Over the past few days I have been asked to respond to questions from the media regarding City Council and my resignation from the City.
First let me restate that over the past several months I as City Manager and Bill Bloor as City Attorney have counseled and advised City Council regarding their legislative role in the City, and both general and specific concerns that impact their ability to fulfill that role and impact staff as we work to manage and administer the affairs of the City.
As City Manager, my responsibility is to Council and to the employees of the City.
One of my duties is to inform Council whenever there are concerns regarding anything that may negatively impact the City.
I have fulfilled that obligation with integrity.
Because City Council failed to take necessary and sufficient corrective steps to address the concerns raised by Staff and myself, I had no other option but to resign.
Peninsula Daily News has asked me to comment on statements attributed to individual council members.
It should not be surprising to anyone that individually a member of Council would want to represent themselves in a positive light when making a statement to the press.
At the same time, it is not appropriate for a City Manager to make specific comments on the statements of individual members of council.
One of the basic tenets of the City Manager’s code of ethics is to refrain from public commentary about individual elected officials.
It is understandable that the community wants answers.
Citizens want to be assured that their elected officials will represent the entire community in setting the direction and policy of the City and that the City Council will support the administrative staff in managing the City effectively and efficiently.
Therefore, the answers that citizens seek rest with City Council.
While I was out of town on a family vacation this past week, the City Council held a special session at which they took two actions
They accepted my letter of resignation, accompanied by issuing a joint statement acknowledging and accepting responsibility for their inappropriate behavior and actions.
Under the circumstances, the best statement I can make to the community is this:
I truly hope that the joint statement from Council will be accompanied with a sincere and introspective effort to correct and not repeat the behavior and actions of the past several months.
