Metro Parks chief Roy Wilson faces more misgivings than a budget snafu

It's no secret that Metro Parks and Recreation director Roy Wilson is holding onto his job by a thread. At an administrative working session with his board last week, Wilson confirmed that Parks suffered a $700,000 shortfall in the last fiscal year. Then on Tuesday, Metro Finance Director Rich Riebeling told Parks board members that his office is currently projecting a $1.77 million deficit for Parks in fiscal year 2010.Wilson admits the controversy has taken a toll, raising questions about his future in the job. "I'm consulting with my doctor, to get his advice about how all this job stress might impact my health," the embattled Parks chief told the Scene.

But some Parks board members and staff say that Wilson's fiscal difficulties are merely part of a larger pattern of mismanagement. They point to inconsistent leadership, hiring that violated personnel policy, and haphazard engagement with the board as also contributing to an all-time low in morale.

"A lot of us feel that Parks has been going downhill for the last five years due to a lack of direction from the top," says one decade-long staffer, who (like most of the Parks staffers and insiders contacted for this story) requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. "We've always had such pride in what we do. These are really tough times financially; everybody knows that. But it's as if the head guys [Wilson and James Gray, assistant director for finance and administration] have blinders on, they're not acting responsible."

A decision for which Wilson was directly responsible was a hire that went against stated Parks personnel policy, as well as the judgment of his own staff: William Frank Pillow Jr.

Frank Pillow is a former TSU football player who also spent time in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Bucs. In April of 2006, he applied for two seasonal, part-time jobs in Parks: as an umpire and a community center recreational leader. The applications ask a routine question: "Have you ever been convicted for violation of the law?"

Pillow's response—found in his personnel file, which is open to the public—says "domestic violence and weapons possession."

Parks department policy precludes hiring an applicant who has "any felonious conviction, which includes the act of violence or possible act of violence toward another person within the past five years." Letters between Parks' human resources coordinator and Metro Human Resources cite background checks that confirm Pillow failed the "felonious conviction" condition. The search turned up incidents dating to 2003 and 2004, as well as more than one name associated with his Social Security number. As a result, Pillow was informed that he would not be hired for either position.

On April 29, however, Roy Wilson received an email from then-Councilwoman Brenda Gilmore recommending Pillow for a Parks position. In response, Wilson directed James Gray and Paul Widman—Parks' assistant director for recreation—to hire Pillow for the rec leader position.

"I am not sure what Parks personnel policy is, but Frank Pillow is a young man that I have known since he was a child," Gilmore explained by email when contacted by the Scene. "He has had a troubled past, but I thought he had changed and I wanted to help him get a second chance. Apparently, he did not learn the lessons of life well enough and unfortunately, he messed up again."

Pillow subsequently shifted from seasonal to permanent part-time status before gaining full-time employment—and civil service protection—as rec leader at the Hartman community center in 2007. There are no "mess-ups" recorded in his Parks personnel file until 2008. Then complaints surface about "aggressive behavior with unruly teens and youth," a "verbal altercation" with a boy and his father, and in July, putting a 13-year-old in a headlock.

For the latter offense, Pillow was subjected to a disciplinary hearing administered by James Gray. Pillow's immediate supervisor, Bobby Jones, as well as Parks recreation superintendent Bill Troup and Widman all recommended that he be dismissed. Instead, Pillow received a three-day suspension and was directed to attend counseling. Later that month, he was transferred to the Madison community center.

In March 2009, Pillow was forbidden to drive Parks vehicles due to a DUI charge. But it was not until June—when WTVF-Channel 5 reported that the parent of a boy involved in one of the 2008 incidents had taken Pillow to court—that Pillow left Parks employment. The day after the broadcast, Wilson told the Scene last week, he called Pillow in, told him he had "become a liability for the department," and gave him the option of resigning.

"Frank gave me his letter on the spot," Wilson says.

Maybe Frank Pillow is just a guy with some anger-management issues who was allowed to occupy a job in which calm-cool-and-collected is a crucial skill. It's also true that government jobs have always been "it's not what you know but who you know" territory. That's why governments have personnel policies, to give administrators an official out, a piece of paper to wave in the face of lobbyists and politicians asking for favors.

But Wilson didn't wave the piece of paper. "I always bow to elected officials," he explains. "Perhaps I shouldn't have this time." Given that the Metro Council once featured a member who wanted to put a UFO landing pad in his district, it seems wise for department heads to think carefully before bowing too deeply.