“Mrs. Johnson” sends ultimatum to City Manager

“Time is not your friend.”

So wrote the pseudonymous “Mrs. Johnson” in an email to Bainbridge City Manager Brenda Bauer yesterday, telling her that she can resign from her City position in exchange for assistance finding a new position, or wait to be fired and “not have our our support.” Claiming that Bauer’s time with the City is “coming to a close”, Mrs. J told her she has no choice on whether to leave her City employment, but still has time to choose the terms—voluntarily or involuntarily.

The emailer, who writes as if s/he is in-the-know with a majority of Council and can offer assurance as to the actions the City will take, is apparently hoping the City can avoid the terms of Bauer’s employment contract. That contract requires the City to pay severance of six months’ salary if she is fired without cause (“cause” is defined by the contract). If she could be induced to resign, she would get nothing. 

On top of the obvious moral issues with this vaguely menacing email–cowardly, bullying, with an ultimatum and an unspecified threat—it is a work of selfishness and stupidity. Selfish, because in trying to conceal his/her own identity, Mrs. J has cast suspicion on everyone in the so-called “change candidate” circle that worked so hard last fall to elect a slate of candidates that would shake up City Hall. Mrs. Johnson first made an email appearance a few months ago, during the controversy about whether the City should divest its water utility. S/he has now resurfaced with another topic favored by the “change” group.

Most City Hall watchers, including me, can think of at least a half-dozen people who might be the vicious Mrs. Johnson. The real author behind Mrs. J has tarred his or her own allies with this email, because no one can be sure who wrote it and there are a handful of vocal activists who might have.

The stupidity comes from a strategic blunder. Several Council members, both new and continuing, have publicly expressed serious displeasure with Bauer (e.g. here and here). It is well within reason to guess that these Councilors and their supporters have discussed, and perhaps planned, the termination of Bauer’s employment. Under our Council-Manager form of government, all it takes is four out of the seven votes to do that. She can be fired at will, as long as the City pays severance.

With this email in circulation, this action will be much harder to undertake. Every Council member who advances that idea will have to contend with public suspicion that he or she was involved in a coercive effort to extract a resignation in lieu of firing, as evidenced by the email. Mrs. J, quite simply, jumped the gun in a nasty, non-transparent, non-collaborative and gutless way. Nothing any reputable City Council member wants to be part of…let’s hope (though I’m still waiting for a single one of the “Change-Four” Councilors to disavow the principles set forth in the Knobloch memo).

Here’s a copy of Mrs. Johnson’s poison pen letter. It was circulated yesterday to all members of council and from there, has been making the email rounds. Maybe we should all write her back.

From: Mrs Johnson [mailto:mrsjohnson123456789@gmail.com]

Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 04:45 PM

To: Brenda Bauer

Subject: What’s your next step

Dear Ms. Bauer

The recent article in our local paper has encouraged me to write you.  We are a very small and quaint community.     We wanted you to be a part of our community.  We had great hopes for you.  We hired you to fix our broken city government.  That did not happen, rather you created more drama than we can handle and made thing worse.    Blaming others for your mistakes is not acceptable.  Also, your ability to manage projects, such as Winslow Way, has been a big disappointment.  You have chosen to surround yourself by incompetent people, such as Mr. Newkirk.  That was your first mistake.  You have chosen to ignore unethical and illegal activities at city hall.  You never acknowledged the citizens are your customers.

During the recent election we had candidates that represented the status quo and candidates that represented change.   We chose the candidates for change.  The change does not include you.

While your employment is coming to a close on Bainbridge Island you do have a choice on how you leave.   You can choose to resign and have support for your next job search.   Or you can choose to fired and not have our support.

I encourage you to take control of the situation and leave on your terms.  Time is not your friend.  If you wait too long, you will lose one of your options.

I hope you use these past few years as a learning experience and obtain success in your next job.  Maybe next time you will identify your customers, their needs and how you will meet their needs.  When thing go wrong, don’t blame others, rather take responsibility tell them what you learned and what you will do differently in the future.    Keep in mind we all make mistakes.

Brenda we wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

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