Eyewitness News Investigates: Questions about city of Charleston pay practices

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — The city of Charleston has about 800 full-time employees, with many other seasonal and part-time workers.

Eyewitness News is taking a look at two unique capital city jobholders. Combined, they have made hundreds of thousands of dollars based upon what could be labeled a very interesting method of keeping track of their time spent on the job.

Both of the employees retired from their careers with the state before taking new jobs with the city of Charleston. To keep their pensions intact, they had to be hired through United Talent Staffing Services.

Since Jane Bostic took the position of special assistant to the mayor in January 2019, she hasn’t missed any work. Bostic’s been paid 40 hours a week for 190 straight weeks.

To explore that more deeply, Eyewitness News submitted a Freedom of Information Act request with the city of Charleston earlier this year and another updated request in June. Documents show Bostic earned between $44 and $50 an hour for 40 hours every week since she started. She hasn’t been off the job a single day, even for holidays.

The holiday part is important because Bostic is not a full-time city of Charleston employee.

Her employment is through United Talent Staffing. The company does not offer vacation, sick or personal days for its associates who work for their clients. It provides employees for various jobs. However many hours are reported for an employee each week determines how much they are paid. A United Talent representative said it is up to individual companies to determine their own valid work hour schedules.

We also examined Renee Jones. She joined the city as special events coordinator the same time Bostic came on board in January 2019. Jones was also contracted through United Talent Staffing.

Until she left her post in May 2021, Jones, like Bostic, had perfect work attendance - 126 consecutive weeks where she didn't miss a day. Jones was even paid when she vacationed in Hawaii for more than a week in April of last year.

Additionally, we found discrepancies with how Bostic and Jones recorded their work hours.

Charleston employs several people through United Talent Staffing, with each one filling out a weekly time sheet with their hours worked.

But Bostic and Jones didn't fill out time cards. Instead, the city's human resources department sent weekly emails to United Talent, saying the duo had worked 40 hours each and to call with any questions. However, a FOIA request shows there are 26 weeks where there is no evidence an HR email was sent. However, on those weeks the city did submit itemized documents that totaled Jones and Bostic's hours, but email confirmations for those weeks were not provided to Eyewitness News,

We reached out to both Bostic and Jones, but our messages were not returned. Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin declined to talk about the issues, citing "personnel reasons."

The mayor did send a statement saying in part:

"The contract arrangement between the city of Charleston and United Talent for Jane Bostic and Renee Jones was approved by both the Public Employees Retirement System and the city of Charleston Human Resources Department prior to the start of my administration."

Goodwin went on to say that both women worked nights and weekends during the city's COVID vaccination clinics. The mayor did not address why that time on the clock was not accurately recorded.

After Eyewitness News started asking questions, the mayor's chief of staff Matthew Sutton provided a statement saying the city will examine its time keeping and pay procedures.

It says in part: "It is clear that better documentation is needed, and the mayor asked our Human Resources team, along with city attorney to come up with a policy to address better time keeping documentation.”

You can read the full statements from the mayor and chief of staff here:

"The contract arrangement between the city of Charleston and United Talent for Jane Bostic and Renee Jones was approved by both the Public Employees Retirement System and the city of Charleston Human Resources Department prior to the start of my administration.

In addition to working nights and weekends on city events such as Live on the Levee, and other events requiring city coordination since early 2019, Jane and Renee both worked almost every single hour on Saturdays during the COVID-19 vaccination clinics held in the city of Charleston and throughout the County. Both also lead the city’s effort to help get citizens signed up for vaccination clinics, ensuring transportation for seniors and making sure all city employees were able to get scheduled for testing and vaccinations. They also took the lead on proactively making phone calls to Charleston residents to check in on them during the pandemic, especially our senior citizens.

Jane Bostic is, without question, one of the strongest assets to the city of Charleston. The work she does every day and has since the day she arrived has monumentally benefited our citizens. From helping to start and manage our new small business outreach program, to the establishment of outdoor dining, to Food Truck Wednesday (previously Friday), and most recently the around the clock work on the Regatta. Jane has tirelessly worked above and beyond for the people of Charleston." - Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin, Charleston, WV

"It is clear that better documentation is needed, and the mayor asked our Human Resources team, along with city attorney to come up with a policy to address better time keeping documentation. We have had policy issues come up. Our philosophy has always been—if it’s not written down, we need to address it, fix it and enforce it in the future. We had to do this when we learned, at the start of our administration, that the city had no policy for how petty cash was handled, how purchasing cards were issued and used, and other issues related to the efficient and transparent operations of city government. When we identify issues or are made aware of them, we review and address the issue so that we can implement a strong policy. That is how government should operate." - Chief of Staff Matthew Sutton