Jerome Willingham's letter to The Daily News

The firing of  City Manager Bauer

To the editor:

To those who have spoken for or against my position, I respect and actually appreciate your exercise of your free speech. To those of you who have been insubordinate, rude or disparaging, I hope you regret making that behavior part of Kristoff Bauer's legacy.

In respect of Bauer's privacy, and in abidance with the North Carolina General Statutes, I am not allowed to comment on the reasons for   Bauer's dismissal. If Bauer provides written authorization, and a waiver to the city's attorney, I will be obligated to explain the rationale.

I can comment, however, on the behavior of Mayor Sammy Phillips and fellow councilman Michael Lazzara. Their pretense that this is a shock is disingenuous. I invite your attention to most of the closed sessions to discuss personnel for the last year. To suggest that this is ridiculous means that they must have slept through those closed sessions. To suggest that the termination was unjust is callously to minimize the legitimate issues of fellow council members. What I really fear is that Phillips and Lazzara may have led Bauer, past all of the warning signs, right off the cliff.

Phillips and Lazzara attack us, knowing that we are not allowed publicly to defend our action without Bauer's consent. They opted for a selfish display of emotion at the expense of undermining governmental integrity. It was more important for them to whine than to respect the integrity of City Council members with whom they disagree. Lazzara and Phillips choose to fracture council and jeopardize all of the progressive goals for which we need teamwork. It is because of these kinds of self-serving personal attacks in the face of disagreement that the City of Jacksonville has such a poor working relationship with the county, and the N.C. legislative delegation.

I have been accused of malice, injustice, being unprofessional, ridiculousness, and engaging in a personality conflict. I've seen injustice. I've seen injustice in the firing of an assistant city manager. I've seen injustice in the firing of a high ranking police officer. Not once did a staff member say one public word. When I saw injustice, I challenged it; I spoke out against it, facing heavy criticism. So I've seen injustice; and this isn't it.

If I took the disagreements I have faced in my public life personally, I would not be able to function. I first came to this position in a hate-filled environment resulting from the lawsuit it took to integrate the council. I was not welcomed; I was marginalized. But I quickly learned that if I harbored that ill-will or returned it, I would never get anything accomplished. I did not have any malice then. I do not exercise any malice now.

I don't read much of The Daily News primarily because to the vitriol allowed in the comments. I think it is a shame we cannot encourage our children to read the newspaper online because of it. I was told Horace Mann wrote a letter to the editor. So, I was curious because I had served with him. I found his descriptions unfamiliar, and quite surprising. His comments bore no resemblance to my reality. Suggesting that Bauer was fired because he would not kiss someone's derriere was wrong. And again considering our children, I wish he had exercised a better choice of words.

As a former city councilman Horace Mann knows me personally; and he cannot list one thing I ever asked for that wasn't trying to serve the citizens. I initiated the fight to get our meetings televised so the people could see what goes on with council. I was the first to complain back in 1988 that the county commissioners met in the afternoon at a time inconvenient to the public. I know nothing of "back-room deals." If Mann knew of such dealings when he was on City Council, he was remiss for not revealing them. I wonder if he attended those meetings.

The decisions I participated in, or items I asked for, were Fire Station No. 4, the new City Hall, Riverwalk Crossing, Jacksonville Commons' development, and Sturgeon City. Most recently, I requested the clearing of the path along Hargett Street so Bell Fork residents could get to the pedestrian trail, a presentation on waterfront downtown development, Kerr Street Recreation Center Improvements, and waterfront access for Georgetown residents. I also led the fight for crosswalks. These things are public, nothing to hide. I participated in no back-room deals.

Contrary to Mann's assertions, we have cleaned out ditches under Bauer's watch. And we have applied for a million dollar grant to replace some ditches with a drainage system in Northwoods. Further, it was at the insistence of City Council that we got a budget with no tax increase. Bauer spoke to me about the need to raise taxes. Actually, three members wanted to reduce taxes.

As far as Bauer having to take direction from each individual member of council, I have never been on a City Council where that was controlled as much by council as this one. Whenever there was a concern about an individual member encroaching on the administrative aspect of government, the mayor brought it to our attention; and we formed a consensus to direct the city manager. And I was never the subject of any of any encroachment.

I never thought of firing the city manager until last week. I looked forward to providing our citizens the full benefit of Bauer's brilliance. All you have to do is to look at our council meetings to see that I was always searching for common ground amongst council. In fact both Phillips and Lazzara were frequently complimenting me on my reasoning, expression and conciliatory approach.

For example, I was concerned that some were viewing Bauer as insubordinate for not purchasing land for Fire Station No. 5. I called a meeting with Phillips and Bauer. I told Bauer that I wanted to help him avoid that situation. It was agreed that I would make a motion which would give clarity to that situation. I had been interested in satellite fire stations since I met with some firefighters, and spoke to William Lee about 18 months ago. I suggested to Bauer that a satellite station would provide immediate coverage, and buy time for permanent construction until annexation. That is why the motion was made at the last City Council meeting. That was typical of my involvement with Bauer.

It is City Council's job to legislate and create policy. It is the city manager's job to execute that policy. There can be no power struggle. There is no power struggle between the company commander and the battalion commander. There is no power struggle between the owner of McDonalds and the night manager. A good city manager only wants clarity so that he can follow the instruction of the owners.

What many of you miss is that everything you have personally observed about Bauer could be true, and it could still be possible that his termination was justified. You feel that unless we can disprove what you experienced, then there could be no basis for termination. But that conclusion rest on faulty premises. That is a faulty syllogism because our relationship is based the democratic process, and the employer/employee relationship. Our election places us in a position to be a part of a majority which sets policy for the city manager to follow.

This is not about a personality conflict. Did anybody ever bother to ask what is the nature of the personality conflict that I had with Bauer? I do not know what on earth Phillips is talking about. The only personality conflict I'm aware of is Phillips' emotional outburst when he cannot get his way. He does it right on G10; and that is what this really comes down to.

Ever since I got elected recently, Phillips has dropped less than subtle hints that he can get someone to run against me if he is not satisfied with my performance. I have heard that he has said the same thing to other council members. Now Phillips would destroy the fabric of city government because he cannot get his way.

None of the writers of the letters to the editor know the substantive bases for the termination. And there have been wrongful terminations in the past without this kind of response. So on what are people basing their opinions? They are basing their opinions on trust. We all have our constituents who trust us. My supporters trust my opinion that the decision was proper. Phillips's supporters trust his opinion that the decision was corrupt. Bauer's consent and waiver would put this to rest in my opinion. But that doesn't seem likely.

(I was prepared to show how involved Phillips and Lazzara were in the process; but I was advised by our city attorney not to delve into that.)

Why would Phillips and Lazzara participate in the process for almost a year because of a personality conflict? Does this sound like a personality conflict? What would Phillips say to Bauer to help him comply with council's concerns if he viewed this as a personality conflict? Probably very little; perhaps he told him not to worry about performing decisions voted on by the majority?

Phillips promised us that he would counsel Bauer, and ensure the goals were met, with the understanding that failure could lead to termination. Instead of doing that, Phillips led Bauer past all of the warning signs, and straight off the cliff.

The fact is that Phillips had little concern with the city manager's addressing the problems, not of individuals, but of the voting majority of the duly elected representatives of the City of Jacksonville. The power struggle was not with Bauer. The power struggle was between tyranny and democracy. The power struggle was between doing the wishes of majority and doing the bidding of individuals. This is precisely the opposite of Horace Mann's accusation.

That Phillips would risk destroying a city because he cannot get his way is shocking. This is all about Phillips getting whom he wants to sit on council. It began well before Bauer was terminated. Bauer's termination simply provided Phillips the opportunity.

Phillips would mislead the public, embarrass the city, encourage, and condone employee misconduct just to try to get whom he wants on council. The level of hateful discourse in this city has spiked because of Phillips' intentional misinformation. I doubt much work is getting done as supervisors solicit signatures on a petition. Is this kind of employee anarchy endemic of Bauer's leadership? Because of misplaced trust, we have former staff NCOs violating grievance procedures and making false, disparaging remarks about their bosses, men who made a life of respecting authority and the chain of command. These people trusted Phillips to tell the truth. You could certainly disagree over the termination; but you cannot say termination was a personality conflict, that I have malice, that I am being unprofessional, or that the process was unjust. This council trusted Phillips, too. Mayor Phillips has failed us all.

I intended no offense to those wanting to speak at the public hearing by not adjusting our agenda. But people present for agenda items may have waited months. They want to have their items heard soon also. I don't think people with agenda items should wait for people deciding they want to speak at the meeting. It is ironic, however, that people coming to complain about "back-room" deals wanted special treatment. I also find it interesting that people proclaiming the desire to hear our explanation left council meeting before we spoke.

Jerome Willingham

Jacksonville

Editor's note: Jerome Willingham is a member of the Jacksonville City Council.