I sat through the first part of Tuesday’s regular council meeting, and finished-off watching the rest on Channel 10.

The experience firmed-up my belief that we have a spendthrift council. It seems incredible to me that we have just hired a new city manager for about $25,000 more than we paid the previous one. What bothers me most, however, is the fact that the new manager was hired for a full three years. It would have cost us nothing to provide a 6-month or one-year probation period to see how things worked out. And, it would have avoided the possibility of having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars on any unfulfilled part of the contract.

Our new manager had to be bought-out of her last employment contract for a third of a million dollars when things didn’t work out at that time. The City of Fillmore had to pay out $100,000 20 years ago to then Manager Stan Greene, for the same reason. I certainly hope things work out for the city this time, but hope is not a good business basis, and our new manager doesn’t need it, she’s covered by a legally enforceable contract.

I just ask – why?

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Watching Brooks and Washburn at the meeting also reestablished in my mind that they haven’t a clue to what they’re doing up there. It’s like watching bothersome children. I urge everyone to watch the replay on Channel 10 – see Washburn argue with our city counsel about legal matters; watch Brooks exhibit his garrulous cluelessness, as they, and Mayor Walker, seek to avoid the true financial cost of their vaunted Measure I.
Pathetic.