Now That The Shoe Is On The Other Foot . . . .

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, four councilors and their supporters have been treated to much whining and gnashing of teeth by Brocato supporters. Many complaints center around the process by which Mr. Brocato was removed, citing a lack of public input and that the action surprised some with it's suddenness. The Baker City Herald picked up on the theme, first brought up at Tuesday's Council meeting by Brocato patrons, in Friday's editorial, "Council didn't quite make its case." See http://www.bakercityherald.com/Editorials/Council-didn-t-quite-make-its-case

While the Herald acknowledges that the Council, by majority vote, "can fire the city manager any time and for any reason, or for no reason at all" their Editorial Board stated that "The four councilors should have told Brocato on May 26 that if he didn’t substantially improve in the areas where his ratings were lowest, and within a reasonable time — two months, say — then he could expect the Council to consider a motion to fire him."

I'm a bit of a process freak myself, so I'm not going to say its a bad suggestion for a Council to consider, but neither I, the Herald Editorial Board, nor a group of disgruntled employees and other patrons, happen to have been elected to make the hard decisions for Baker City--the Council was.

Assuming for a moment that public input, warnings and giving time for an employee to improve their performance are worthy standards to be followed in such matters, why not inquire as to how Mr. Brocato himself, and earlier Councils have measured up to those standards?

As for public input, Mr. Brocato has been the individual most often involved in denying input from members of the public who disagree with him. The Vicky Valenzuela incident comes rapidly to mind, but there are many others. One is the way he denied help and representation to Ron Calder at the May 26th Council Meeting. Recently in fact, one might think that the ex-City Manager invented the phrase "Point of Order, Mr. Mayor" due to the number of times he has used it to deny public input at Council Meetings.

And what about firings without warning?

You may remember the sudden firing of both City Attorney David Fine and City Planner Evan McKenzie by then City Manager Brocato. Here is how the Herald described the situation in their article "City loses two more administrators" from September 25, 2007. (http://www.bakercityherald.com/Local-News/City-loses-two-more-administrators):

"Brocato, in an e-mail Monday, announced that he fired Planning Director Evan MacKenzie and City Attorney David Fine on Friday.

Brocato declined to say why he terminated the two, although he said there was no specific incident that led to either MacKenzie's or Fine's termination.

"This is a personnel matter, I can't really talk about it," Brocato said."

The article also mentions that "Troy Phillips, the economic development coordinator for Baker City and Baker County, resigned" at Mr. Brocato's urging just a month earlier. Mr. Brocato's explanation, in one of his famously mysterious moments: "My style is moving in a different place than Troy's circumstances." I see.

The Case Of Mr. Zimmerman

To the best of my knowledge, the last City Manager, prior to Mr. Brocato, who was actually asked to resign/fired was Gordon Zimmerman. In any event, Jayson Jacoby wrote an article about the firing on March 12, 2003. See "Council forces city manager out" http://www.bakercityherald.com/Local-News/Council-forces-city-manager-out

On the element of surprise, Mr. Jaycoby wrote: "It started as a routine Tuesday for Baker City Manager Gordon Zimmerman, but before noon his 4 1/2-year tenure, to his surprise, had ended. . . . . Tuesday's announcement shocked city officials."

He had been at one point, a few years earlier, placed on probation, but as his evaluations were continually improving, there may not have appeared to be any reason to suspect an imminent change in employment status. The article states, in contrast to specific reasons cited by some members of the current Council in Brocato's case, that "Ellingson declined to list specific reasons why the council sought to replace Zimmerman."

While the article states that Ellingson discussed the matter individually with Councilors at the time, there is no indication that anyone thought it proper to sue the Council for violating the public meeting law, as Milo Pope and others seem to think it is in this case.

Contrasting again with the Brocato case, Zimmerman, however, was gracious in accepting the request for resignation: "When the council says it's time to go, it's time to go," he said. "There comes a time when the council wants to choose their own man." (ibid)

So while the standards cited may be reasonable, it is clear that Mr. Brocato has not, in important cases, seen fit to rise to them, and neither has the City. I guess that's the way democracy works here, even when the shoe is on the other foot.

More Video and Information on Brocato Firing

Councilor Bonebrake Responds to Milo Pope
In this video, Councilor Aletha Bonebrake responds here to wild statements, threats and intimidation issued by Councilor Pope. Mr. Pope had previously gone through a long list of complaints and alleged violations of statutes related to four of our City Councilors voting to remove City Manager Brocato.

"There was no public meeting.... it doesn't matter how many statutes you cite."

"We did not vote to retain Mr. Brocato--we simply voted to accept the evaluation."

"Mr. Brocato ... is very defensive and will not really receive information nor permit people to impart information."

"Its really inappropriate to be forced by word and action to move more quickly on a topic than we are ready to do--we are after all, the policy group for the City, and policy is our job."

"Even today, as we went into Mr. Brocato's office, . . . the first thing that happened was that we were berated . . . without even finding out why we were there. This is the nature of the dysfunction of Council and City relationship."

"I find it next to impossible to do the job I was elected to do with the stonewalling that I receive in trying to simply to get information and ask questions."

Councilor Bonebrake Responds to Milo Pope


Bryan Suggests Successful Councilors "Incompetent" etc. -- Pot Calling Kettle Black?
Councilor Andrew Bryan berates Council--Appears to Violate City Ordinance 3407.



Councilor Calder Responds to Andrew Bryan
In this video, Beverly Calder reminds the Council that City Ordinance 3407 requires that Counciors treat the public and each other with respect after Andrew Bryan announces that the Council is "incompetent" and etc. She also reminds Andrew that three of the sitting Councilors have over four years under their belts.

Interesting also that Mr Bryan would use the word incompetent with reference to successful business people and a woman who is largely credited as being the driving force behind the creation of the Baker County Library, and who was its director during the time it developed into a greatly valued public institution. While not the only way to establish competence, being able to run successful businesses for several years, as well as being able to establish and run a County library, certainly shows that a person is competent enough to be a Councilor. It is also worth noting, that both Beverly Calder and Aletha Bonebrake were the top vote-getters in their respective runs for office.

Councilor Calder Responds to Andrew Bryan

Brocato Fired! Pope to Sue. . . . Divisions Likely to Deepen. (Updated)

Last night, in what must be one of the most remarkable displays of courage by a Baker City Council in many years, four Council members stood up in the face of well orchestrated opposition from meticulously groomed and some say, bought-off, City employees, and other minions. To the surprise of many, they voted to fire the City Manager. After 2 plus years of turmoil and poor treatment by the City Manager of Councilors and citizens alike, a majority of the Council finally said "Enough is Enough" and elected to exercise the power given them by the City Charter. What follows are a few short excerpts of the meeting, which do not include what appeared to be unprofessional attitudes displayed by City employees toward the City councilors who voted to remove the man responsible for their recent generous bonuses, salary increases, and other perks in the face of our current deep recession.



Milo Pope, with Andrew Bryan's Support, Vows to Sue Fellow Council Members

Milo Pope alleged that there must have been a violation of the State's public meeting laws and stated, "I'm going to sue you all!"


Planning Director Resigns

Planning Director Don Chance was brought in from elsewhere by ex-City Manager Steve Brocato. His charge, under the umbrella of revamping and "modernizing" our planning ordinances, was to change the face of Baker City so as to make it more appealing to those not comfortable with the lifestyles of Baker City's low income residents. He is a primary architect of the new property maintenance ordinance created largely at the behest of real estate and redevelopment interests, and those who don't understand that many low income people here are simply doing the best they can with the hand that they have been dealt in life. If the ordinance passes in its current form, the poor will likely be swept out of Baker City, and unfortunately, for many, there is no where else to go. All this to make their town more attractive to outsiders like Mr. Chance and his assistant, Mike Pena, so that developers and speculators can attract more buyers from urban areas.

Mr. Brocato went out of his way to accommodate the needs of Mr. Chance so he could live in Washington State. Although Mr. Brocato promoted Mr. Chance as a person with a stake, and with concern for the people of Baker City, according to the Assessor's records, he doesn't own property in Baker County. Mr. Brocato arranged to privatize the Planning Department under Mr. Chance so that He could spend more time at home with his wife in Washington.



Patronage in Baker City

Mr. Brocato purchased his constituency on the backs of Baker City taxpayers by giving promotions, bonuses and raises to the city staff that works directly under him, by giving generous cost of living raises to contract employees, and by providing an expensive new building to the Police Department. Not all city employees care for Mr. Brocato, of course, and many chose not to participate in the spectacle, despite pressure from above. The impression given by many higher echelon employees at the meeting, and reiterated by some on the Council, was that the worth of Baker City all revolves around the administrative city staff, and that they, instead of elected officials, should be making the decision about whether the City Manager goes or stays. Among the recipients of the raises, bonuses, and/or promotions, included, among others, Jennifer Watkins, Jeanne Dexter, the Police Chief and the Fire Chief, all of whom were very vocal supporters of their patron at the Council meeting. But even then, their public statements may not reflect their true feelings in every case, because after all, if Mr. Brocato had been retained, their continued employment would still be at his whim. If asked to show up to defend him, what were they supposed to do?

Jennifer Watkins, the new Assistant City Manager, who was a triple winner last year, with a promotion, a bonus, and a raise, clearly stepped outside the bounds of professional conduct in her advocacy for Mr. Brocato during the meeting. Others were disruptive beyond anything seen in recent years at a City Council meeting. For better or for worse, their well orchestrated show and disruption was not seen by Baker City residents, as they likely intended, because the meeting was not broadcast, apparently due to technical difficulties.

The following is a clip of some of their antics. Note that the words "Point of order, Mr. Mayor," are not forthcoming from Mr. Brocato, Mr. Bryan, or Mr. Pope. Those words are reserved for viewpoints they don't like. Also note that as the camera whizzes by, both Mr. Brocato and Ms.Watkins have joined in the disruption by clapping, which is behavior Ms. Watkins engaged in throughout the proceeding. It was good to see her finally becoming a protector of free speech when the Mayor decided not to cooperate with the spectacle that the city employees had arranged. Notice also how Rich Langrell was removed from the area of the Council by the Police Chief when two other citizens were allowed to harangue the Council at their seats.



Giving unwarranted or ill-advised bonuses, raises and promotions to City employees is a legal form of the patronage system made famous by ex Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and many earlier scalawags. In this case, city employees, most exceedingly well compensated by Baker City employment standards, were asked to come to the Council meeting by department heads or others to engage in political activity on behalf of their patron, Steve Brocato. It is a game that is as old as human civilization itself, and most Baker City citizens can clearly see right though the self-serving, obsequious behavior.

One such citizen was Richard Langrell.

Langrell on the "slimy underbelly" of Baker City:


Langrell on Property Maintenance Ordinance:


At the end of the meeting, three Councilors talk about the decision and the Council.


For a good Herald article about Brocato's removal, see City Council fires Brocato, http://www.bakercityherald.com/Local-News/City-Council-fires-Brocato .

I hope to fill in the blanks as time becomes available, but the rest of the week is tentatively booked.