City manager latest key staffer to resign
September 29th, 2009 by tristan baurickCity Manager Mark Dombroski is the latest senior manager to turn in his resignation.
Dombroski, who was hired last year, has accepted a consulting job with a Washington D.C. firm. His last day with the city is Oct. 31.
His departure and the recent elimination of the mayor position will leave the city without a leader amid significant financial and legal troubles.
The City Council plans to convene an emergency meeting this week to begin searching for Dombroski’s replacement.
“We need to bring in an interim (manager). It’s crucial right now,” Councilwoman Debbie Vancil told me yesterday. “We need somebody who can come into an impossible situation and bring our organization back from the brink.”
Here’s the list of prominent resignations since last year:
Shorelines planner Peter Namtvedt Best, 2009
City Engineer/Interim Public Works Director Bob Earl, 2009
Public Works Director Randy Witt, 2009
Police Chief Matt Haney, 2009
Deputy Finance Director Carol Badzik, 2008
Planning Director Greg Byrne, 2008
City Administrator Mary Jo Briggs, 2008
For more on Dombroski’s resignation, click here.
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September 29th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Seems like there’s a high correlation between high intelligence and high disfunction … not of the city workers … but the general Bainbridge community. How can such intelligent people screw things up so badly? If we were a country the International Monetary Fund would have had to come in and put us on an austerity plan to recovery. We’re pretty pathetic at governing ourselves …
September 29th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Maybe we should revert back to County Gov’t. This would take care of ridding ourselves of Peters and Franz who thru their lack of skills, management abilities, and fiscal capabilities have made the situation so untenable. Over the last decade we have watched as funds collected have lead to nothing but a big un-needed edifice called City Hall. Everything is in dis-repair and monies thanks to Peters,Franz,Snow, Kjell, and our ex-mayor have been wasted. MD is a loss at this time for sure and he was making headway, how much I am not privy to.
But he rids himself of having to watch and listen to one Councilman who knows everything, has 4 followers, and doesn’t want to listen or understand what the Communities desires are. At aboy Peters.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Now for a long, drawn out & contentious process to find a replacement. I’d give Bob Scales a shot at that hot seat. Debbie’s going to keep her council position and I think he’s better as an administrator than a pol. He’s also got enough ice in his veins to swing the ax where needed and to actually run a staff efficiently. Lets hire Bob . . .
September 29th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Southender, I couldn’t agree with you more.
September 29th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Excuse me, but Peter Best was a low level, junior assistant planner. Everyone else on your list held a significant management position. He used his position to pretend to be a scientist, but he was a grant writing clerk. No loss.
September 29th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
In addition to these elections and defections of personnel, one very critical high-tax item needs discussion: the $42,000,000.00 BISD bond.
I read with interest that the Bainbridge Review has Bainbridge Island election videos available on their site. The Sun also has election items on their site.
For the information of Bainbridge Taxpayers and Concerned Citizens, here is a video analyzing the $42,000,000.00 BISD bond. The title is: NO! BI Bloat Bond ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdq5e1Dn424).
Ask yourself how many school districts across America floated a bloated bond during the Great Depression and the years of stagnant growth afterward. Watch and listen to a local economist dissect Bainbridge Island School District School Board and Superintendent Chapel’s tone-deaf request for $42,000,000.00.
Taxpayers have a recourse to onerous taxation: defeating the tax measure at the ballot box.
A decisive vote of no confidence in BISD #303 must be shown with a defeat of this $42,000,000.00 bond during these economically unsettled times.
Watch this election video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdq5e1Dn424 or Google Search NO! BI Bloat Bond.
Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/comments/post/#ixzz0SY1MjVIZ
September 30th, 2009 at 3:58 am
In addition to the list posted here, The last three city administrators/manger all left citing pretty much the same common theme. A dysfunctional city council or at least a poor & contentious relationship with the council. Guess what all these resignations have in common with the past & present city council? That would be career-politician Debbie Vancil & cohort Bill Knobloch. Vancil has been in city politics for 15 years. She has had a hand in spending millions of dollars in non-essential services & projects through her city career. Now her daughter-in-law (Debbie Lester) wants to join the city council as well. Throw in Lester’s husband and Vancil’s son-Ryan Vancil, because every council needs a litigious lawyer as an ad hoc member. More of the same if Vancil & family get elected. 2 0f 7 council members being from the same family? You stay classy, Bainbridge…
September 30th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Hunter — I see things differently. The Council is certainly a problem, but credit should go where credit is due. Darlene K managed the city like she was supreme ruler. Her staff had/has nothing but contempt for the citizens and the council. Every member of the staff should be replaced. Interesting thought about Scales as Manager. He may have the stones to pull it off.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:06 am
John,
I agree with your thoughts about the ex-mayor and some staff. It has been my observation that some of the staff operated just as you pointed out. However, certainly not all or even a majority. The city (staff) cannot spend money that the council doesn’t authorize or direct to spend. I have warched as Vancil (and others) have added debt in the form of non-essential expenditures to budgets, even during this economic downturn. I even watched a council meeting where Vancil, Knobloch & Brackett turned down saving the city money. One of the city unions offered to take pay cuts that would have resulted in about $30,000 in savings to the city, if the council likewise took a voluntary pay cut of only $30 per month. The three council members I mentioned went absolutely ballistic and thought the idea outrageous and resorted to badmouthing the union. As a citizen, how does it feel to have to pay out an additional $30,000 in tax money because your council folks won’t even give up $30 a month from their salary? That thought process alone should give you pause.
I don’t think some senior city staff were entirely forthcoming about issues to the council as well. But the contentous relationship and behaviors of the council has directly resulted in the astronomical turnover rate of seniro management at city hall. As an interim city manager, Scales may be all right.
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Thank goodness for Knoblach, Vancil,and Brackett for if it were not for them the other five would have spent, and spent, and spent monies the City didn’t/doesn’t have. These three have fought for months the attempts by five who haven’t the slightest idea what fiscal responsibility means. Fortunately two of the five saw the handwriting on the wall, the ex-mayor is history in a couple of more months and we’ll only have Peters who wants to make up for his fiscal mistakes by adding a new car excise tax and “tears” left. Hopefully they will fall into the minority and the City can finally move forward.
Pay cuts dear sir are not the answer the answer resides in headcount reduction! It can’t be new news that the City is way over the reasonable amount to operate a City of our size, true even with the reductions to date. We have too many staff, way too many managers, and unions who protect those incompetents when and where they exist. Lets get the headcount permanently down to where it belongs and with our new Gov’t we won’t have a Mayor who will judge their importance by the number of people in the organization.
Again- great job and thanks to Knoblach, Vancil, and Brackett.
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Claude,
I agree with you that there are too many directors & mangers & supervisors & whatever title you want to put to them. The well over $100k alone spent on an IT Director that has a 5 person department is laughable. I never said pay cuts were a final answer to anything, you did. I simply pointed out a one-time savings that some council mebers blew off. I hope they cherished the $30 a month they saved for 6 months. That decision alone cost the city $30,000 in savings that the smaller city union members were willing to give up.
Regarding the three council members you call out, I guess you must watch and observe different council meetings than I do. Their behavior is a matter of record on video and in print. If you retain Vancil and then elect her daughter-in-law Lester and then Hytopoulos to the council, the results will be readily predictable. Spending will increase for non-essential services. Infrastructure will continue to degrade from neglect while funding for non-essential social expenses will get the money. How many sewer lines need to rupture, how many hill sides need to block roads, how many pot-holes need to swallow cars, etc. before some people get it? I will grant you that sometimes Vancil & the Knoblock say the right words, but their actual votes & actions are what counts.
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Well Mr. Hunter- get ready for what the election brings and more importantly Ms. Vancils return to the Council as most of us haven’t the same view you seem to have. Ms. Vancil has represented well the don’t spend w/o the dollars in the bank as have Knoblack and Brackett. I think you’ll need to light up and smoke another one of your socks on election day as maybe a knockout for yourself as we re-elect Ms. Vancil the defender of the City’s purse.
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Claude,
I don’t know why you felt the need to resort to personal insults directed at me. I was making observations about elected officals (and those hoping to be) concerning their actions as such. But, each to his (or her) own I suppose. I do think perhaps the term you were looking for is “Disburser” of the City’s purse, not “defender”. And look at what the money is disbursed for. It is all a matter of public record. Just like a candidate’s court records of failed businesses, bankruptcy, liens, poor finances, etc.
October 4th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Hunter — you say about COBI spending: “And look at what the money is disbursed for. It is all a matter of public record. Just like a candidate’s court records of failed businesses, bankruptcy, liens, poor finances, etc.” Well, yes and no. Without a full unfettered audit by independent evaluators, much funny business can be done with public sector spending. For example the full cost of Winslow Never and its myriad step children is not known. The cost is not known notwithstanding your statement about transparency of the process.
Isn’t this commingling of costs/expenses exactly what the Adams lawsuit is about. If the matter was so clear, why would we need the lawsuit?