I work as a network technician for county government.

Initially I was very happy with my job. I got along very well with
my coworkers and supervisors, happily did my job, and felt no qualms
about going the extra mile for the customer.

Around 8 months ago a new department coordinator was hired, and
fairly quickly things started to change.

Suddenly closed-door meetings became the norm with the management
staff. Some minor changes would happen, like a security door code
being changed, or a doorbell being installed, with no notification to
the employees.

Decisions about projects suddenly were not solicited; it went from an
environment where our input as knowledgeable employees was welcome,
to one where management decides without soliciting input.

Personally I really dislike the new coordinator. This person has
weak people skills and quite honestly I think he makes our department
as a whole look bad. Other staff in other departments have quietly
expressed dissatisfaction or surprise at the way the guy seems to
shrug off their concerns, not politely but rather arrogantly.

More and more often our group of employees (two subdivisions of the
department, one working on networking, the other programming)
commiserate about not being informed about stuff happening. I made
what I now consider to be some mistakes in sending emails to my
supervisor and subdivision to ask why a certain policy had been
implemented, why a particular decision had been made, etc.

My intent was to get information, but I have to admit that my tone
was not altogether positive; I got somewhat reactionary and anyone in
our department could probably tell that I seemed to be putting a chip
on my shoulder.

Finally I've been written up for an email which I sent to the entire
staff. My intention was to ask a question about something some of my
buddies and I were discussing related to some new communications
hardware the bureau was thinking of purchasing. Unfortunately the
way I worded it I hinted at things going on in the department which I
thought were negatively impacting it, and the coordinator chose to
interpret this in the worst light.

The coordinator, who incidentally doesn't seem to like me because I
ask a lot of questions, referred to several instances in the past
where I had been verbally counseled about writing email messages to
the staff. Further there were several previous email messages not
directly related to this message I sent to the entire staff of the
organization, but instead which portray me as one who asks a lot of
questions. Ultimately I was reprimanded for discussing policy and
procedure outside the department.

My gripes are that the question I asked of the whole staff was one
which, bottom line, was intended to solicit answers about an issue
which is not policy, not procedure, merely an idea about how to
implement new technology specific to our organization but not to any
person nor department in particular.

Basically I feel the coordinator is using this as an excuse to bundle
stuff into my personnel file which doesn't relate to the text of the
reprimand. But the stuff will be documented as ammo for the future I
guess if I am not very careful.

I'm already very pissed off at myself for letting my emotions get out
of hand. I should've been much more careful with what I said, and
should never have said what I did in email since it's come back with
a vengeance to bite me in the ass.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. For what it's worth I
already document meetings I'm called into with supervisors or the
coordinator, suggestions I've made, etc. I'm not afraid at this
point that I will get fired, but I think this person would not
hesitate to work towards that. I realize that I blew a hole in
myself by sending this most recent email in the first place...