Approximately four years after the previous city staff survey, Oak Harbor staff have officially completed their latest anonymous assessment.

At a meeting last Tuesday, the members of the Oak Harbor City Council and Communications Officer Magi Aguilar expressed satisfaction with the outcome of a new staff survey, which showed mostly neutral or positive feedback. Aguilar presented a brief overview to the council, but she did not share the written comments with the public. Two committees composed of representatives from most departments have been formed to review the findings and develop actionable recommendations, Aguilar said.

This presentation follows a meeting in August when the council authorized Aguilar to conduct the city staff survey in-house.

The last staff morale survey, which was in response to high turnover, was conducted in October 2021, when Mayor Bob Severns was in office. Many of the staff comments were generally negative, with some employees complaining of a toxic work environment. The administration shared the results with the public during a public meeting in 2021.

The results of the new survey clearly show that morale has improved.

With 147 responses in this year’s survey, Aguilar said the results produced an average satisfaction score of 3.68 out of 5. She noted that while improvement is always possible, she considers the results encouraging. She added that there was staff hesitancy over whether the survey was truly anonymous because of past surveys, but she was successfully able to reassure these concerns.

The responses reflected a mix of positive and negative feedback. In the employee’s responses about general experience, 52% of overall responses were neutral, which has some room for improvement, Aguilar noted. She said many suggestions focused on a need for more clear dialogue and growth opportunities, work-life balance and recognition.

The News-Times received the full survey responses through a public records request. Of note, several people said they appreciated Mayor Ronnie Wright’s work.

“Mayor Wright inherited a mess. I know he is trying to do all that he can do and that it takes time,” someone said.

Others shared how employee morale is high.

“Morale is excellent in my department,” someone commented.

“It has improved tremendously in the past year or so,” another person wrote.

Pizza was also a major topic of conversation.

“More pizza,” someone wrote simply.

The morale “revolves around pizza parties,” another person noted. Someone else claimed that if they were mayor, they would want “more pizza parties.”

However, not all comments were as cute. Many expressed that morale isn’t so great.

“Morale is at an all-time low. Many employees are very disappointed with the current leadership,” someone shared.

“We feel under-valued and misunderstood by leadership,” another person wrote.

Additionally, a couple staff members pointed out that there is still leftover pain and mistrust for the HR department, which was a major concern in the last survey.

Mayor Pro Tempore Tara Hizon said she spent the day reviewing the results, and she appreciates that many staff members took time to provide detailed written responses, both supportive and critical.

Aguilar plans to return to the council at a later date for further discussion.