Citing the challenges of
working at Bainbridge City Hall and the lure of a new job, Jalyn
Cummings announced on Thursday that she’ll resign from her post as
city’s water resources manager.
“Simply put, this is a tough place to work,” she said, noting several other recent resignations. “Now it’s just my time to go.”
Cummings, who will leave the city on Nov. 4 for a job with the National Park Service, has led high-profile efforts to determine the limits of the island’s groundwater supply and investigate contamination along its shorelines.
Focused on water quality and quantity monitoring, the water resources program Cummings leads is considered a vital city service by many local officials and residents. A recent community priorities survey ranked “ensuring adequate water supply” and “protecting water quality in Bainbridge’s streams and shorelines” as the city’s first and second priorities.
While she enjoyed the work and her coworkers, Cummings said “there is a fair amount, as a city employee, of defense you have to do.”
She said public “distrust of city employees” makes the job difficult, as does “everything on the list” noted by her former co-workers who have resigned in recent months. That list has included infighting and indecision on the part of elected officials, and an overall nasty tone to Bainbridge politics.
“All the controversy, it takes a toll on the average worker,” she said.
