Yesterday the Salem Reporter, our city's excellent online publication, ran a great story based on documents received from the City of Salem via a public records request concerning the forced resignation of City Manager Keith Stahley last month.
Journalist Joe Siess wrote "Records reveal Nishioka wanted to sue Hoy after Stahley resigned." The story starts off with a bang.
Salem Council President Linda Nishioka felt so misled by Mayor Julie Hoy over the city manager’s exit that she considered suing her, newly-released public records show.
Nishioka sought advice from some of her fellow councilors on how to do that, according to the documents.
The startling possibility emerged as councilors reacted to learning in February that then-City Manager Keith Stahley was resigning.
City officials have issued varying accounts of what triggered his departure, which cost the city $256,000 in severance pay, close to a full year of Stahley’s $270,000 salary.
A fuller account of what led to his resignation and the ensuing turmoil among city leaders emerges from the emails, text messages and other records from the time released to Salem Reporter. They were provided in response to a public records request.
The documents provide an unprecedented look behind the scenes of city politics. They show councilors confused about why Stahley was quitting – and whether he had been pressured to do so.
Hoy has never commented publicly about her role in that departure, but records indicate the council’s president put the blame squarely at her feet.
Hoy did not respond to an emailed request for comment from Salem Reporter.
I'm familiar with previously known details about Stahley's resignation because I've filed a complaint against Mayor Julie Hoy with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, arguing that Hoy engaged in prohibited private serial communications with members of the City Council about whether Stahley should consider resigning instead of having these deliberations occur in accordance with Oregon's public meetings law.
Nothing in the Salem Reporter story altered my view that Mayor Hoy behaved badly, and that my complaint has merit. In fact, I learned from the story that Councilor Deanna Gwyn acknowledged that she talked with Hoy about Stahley. That confirms my conclusion that Hoy had private serial communications with a majority of the members of the City Council, which currently numbers eight because of a vacancy: Councilors Gwyn, Varney, Matthews, Nishioka, and, of course, Hoy herself.
The other three members, Councilors Nordyke, Tigan, and Brown, haven't made any public statements about whether they spoke with Hoy concerning Stahley -- which isn't exactly a profile in courage. I suspect each of them did indeed speak with Hoy. Apparently they just don't want to be further embroiled in this debacle, failing to realize that a cover-up can look just as bad as the "crime" itself.
Not that Mayor Hoy committed a crime. According to the Salem Reporter story, Councilor Nishioka "advised some of her colleagues on council and in the city over email and text message that she felt 'pushed,' 'used,' 'misguided,' and 'gaslit' by Hoy." Unfortunately, these are common strategies used by politicians. They're harmful to democracy, but not illegal.
It turns out that only one city official comes to the fore as being ethical, responsible, and appropriately outraged at how Mayor Hoy, with the assistance of Councilor Nishioka, forced Keith Stahley out of his City Manager job by informing him -- correctly or incorrectly -- that a majority of the City Council wanted him to consider resigning.
I said "correctly or incorrectly" because Stahley said in his resignation letter that Nishioka represented herself as speaking for a majority of the council who wanted him to consider resigning, but Nishioka denies that she told Stahley this. I discuss this difference of opinion in my ethics complaint. My view is that Stahley is correct. The Salem Reporter story supports this:
Nishioka explained in her Feb. 16 statement that she met privately with Stahley on Friday, Feb. 7 to alert him that Hoy and a majority of city councilors wanted him to resign. It was after that meeting that Stahley decided to step down from his post.
So while Nishioka was upset enough with Hoy to want to sue the Mayor, Nishioka went along with Hoy's request to meet with Stahley and convey to him what Hoy supposedly learned from her improper talks with city councilors -- a majority wanted Stahley gone.
Dan Atchison, the City Attorney, comes off looking bad.
According to Nishioka's text messages, Atchison told her that any efforts she undertook to confirm with her colleagues what Hoy led her to believe would be unethical, the records show.
Wow. That was horrible legal advice, given that Atchison had told Mayor Hoy that it was perfectly fine for her to talk privately with members of the City Council about Stahley's employment status. So the City Attorney first told Hoy that it was ethical for her to engage in private conversations with councilors about whether Stahley should resign, then told Nishioka that if she did the same thing, that was unethical.
The only city official who comes out looking great in the Salem Reporter story, and previously known information about the circumstances of Stahley's resignation, is Councilor Micki Varney. I included her public statement about this affair in my Oregon Government Ethics Commission complaint, because it was so well written, compelling, and honest.
While most of her City Council colleagues were either hoping this whole mess would go away, pursuing a head-in-the-sand approach, or blaming each other for the debacle, Councilor Varney tried to take some positive steps. The Salem Reporter story says:
Varney subsequently circulated a draft of a statement she proposed would represent all the councilors. She sent it to Nishioka and City Councilor Paul Tigan in the morning on Feb. 12 – three days after the resignation.
In her draft, Varney challenged media accounts of the resignation and saw the statement as a way to set the record straight.
“We are all confused about what really happened over the past few days,” Varney wrote in the letter. “What we do not believe is that removing a competent, if not visionary, chief administrator during the beginning of the budget process was a rational, reasonable, or responsible action. We do not believe this resignation was harmonious; we have grave concerns over the methodology and the reasons behind this leadership change.”
In the letter, Varney proposed that the council call for a third-party investigation into the matter.
“The media reported a version of what happened that may not be the entire story. Media reports suggest the city manager was asked for his resignation by a city councilor. It is apparent the city manager accepted that request from a representative of the whole (or at least a majority) of the council,” Varney wrote. Tigan opposed the letter.
“This is too much,” he said in a text message. “It will only dig us in a deeper hole. Also, if we undercut the premise of Keith’s resignation (that he was informed that a majority of the council sought his resignation), I’m afraid we could undercut his ability to receive his severance. As I stated at the council meeting, that is important to me to ensure Keith is kept whole under his employment contract.”
Varney’s letter never advanced.
John F. Kennedy wrote a book called Profiles in Courage, which, according to Wikipedia, described acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States senators. Aside from Councilor Varney, no city official demonstrated such courage during or after the successful attempt to force the Salem City Manager to resign.
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