At 9 a.m. on Nov. 14, 2024, a group of 25 leaders from Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration gathered in a meeting room at the agency’s headquarters near Cherry Creek for what was billed as a fireside chat.
The division head, Commissioner Dannette Smith, began by instructing everyone in the room to place their phones, computers and notepads to the side so they couldn’t be accessed. She proceeded to read a series of notecards that the employees had written at the start of her tenure as commissioner, listing the goals and values they hoped she would bring to the role.
Smith expressed concern that a BHA calendar had been improperly shared with someone outside the agency, lamenting a violation of trust.
The commissioner then made reference to “cutting their throats,” which multiple attendees later told outside investigators that they interpreted as a direct threat.
“It felt like a scare tactic to be honest… it didn’t feel violent like (she) would actually slit my throat,” an unnamed employee told investigators, according to a report compiled by an outside law group, which detailed the meeting. “It was a turn of a phrase, but it was ‘I will destroy you.’”
The 2024 meeting and subsequent investigation, which have not been previously reported, illuminate the intense atmosphere and what many workers say was a toxic and unsafe workplace at the state agency under Smith’s leadership.
Nine current and former BHA staffers told The Denver Post that Smith fostered a chaotic and stressful work culture, which forced many people to seek other employment opportunities. The commissioner, several employees said, exhibited paranoid tendencies and managed through fear.
It became a dark, running joke in the office, several said: The state agency responsible for promoting mental well-being was tanking the psychological health of many of its workers.
“For an agency that’s supposed to direct mental health, if we can’t maintain our own mental health, then we can’t do what needs to be done for the citizens of the state,” one current BHA worker told The Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
As The Post was reporting this story, Gov. Jared Polis’ office on Wednesday announced Smith’s retirement from the cabinet-level position. Her last day is Feb. 27. “She was not asked to resign,” Shelby Wieman, the governor’s press secretary, said in an email.
Smith, through a BHA spokesperson, declined an interview request and did not address a list of questions from The Post.
In a statement, Smith said she’s confident that her record has “reflected the progress achieved by the agencies I have led; the enduring professional relationships I’ve cultivated with current and former staff, colleagues and community members (and) most importantly, the work carried out under my direction that I believe has improved the lives of individuals and families in Colorado and across the nation — speaks for itself.”
“While no leader will ever please everyone, and public service inevitably brings differing opinions and scrutiny, I have consistently remained focused on acting in the best interests of the communities served and conducting myself with intention, integrity and professionalism,” she wrote.
‘Who are the leaks in the ship?’
The BHA was born out of a behavioral health task force commissioned by Polis in 2019. The mission of the group was to evaluate and set the roadmap to improve the current behavioral health system in the state.
In 2021, Polis signed a bill establishing the new Behavioral Health Administration. The goal: to streamline, coordinate and integrate mental health and substance use programs and funding under one government entity. The department officially opened its doors in 2022.
But the nascent agency experienced rapid turnover, pushed-back deadlines and a revision of its core mission, The Post reported in 2023.
Polis, just 15 months after standing up the department, fired its first commissioner, Dr. Morgan Medlock, without explanation.
Medlock later sued the state and several leaders, including Polis, for allegedly firing her because of her race. The former commissioner, who is Black, alleged the head of the Colorado Department of Human Services treated her “less favorably” than non-Black members of the governor’s cabinet, and that she was discriminated and retaliated against.
Following the tenure of an interim leader, Smith took the helm in February 2024 after five years running the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
Quickly, employees say they noticed a shift in work culture.
Smith was demanding from the onset, but workers felt the goalposts were constantly moving, current and former staffers told The Post. Several said leadership would give them projects to do, only to realize that other people had been given the same assignment. Some work would be deemed high priority and staffers would rush to complete it, only to see it languish without any action.
Those who worked closely with Smith came to realize that everything revolved around her whims, staffers said.
“It was always, ‘I don’t care what you’re doing; you will drop what you’re doing and come talk to me,’” one former employee said, speaking on the condition of anonymity since they still work in the industry.
Smith liked to use metaphors, which didn’t always land with her subordinates. Early on, she said the BHA was like a baby in diapers and everyone was crawling around, staffers said. Smith, she said of herself, was the parent who needed to discipline the baby.
Many current and former workers who spoke to The Post said the atmosphere at work was always tense. One person said they could feel the air thicken when they came into the office. Another said they could tell Smith’s mood based on how she walked in the office — her steps either light and airy or heavy stomps that indicated she was upset with something.
It was hard, staffers said, to get on Smith’s good side.
“I was honestly afraid and lived in fear every day for months,” one former BHA employee said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they still work for the state and fear retribution. “I went through professional hell.”
Smith also displayed regular paranoia about her staff leaking information to the governor’s office or the Department of Human Services, workers said. She was constantly worried that she was being recorded, staffers said, and questioned meeting attendees about what they were doing on their phones. “Who are the leaks in the ship?” Smith asked.
She set up meetings in which everyone sat in a half-circle so she could view the whole room at once. Multiple employees said she made people go one by one, verbally confirming to her that nothing said in the meeting would leave the room.
“It was very paranoid, as opposed to building a culture of trust,” one former employee said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they still work for the state and fear retaliation.
The fireside chat
These issues reached a boiling point during the November 2024 fireside chat.
After the comment about cutting people’s throats, Smith told the group that they needed to call her the following morning to tell her whether they were “in” or if they were “out,” the investigative report states.
Shortly after the meeting, a worker filed a workplace violence incident report, outlining their concerns with Smith’s language.
The state later that month hired an outside firm, Investigations Law Group, to assess whether the commissioner made “physically and psychologically threatening comments” and whether she threatened the job security of her staff or violated department policy.
The 24-page probe, completed in February and obtained by The Post through an open records request, found Smith did make a comment that centered on cutting and bleeding, though most of the attendees did not take this literally.
Two witnesses, though, said they viewed the “slit a throat” comment as job-related retaliation.
“It was very much a threat of, ‘If you don’t like it, I’ll make sure you’re not here anymore,’” the former employee who spoke about paranoia told The Post.
The investigation, which cost the state $20,000, concluded that the comment did not communicate a threat of imminent physical harm, though the report called the comments “unusual, to say the least, in a workplace setting.” The firm found Smith’s comments violated the department’s code of conduct, as they were not “professional,” “respectful” or “courteous.”
Smith told investigators that she recognizes her directness “has hurt people,” and that her commanding presence can be intimidating to some.
“I have a way of being — Lord have mercy — I can be direct to the place that somebody who doesn’t know me might think I am being too edgy,” she said in the report.
“I give analogies all the time,” she added. “Some they really like and some they really don’t.”
Several witnesses told investigators that they felt threatened by Smith’s mandate to tell her whether they were in or out. One called the meeting “borderline hostile.”
“You were close to feeling like, ‘If I don’t say yes, I’m in trouble,’” that unnamed person said, according to the report. “It was not the most direct threat ever, but implied.”
The report concluded that Smith’s comments “reasonably communicated a threat to employees’ job security.”
‘Really hard, really taxing and not healthy’
This challenging work culture threatened the mental well-being of its workers, current and former staff said.
Several said they began taking medication for depression or anxiety during their time at BHA. Others said they needed regular therapy. Many talked about seeing their coworkers crying at their desks or in their cars.
“It was really hard, really taxing and not healthy,” one former employee said. “I needed to step away. My family said, ‘Please stop, this isn’t great.’”
“My body is in a constant state of fight or flight,” this worker added.
Some said they dreaded going into work or suffered panic attacks before meetings. They constantly feared they’d be interrupted and told they were dumb or didn’t know what they were talking about.
Former employees said they noticed a visible difference in their mood and health once they left BHA. Their faces grew brighter, their sleep better.
“When I go for walks now, I can see the world around me again, like my eyes had been closed for the past few years,” the former staffer who spoke about their fight-or-flight response said. “It’s very pleasant to feel present in my life again.”
The irony that they worked for the state’s mental health agency was not lost on staff.
“It’s incredibly sad that while working for a mental health agency, my mental health has been the worst I’ve ever experienced,” a current employee said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
The governor, in a statement Wednesday announcing Smith’s retirement, thanked the commissioner for being a “strong leader.”
“She led the agency at a critical time, and helped implement the vision of the BHA to provide access to behavioral health care services to all Coloradans,” Polis said. “We appreciate her service to Colorado and wish her the best of luck in this next chapter.”
Smith called it an “honor and a pleasure to serve the people of Colorado,” saying the BHA “made transformational changes to our state and increased access to the mental health services people need and deserve.”
Those who served under her, though, said they hope the change in leadership will result in a healthier place to work.
“The work that administration does is so critical for people in Colorado,” the former staffer who felt threatened in the 2024 meeting said. “I hope they’re able to focus on that work.”
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