SEQUIM — He was fired last week, and this week Sequim City Manager Bill Elliott accepted a $152,318.52 settlement offer in exchange for his promise to neither sue nor disparage city officials.
The settlement will be paid out “to allow the city and Bill to move on,” as City Council member Erik Erichsen put it Monday night after emerging from a closed-door executive session.
A new council majority voted during a May 5 study session to terminate Elliott, who had been at Sequim’s helm since June 1, 2000.
The majority is made up of four newcomers — Erichsen, Ken Hays, Susan Lorenzen and Mayor Laura Dubois — elected last November after campaigning for managed growth and a more responsive city government.
At the May 5 study session, Hays called the city manager’s “laissez-faire” style incompatible with this new majority and added, that although he respects Elliott, now was the time for a transition to new leadership.
The city manager hadn’t provided adequate job descriptions for key staff positions and had apparently neglected to document performance standards and goals for city employees, according to Erichsen.
In Hays’ motion to terminate, Elliott was given 30 days’ notice, in keeping with state law.
In a vote of 4-1, Police Chief Robert Spinks was appointed interim city manager.
Councilman Paul McHugh cast the lone dissenting vote.
Members Walt Schubert and Bill Huizinga, who are halfway through their terms on the council, weren’t present.
