Longview council to terminate city manager 'without cause' or public comment Wednesday

Kris Swanson says she will fight and says her contract protects her

The  Longview City Council is expected to fire City Manager Kris Swanson without cause during a special meeting Wednesday night at which they have not scheduled public comment.

Swanson, who was appointed city manager on March 1 last year, said she will fight the termination. Her contract with the city stipulates that at least five of the seven council members must agree to fire her, and the motion is unlikely to get that level of support.

“I’m frustrated,” Swanson said Monday night, but she has been expecting this development since three new members of the council got elected last November, creating a four-vote majority whom she said wanted her head.

She said she laments the upheaval the situation will cause for city staff. “There  is no doubt in my mind that several people will leave the city over this,” she said.

Mayor Spencer Boudreau and new council member Erik Halvorson Monday joined in putting two termination resolutions before the council, which will take up the matter at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.

 As it so happens,  the three Swanson supporters on the council — Angie Wean, Ruth Kendall and Mary Alice Wallis — will be unable to attend due to work or family commitments. They likely will chime in through Zoom.

The resolutions prepared by Boudreau and Halvorson say state law gives the council authority to fire the city manager with a simple four-vote majority.  It mirrors one that Councilmembers Keith Young and Kalei LaFave are said to have tried to introduce at the end of the Feb. 8 council meeting. 

Young and  LaFave withdrew that resolution without distributing it. City attorney Dana Gigler told them the document needed two council member signatures to be introduced and needed to be posted on the council’s meeting agenda a week ahead of time.  Young and  LaFave  released a resolution a few days later asking the city to authorize an audit of assistant City Manager Ann Rivers, which may be beyond the council’s authority.

The resolution Boudreau and Halvorson released Monday will add to suspicions by Swanson’s defenders that LaFave and Young changed their Feb. 8 resolution to hide their intent to sack Swanson. 

The city is processing multiple public records requests over the matter, which raises ethical and possibly legal concerns. It no doubt will add to accusations that the four councilmembers have colluded in violation of the State Open Meetings Act.

The new resolutions state that Swanson is to be terminated without cause.They thank  Swanson for her service but add that the “city council has concluded that a change  in leadership is necessary to advance the city’s strategic objectives.” It does not specify those objectives.

If approved, the resolutions would  suspend Swanson immediately  They instruct the city staff to pay Swanson (non-stipulated) severance money and get her to sign a release of any claims against the city. She’s unlikely to do so.

It remains to be seen what happens if Swanson refuses to depart and the council appoints an interim manager. A costly legal battle appears likely.

In Swanson’s only evaluation as city manager, Swanson received outstanding grades from the prior City Council. In the evaluation, conducted last summer, she scored 4.34 out of possible 5 points.

Nevertheless, the area’s conservative right has been after her for her efforts to find state funding for the Hope Village homeless project. They have falsely accused  the city an Salvation Army  of concealing drug overdoses. Swanson has been enraged by the accusation, saying  that she checked with St. John Medical Center and found them to be untrue.

She also has taken heat for appointing David Wallis, the husband of then mayor Mary Alice Wallis, as  city’s s IT director.  A recent email to the city  called the decision “rancid” even if Willis was the most qualified.

He was, Swanson said, who has known Wallis for three decades and noted that two separate evaluation committees ranked him the best candidate. Two Asian-American workers who were laid off prior to that filed a civil rights suit.  The city’s insurance settled the case without admitting fault. The size of the settlement was not immediately available.

Boudreau was the only council member to oppose Swanson’s  selection as city manager  last winter, saying the city should  have conducted a wider search. She had been assistant city manager and wore several other city administrative hats prior to her appointment.

Monday’s development came after Halvorson and  Swanson got into two separate conflicts  over who directs city staff, according to a series of emails. 

In one of them, Swanson asked the council to rein in Halvorson, accusing him of  “creating a hostile work environment for city staff and myself. Council, I urge you to address these harmful behaviors due to the serious impacts they’re having on the city as a whole.”

Halvorson responded by asking the council for an executive session to evaluate Swanson’s job performance. 

In one conflict,  Halvorson was  piqued that city attorney Dana Gigler has not answered his Jan. 31 questions about city liability if it acquires the Patriot Railroad line.  Gigler, acknowledging the importance of the questions, told him she was preparing an answer for the entire council. But she has been delayed by a family emergency and, in addition, said that Patriot’s failure to provide information made addressing liability questions “premature.”

On Feb. 27 Halvorson wrote to Swanson complaining of the delay, adding, “I do not believe my questions are premature and I would like an answer promptly.”

On Friday, while still vacationing in Mexico, Swanson wrote to Halvorson, reminding him that Gigler would answer the questions for the entire council and that the city is awaiting word whether the federal government would even allow it to negotiate a purchase of Patriot.

She added, with a hint of pique, that the City Council Protocol Manual and “rules of professional conduct do not allow City Attorney Gigler to represent any one Councilmember, nor does it allow her to provide legal advice or guidance to any one Councilmember.  As such, I would appreciate if you would respect the rules of professional conduct City Attorney Gigler adheres to and refrain from seeking legal advice or guidance from her directly.”

That email led to Halvorson’s request for an executive session.

The other matter relates to Halvorson’s town hall meeting Tuesday night (which he has postponed)  about whether the city should stop adding fluoride to its drinking water to save $200,000  for a storage tank.  

Fluoride helps prevent tooth decay, and the city has been adding to drinking water since the 1960s. But its use occasionally flares into controversy.

That’s one reason Swanson said she declined Halvorson’s request for her staff to vet his presentation for accuracy, although city staff did furnish him information. And Halvorson’s town hall is not a city or council-sponsored event, she told him by email.

“I’ve reviewed your presentation and I feel it’s inappropriate to have city staff continue to weigh in or review the content of a potentially controversial presentation without being vetted by the entire Council,” she wrote to Halvorson on March 6

 On Friday, Halvorson  complained to the entire council: “I have consistently encountered roadblocks when requesting information from the city.”

Halvorsen did not return answers to questions I texted to him before news of the termination effort arose. 

Under state law, the city manager hires, directs and evaluates city staff, not the council.  It is a matter of separation of powers. The council is not authorized under state law to meddle in city administration, except for hiring and evaluating the city manager.

The new members of the council poisoned  the relationship with Swanson starting with last fall’s c campaign. Attacks continued even after her pleas for cooperation and a public meeting at which a large number of people asked for collegiality and an end to the political intrigue and backstabbing. Councilwoman LaFave ended that meeting  by complaining that the three new members have been unwelcome from the start and that she would pray for officials and everyone involved.

What do you expect  when you badmouth city workers and officials repeatedly on the campaign trail and try last-minute, clandestine actions, especially when you campaigned by calling for more transparency?

This is a shoddy, dishonest and misdirected move against a dedicated, experienced and conscientious public employee. It’s likely to cost the city a lot of money, chase away good workers and discourage qualified candidates from working here. This truly is proving to be a rogue council.

I  hope the public shows up Wednesday  to give the council an earful whether they want to hear it or not.

In this centennial year, I think city founder R. A.  Long would have been appalled by this council’s behavior.