Probe by state ombudsman finds past mismanagement at Nebraska State Historical Society

LINCOLN — An investigation by the State Ombudsman’s Office found “reasonable grounds” to support claims by three Nebraska State Historical Society employees of mismanagement by the agency’s interim managers.

In a press release Thursday, State Ombudsman Julie Rogers said a formal investigation looked at claims of mismanagement from July through October of 2024, when Cindy Drake — an appointee of Gov. Jim Pillen — served as interim director of the agency.

The probe found mismanagement, but not “gross mismanagement,” Rogers said, adding that the investigation is now considered closed.

Workers on edge

While the Ombudsman’s Office did not detail the complaints, one former Historical Society employee said Drake and two deputy directors had created a toxic work environment at the agency. There were verbal and physical threats when staffers questioned them about management decisions, she said, which included unexplained elimination of jobs and restructuring of departments.

“People were terrified to lose their jobs,” said Mary Schulte, who resigned last fall from her job as chief librarian for the Society — a job Drake had held for 45 years. She left because she felt “targeted” by Drake, she said.

Schulte maintained that Drake was “on a vendetta tour” when she was interim director, and “retaliated against those staff she had personal grievances with. She targeted staff in her former department (including myself) and disparaged staff” in public.

Drake defends her tenure

Drake had left the Historical Society in 2022 after a dispute with then-Director Trevor Jones over her work.

Pillen credited her “vast experience and objectivity” when he named Drake as interim director in July. He then replaced her in November by naming a permanent director of the agency, Daryl Bohac, a former adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard.

When asked to comment on the ombudsman’s report, Laura Strimple, the governor’s spokeswoman, said in an email that “strong leadership is essential” for the Society.

Drake on Thursday said that agency employees “needed to be redirected, and they didn’t want to be redirected … so they struck back at me.”

She said she clashed with Schulte over her job performance, saying that she wanted to be a “public” librarian when she needed to be a “history” librarian.

“I only apologize for language that might have been harsh. I did nothing to demote anyone. Nothing,” Drake said.

Drake said she considered the ombudsman’s report a vindication of her actions. Schulte said she was disappointed — and that there should have been consequences.

“People are still leaving,” she said, of employee turnover at the Historical Society.

Recent troubles

The ombudsman’s report is the latest controversy to strike the state history agency in recent years.

Jones, the former director, stirred opposition from some employees for a heavy-handed management system, which required workers to detail every task and undergo almost monthly performance reviews. Turnover ballooned as a result.

Jones resigned the $164,800-a-year job in 2022, just before a critical state audit accused him of improperly redirecting $120,000 in donations from a private foundation to another private foundation that Jones had set up.

Jones was eventually charged with felony theft by deception, but that charge was recently dismissed when a judge ruled that prosecutors with the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office had violated the state’s requirements for a speedy trial.

Judge dismisses felony charge against former state historical society director

Pillen, when he took office, rescinded Jones’ rebranding of the agency as “History Nebraska,” restoring it to the Nebraska State Historical Society, the name listed in state statutes. The Society later lost its status as an independent agency when the Legislature placed it under the control of the governor rather than under a separately elected Board of Trustees.

Rogers, the ombudsman, said three employees of the Historical Society who came forward were declared “whistleblowers” under a 1993 law that provides some legal protection for workers who lodge reports of gross mismanagement or legal violations.

That law, the State Government Effectiveness Act, encourages state workers to come forward if they see “gross inefficiency and misconduct in state government, so that serious problems can be investigated and corrected” after a probe by the ombudsman.

The ombudsman said that while the actions of leadership at the Historical Society did not rise to gross mismanagement, “it is very important for state employees to speak out when they believe wrongdoing is occurring.”