“Not sure I did anything wrong or not. I’m too busy building sandcastles in Mexico for a month.”
I highly suggest you watch the discussion at the Informational meeting, which takes some very strange twists and turns, to say the least. My favorite part is when councilor Anderson chews Fiddle-Faddle’s ass, and tells him he is ‘out of order’ himself, after threatening Brown with a defamation suit;
The City Attorney stood by the advice given to the council and said the council was right to fire Owen.
“We certainly have more than sufficient grounds to not only justify the termination, but also it has been bolstered since she was gone,” Pfeifle said.
Pfeifle fired back at Brown, saying the councilman opened himself up for a defamation lawsuit by calling out Pfeifle, Human Resources Director Bill O’Toole and Assistant City Attorney Gail Eiesland by recommending they be fired. Another council member came to Brown’s defense.
“Why are you stating that when that should be part of executive session?” Kenny Anderson, Jr. asked.
Pfeifle argued he did not release details about why Owen was fired; he just stated there was sufficient evidence to support that action.
“But you’re close to doing the same thing. I think you’re very out of order with that comment!” Anderson, Jr. said.
Other parts of the informational that stand out is the apparent state of denial that councilors Erpenbach and Entenman showed during their comments. In fact, Entenman went so far to say that he didn’t think they did anything wrong. Uh, Okay. I suppose I could rant for awhile about how 4 out of 5 highly revered state’s attorneys think you were very wrong. But I won’t.
The worst part about this matter is that one of the city’s most valuable employees, Debra Owen, is still terminated (and according to Fiddle-Faddle is collecting unemployment – which I found interesting because I thought it was hard to collect unemployment when you are fired). Some may ask why Debra Owen was fired, as explained in the informational, it had to do with an employee dispute. I have always felt, that was the ‘excuse’.
Shortly after Huether took office, Owen and I had a discussion one night, the topic was about how she was researching contract approval by home rule councils. She knew at the time that the mayor was not to keen about her doing this research, and I still believe, wild speculation and all, that her termination was punishment for side stepping the mayor and giving the council that power. And how does the council show their gratitude (especially leadership, Erpenbach and Aguliar)? By participating in the mayor’s witch hunt.
What do I think the just punishment should be for the councilors? I think they should all be fined one year’s pay. If they are truly doing the ‘citizens work’ let them do it for FREE for a year.
