Second City Manager Recruitment Firm Resigns
Wendi Brown
Thu 5/6/2021 10:38 AM
To: Wendi Brown
Cc: Heather Jack
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Dear City of Ashland City Councilmembers,
At this time, WBCP, Inc. respectfully declines to move forward with assisting you with this recruitment process. My team and I are committed to meeting our clients’ needs and place great candidates to secure a long-term relationship with council, and I’m not sure under the current environment we are able to do either.
At this point, the recruitment announcement and advertising plan is on hold. I believe you do not have agreement from the majority of council regarding the recruitment announcement minimum qualifications. I recommend a special meeting to finalize these changes and update the job description.
I will be sure that Human Resources has all the materials we have put together to continue with this process. I wish you, the City of Ashland, and the staff the best with your future efforts in securing your ideal candidate for City Manager.
Sincerely,
Wendi Brown
President
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From: Gina DuQuenne
Sent: Thursday, May 6, 2021 11:33 AM
To: Wendi Brown; Adam Hanks; Tina Gray; Julie Akins; Mayor Julie Akins
Cc: Heather Jack
Subject: Re: City Manager Recruitment Announcement
Hello all,
Wendi, I understand that you will be leaving. However, I don't understand the confusion. The council clearly stated what we wanted. I witnessed it along with the council, mayor and the community. After reading your email I want it to be clear that handing this off to HR is not the right thing to do.
This cannot be objective I believe that HR has been an obstacle in the way and won't allow us to get things done. Wendi, your firm was asked to do the job not HR. I for one do not want the most important hire for the city of Ashland to be handled by the HR department.
NEXT STEPS: What do we need to do to get RVCOG on board? Let's just get it done.
Gina DuQuenne
Ashland City Councilor
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Tina Gray
Thu 5/6/2021 12:24 PM
To:
Gina DuQuenne;
Adam Hanks;
Julie Akins;
Mayor Julie Akins <cityofficialmailboxexe.gov@gmail.com>;
Paula Hyatt;
Shaun Moran;
Stephen Jensen;
Tonya Graham;
Stefani Seffinger
I am sorry to hear that the Council feels I have been an obstacle to this process and that you lack faith in my capabilities. Wendi was receiving conflicting edits from different Council members, so I was trying to help her finalize the brochure to stay on track for final interviews in June.
I wanted to let you know that RVCOG does not have an HR person on board right now – Anne Marie was recently promoted to Executive Director, and they are recruiting right now to replace her in HR. I don’t know their capacity to take this on right now, but Wendi has provided me with all of the work her team has put in so far, which may make it more viable.
I am happy to pass the materials along to RVCOG.
Sincerely,
Tina Gray
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Wendi Brown
Fri 5/7/2021 9:08 PM
To: Wendi Brown
Cc: David Lohman
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Dear Council/Mayor,
To ensure there is no misunderstanding, I want to make it clear to you why I am no longer supporting your City Manager recruitment. This is the first time in 20 years that I have released a contract, but I felt I was left no choice.
During the time of this recruitment I was treated rudely, my ethics were questioned, and I felt I was being asked to do something that may not have been in alignment with the full council’s decision. My decision to not continue working with council is strictly due to what I was seeing and experiencing.
Best regards,
Wendi Brown
President
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On May 8, 2021, at 4:42 PM, Tonya Graham wrote
Wendi,
Thank you for that clarification. I want to apologize for any of this that is my doing. There were times when I expressed frustration that was more with the situation than with anything to do with you, but it may not have come across that way. You handled your side of the deal with professionalism and expertise all the way through in spite of the challenges.
Again, I apologize for anything that I did to contribute to the challenges you experienced. It wasn't my intention to add any strain to your work.
All the best,
Tonya Graham
Ashland City Councilor
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From: Wendi Brown
Sent: Saturday, May 8, 2021 7:56 PM
To: Tonya Graham
Subject: Re: Clarification
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Tonya,
Thank you, but this has nothing to do with our communications. Those frustrations were perfectly acceptable and understandable. I only sent that clarification because of a scathing email from the mayor that was sent to Tina that indicates she was to blame for my reason for no longer supporting this recruitment. In that email the mayor also told her I said things to the mayor about Tina I never said.
The mayor was the person who was rude, disrespectful, never returned calls, missed and repeated to miss meetings — I had to rescheduled four missed meetings and then she blamed me for her getting it wrong in her calendar. She called my staff and yelled at my receptionist that she hadn’t heard from me in weeks, however that same staff person had called her 6 times that week trying to reschedule her first missed meeting with me. She also last minute demanded I show up to an ICMA presentation although I was not informed of it before that day and I was in interviews with another client that day. I made special arrangements for another staff person to step into the end of those interviews to make that meeting thinking I was needed in that ICMA presentation and I was never called on.
The mayor also questioned my ethics in an email, stating I was calling all citizens random and not a worthy stakeholder and I knew the right thing to do and I should just do it. In the end, the final challenge, the Mayor demanded I change the minimum qualifications after the recruitment was posted. I had given council a chance to respond And extended that response time. Trying to accommodate her and then Council Moran’s wishes I suggested changes which were not acceptable. When they finally sent me a specific edit, those edits would change the minimum qualifications. I checked with your legal counsel to find out if that was possible because I wasn’t aware if the full council had approved that change to the minimum qualifications. Counsel said it was not clear that the full council had approved those changes. Knowing I needed full council approval I requested a special meeting to get that clarification.
The Mayor ignored my request and insisted that we had full council approval and sent me a video to review that was supposed to provide that clarification which I couldn’t open. The mayor insisted I change the MQs as did councilor Moran. I should mention that the two of their changes were not in alignment either. The mayor wanted it to say 3-5 years of city management experience and Moran wanted 5 years minimum. I contemplated sending out an email to get input from each individual Councilmember, but per counsel a change in the minimum qualifications to a job description needs to be done in a public meeting.
My concern was this change wasn’t approved by the full council. The Mayor would not request a special meeting and that was the final factor among many that was making it impossible for me to be successful.
Tonya, this has nothing to do with you or Tina. This is mostly the Mayor. I hope that helps.
Wendi
Sent from my iPhone
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Note that the email system fouled up the spacing between words and letters in come cases in the email below.
From: Julie Akins
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2021 7:35 PM
To: Wendi Brown
Subject: Re: Clarification
Wendi,
And I’ve been a consultant for many years and never written an email like this.
Who questioned your ethics or treated you “rudely”?
What’s the basis of this and leaking it to social media?
I’ve not been rude, but I will be now—how unprofessional.
Unbelievable truly. How is anyone this short sighted? Why would you seek to make a process difficult for a community?
Unfortunate. I will be shouting this from rooftops.
Sadly,
Julie Akins
Mayor, Ashland
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An earlier related email:
Tina Gray
Thu 5/6/2021 9:49 AM
To:
Gina DuQuenne;
Stefani Seffinger;
Shaun Moran;
Julie Akins;
Paula Hyatt;
Stephen Jensen;
Tonya Graham
Good morning Council,
There is some confusion regarding the language in the recruitment brochure for education and background. Wendi has made numerous edits and she cannot continue to edit and receive changes from individual council members and still meet our timeline. She has suspended the advertising and posting until we have agreement from the majority of council. I need your URGENT ATTENTION to finalize and move the recruitment forward.
Please let me know if the wording below is satisfactory for the brochure. If not, please provide edits to me ASAP today. I replayed the meeting another time and it is still a bit confusing, but I think the text below captures the Council discussions on this matter:
Employment Standards
Background and Education:
· Bachelor's degree with major coursework in public administration, business administration, finance, or a closely related field, and a minimum of 3 – 5 years of city management experience; or
· Any satisfactory equivalent combination of education, training, and experience that shows the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the job duties proficiently may substitute for the above requirements, and
· Possession of, or the ability to obtain and maintain, an Oregon driver's license by the time of appointment.
Preferred:
· A Master's Degree in Public Administration or Business Administration.
· Certification as an ICMA Credentialed Manager.
· Oregon municipal experience.
· Five years’ experience as a City Manager in a community with similar values, economy, and size as Ashland’s.
Please keep in mind we want to get the largest possible response to the recruitment. The Council can screen the candidates down. Setting the requirements too narrow will result in a smaller applicant pool.
Thank you,
Tina