City manager holds onto job

After a contentious meeting last Thursday, the Sisters City Council and City Manager Eileen Stein hammered out a consensus on how to move forward in addressing council members' issues with her leadership.

This agreement, put forward by Stein at the end of the Thursday-evening regular council meeting, would include an executive session(s) led by a facilitator with the intent to set a plan to resolve the issues that are dividing the council members, and the issues between at least three of the councilors and the city manager.

Stein said, "I would like to suggest for the benefit of everyone involved, including the city staff; the community; the projects that we have in progress, many of which are at critical stages; and the council's constituency, those of which were here today and those that were not here today, that we continue the performance evaluation process that we started, in executive session, with a trained facilitator.

"The result of this effort," Stein continued, "would be a set of agreements between the council, and a set of performance goals for myself, with a very short turnaround."

The council agreed with the concept, as long as the process does not drag out. There was agreement that the first meeting would be held this week.

The dysfunctional relationship between the city councilors, and between several of the councilors and the city manager, was a consistent refrain during the "visitor communication" portion of an 8 a.m. special session held on Thursday to discuss Stein's termination.

Citizens packed city hall for the session, with numerous people testifying before the council in support of retaining Stein as city manager.

Those who spoke against the termination of Stein covered a wide spectrum of the community, from the mayor of Redmond to members of business community, city staff and those who have simply known Stein during her 10 years in Sisters. No one spoke in support of termination.

Councilors Weed and Holzman, who supported the termination, told The Nugget that they had asked their supporters to stay home so as to avoid a "public spectacle."

Pamela Lovegren spoke from a prepared statement praising Stein's fiscal prudence and skills at conflict resolution. Lovegren said that the termination of someone "... just because they have served 10 years is an '80s concept that is outdated, unprofessional and lacks common sense... it appears to me that several of the councilors are acting out of self-interest... Letting the city manager go without a strong exit plan in place spells disaster."

Redmond Mayor George Endicott, the immediate past-president of the Central Oregon Cities Organization (COCO) and board member of the League of Oregon Cities, spoke about a number of things Stein was involved with outside the city of Sisters.

"She's a very active member of some state boards, she is the immediate past-president of Oregon City Manager's Association. She has a reputation across the state that is second to none as a small-city manager," he said.

He also spoke to the cooperative economic development efforts between Redmond and Sisters, for which he gave Stein a great deal of credit.

Lynne Fujita-Conrads, city accounting analyst, spoke emotionally from a prepared statement put together by the city staff (on their own time, she emphasized), and signed by a number of the city staff members. Fujita-Conrads said, "Her management style encourages active participation and opportunity by all the staff members. It has been alleged that having Eileen gone would be liberating, but a more accurate description would be that we would be devastated."

Past mayor Dave Elliott said, "Lon (Kellstrom, Mayor), I want to apologize to you, but you have a dysfunctional council. Blaming the city staff-city manager is totally wrong...what you are doing is wrong."

Local business owners Jennifer Lake and Winfield Durham spoke to Stein's leadership ability, and to the risk of changing leadership with some major projects such as the Cascade Avenue remodel close at hand.

At the close of public testimony, a motion was made by councilor Sharlene Weed and seconded by councilor Pat Thompson that Stein be terminated "without cause" (see article, page 25). Council attorney Steve Bryant was called upon a number of times to clarify the difference in the rules between "without cause" and "with cause."

Four of the five council members indicated that they were unclear about what they legally could and could not say in detailing Stein's performance review, and what was appropriate professionally to say in an open meeting.

Councilor David Asson pressed Thompson, Weed and Holzman for detailed reasons to support their position. Each of them indicated that they felt legally constrained from doing so.

After often-heated exchanges between councilors, Mayor Lon Kellstrom clarified the options available to the councilors, including the option to withdrawn the motion and schedule further discussions, which he clearly favored.

Councilor Weed withdrew her motion. Councilor Thompson said, "I'm not at all clear what I can and can't share in public about Eileen's reviews. I've always known that Eileen has strong community support, and I know that she does an excellent job with inter-government affairs. This is not a personal issue with me. If there is a clear way for the council to move forward, I will withdraw my second."

The council agreed to schedule a session next week, possibly a closed executive session, for further discussion.

Clarification: In the January 11 issue of The Nugget, city councilor David Asson was quoted saying, "A severance agreement was proposed, but the parties involved (the councilors and the city manager) could not agree on the terms."

In the January 12 special session, Councilors Thompson, Weed and Holzman said that there had not been a meeting, and that they were not party to a discussion about a severance agreement.

On Friday, January 13 Councilor Asson clarified: "...There never was a formal meeting of the councilors as a group...there were hundreds of phone calls... There was never more than one other councilor in any particular meeting or call... In effect, we knew, that under the conditions that were in existence last week there was not likely to be mutual agreement on a severance package."