jones fired Drake for allegedly violating agency policy by taking home a book from the society’s collection. The firing was overturned upon appeal because the book in question, which had been donated by a history buff, had not been accepted into the state’s permanent collections.

Two years later, Drake was fired again by Jones — two weeks before he resigned — over a purported threatening message that had been painted on a rock displayed on Drake’s desk.

Drake, during the interview, disputed that the message — painted on the rock during a staff retreat — was in any way threatening. The rock, however, could have been interpreted as a sarcastic dig because Jones’ management system awarded “rocks” to workers who met production quotas.  

“I didn’t hurt anyone with the rock,” Drake said, adding that it was used as an excuse to dismiss her.  

Jill Dolberg, who had taken over as interim director after Jones left, resigned just before Drake was appointed by Gov. Pillen, who took over governance of the State Historical Society in July after the State Legislature approved a bill shifting the agency from its independent status, governed by a citizen Board of Trustees. 

That board is now an advisory council, with the governor hiring a director and overseeing budget decisions — a change many society employees opposed, concerned it could interject politics into decisions about the subject of museum displays, research projects and magazine articles.

State lawmakers who voted for the change said that it should increase financial oversight and trust in the society, given the recent charges against Jones. Also cited was an incident 16 years ago in which the society’s assistant director was convicted of embezzling $73,000 in agency funds.

Drake said she eventually came to support changing the society into a “code agency” under the executive branch because of the drastic changes that happened under Jones.

The end of the society’s independent status has been a “challenge for everyone,” she said, including herself. But Drake said she’s looking forward and not backward in making changes.

Renewed focus on historic artifacts

She has met with the State Historical Society Foundation — which has nearly $20 million in assets it donates for history projects — and mended the relationship with that organization, with whom Jones had replaced with the now-defunct History Nebraska Foundation. 

Ironically, one of the main sources of friction between Jones and the old foundation was a private grant given to the society to establish an exhibit on agriculture. Drake said she has launched plans for five yearly exhibits related to different eras of agriculture at the State History Museum to satisfy the grant’s goal.

She has revamped the organizational structure of the society, returning to an accountability chart that was used in the 1970s, when she was hired.

She said she’s also restoring a focus on historic artifacts in museum displays. Jones had been criticized for removing a replica sod house and general store from the state museum and for new displays lacking such historical artifacts.

“We’re not keeping (artifacts) hidden in the basement,” Drake said.

Public visiting hours at the society’s research room will eventually be restored to four days a week, she said, and possibly on Saturday mornings, she said. Under Jones, it was open only one morning a week.

Not everything can be researched online, the new interim director said, noting the society’s vast collection of original historic manuscripts.

The diversity committee, which had encouraged staff to participate in events such as gay pride parades, was dissolved. Drake said that under Jones, employees got better job reviews if they participated in the diversity events.

Overall, she said, there were too many committees and meetings under Jones that took away time from “serving the public.”

When asked if she wants to be the permanent director, Drake demurred, saying she’d have to think about it.

“There have definitely been challenges in the first month,” she said.

Jones faces trial after fund diversion

LINCOLN — Trevor Jones, the former director of History Nebraska, resigned in 2022 after serving six years as the top administrator. 

His tenure was marked by efforts to modernize the agency’s collections, but also by employee complaints about unnecessary and heavy-handed supervision of their work.

He also sparred with the long-established Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation, a spat that prompted him eventually to cut ties with that foundation and establish a replacement to raise funds, the History Nebraska Foundation.

Shortly after he resigned, Jones was charged with felony theft by deception for diverting two donations from the older foundation intended to cover anticipated agency revenue losses due to COVID-19. He instead deposited the funds in the rival foundation he had set up. In one instance, he altered a check so it could be deposited in the bank account of the new foundation.

The History Nebraska Foundation has no employees now and is not soliciting donations. 

Jones, 52, awaits trial in Lancaster District Court. The charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.