Berrien County officials today issued a directive to the tri-county workforce development entity Kinexus Group to preserve all of its records, not destroy any records, and be more forthcoming with information with the understanding that whistleblowers will be protected.
At their regular Thursday session, Commission Chair Mac Elliott announced Berrien County will send Kinexus Group a formal instruction to preserve its records, and will tell the agency’s current and former employees that they can bring information to the county’s attorney without fear of retaliation.
The letter, which Elliott said corporate counsel will take up on his return Monday and which he expects to go out “Monday, Tuesday at the latest,” would go to every director the three counties have appointed to the workforce board, to commissioners and the administrator in Berrien, and to counterparts in Cass and Van Buren counties.
“It would be a letter directing Kinexus to retain records,” Elliott said. “A do-not-destroy notice, emails, texts, paper documents.”
It will also carry what Elliott twice called a “clarion call” to people who have worked at the agency.
“A clarion call to Kinexus employees, current and past, who may have been asked, even perhaps made to feel obliged, to sign a nondisclosure agreement,” he said. “This is a public agency. There should not be nondisclosure agreements.”
Elliott said the county has heard that employees were presented with such nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) — reports...
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