SEQUIM — Tom Waldron of Waldron & Co., the recruiter Sequim hired to find it a new city manager, is going back to the four finalists for the post this week to ask whether they’re still interested.
Waldron and the Sequim City Council thought they had found the right one for the job: Vernon Stoner, former chief deputy of the state Insurance Commissioner’s Office, former deputy CEO of Sound Transit and former manager of cities from Saginaw, Mich., to Lacey and Vancouver, Wash.
But last week the Peninsula Daily News learned that Stoner, 61, was fired by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler on June 15, and was named in a sexual harassment claim by his executive assistant there.
The state of Washington settled Shellyne Grisham’s claim with a payout of $50,000 on Aug. 31, one day before the Sequim council voted to make Stoner its next city manager.
The council had no knowledge of the claim and settlement, and on Monday night, Mayor Laura Dubois and members Ken Hays and Erik Erichsen indicated they were not at all pleased with the recruiter who had brought Stoner to them.
The council had planned to sign his employment contract, which included an annual salary of $120,000 per year, last Monday.
Investigation
Instead, the members took the advice of city attorney and interim city manager the Craig Ritchie, who recommended that the council have him and Waldron further investigate Stoner, and present their findings at a special session.
Dubois set the meeting for 5 p.m. next Monday at the Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
Dubois made it clear, too, that she wants further background checks of all four of the finalists who came to Sequim for interviews last month: Stoner, Steven Burkett, Subir Mukerjee and Mark Gervasi.
“We’re talking to the candidates to see if they want to endure that,” Waldron said Tuesday.
Stoner, for his part, was emphatic in his response.
“I welcome the background checks,” he said after Monday night’s council meeting.
Of the PDN’s coverage of his recent firing and the council’s desire for a deeper investigation, Stoner added: “That happens in the lives of city officials all the time . . . Controversy happens.
“The council is doing their due diligence of checking me out. It’s par for the course.”
As for the details of this controversy: “There hasn’t been a finding against me of sexual harassment,” Stoner said.
Stoner has said that he knew nothing of Grisham’s claim, nor of the out-of-court settlement that resolved it.
Waldron, who responded quickly to requests for comment on his recruitment of Stoner, said the candidate had “reached out to us” during the period when the Sequim manager post was advertised.
That period ended in early July, and Waldron & Co. proceeded to ask the most promising applicants for references, conduct credit and criminal record checks and verify the education listed on their resumes.
“We also do a Google search,” Waldron said, and ask the applicants about anything unusual that comes up there.
Stoner, Burkett, Gervasi and Mukerjee possessed sterling credentials, he added, and so were brought to Sequim for interviews, tours and a public meet-and-greet Aug. 25.
Waldron said Tuesday that he did inform the City Council of Stoner’s firing from the Insurance Commissioner’s Office.
“Vernon was asked about it in the council interviews,” and had explained that he was not given a reason for his dismissal.
Such terminations “have happened thousands of times from state offices, in our experience,” due to their political nature, Waldron said.
Suing state
Stoner, however, is suing the state in Thurston County Superior Court, contending that “age or race discrimination” played a role in his firing and seeking damages of up to $20 million.
Waldron, for his part, called the lawsuit irrelevant to the recruitment process.
“We don’t ask whom you’re suing,” he said. If anyone who’s filed a suit were disqualified, “we wouldn’t be able to get anybody to come to work for Sequim.”
But council member Erichsen questioned the value of having Waldron conduct further investigations of candidates.
“What’s the point?” he asked during Monday’s meeting.
In response Tuesday, Waldron said his firm is “not a detective agency looking for dirt.”
And while Ritchie will hire a service to conduct searches for court records involving the candidates, he will be at next Monday’s council meeting “to answer questions.”
Waldron added: “I have been an advocate for their city,” seeking highly qualified candidates capable of working with a council often seen as contentious.
The members often clash over budget and other planning issues, even after paying Waldron & Co. to facilitate its closed-door “team building” workshop back in January. The city paid $2,000 for that four-hour meeting.
For the city manager search contract, the firm received $20,000 — a fee Waldron said covers all forthcoming checks and searches.
“It won’t cost an additional dime,” Waldron added, “even if we have to go back out and recruit again.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
