SEQUIM — Newly selected City Manager Vernon Stoner was fired June 15 from his most recent job as the state’s chief deputy insurance commissioner, and was never told why he was terminated, Stoner said Thursday.
Mayor Laura Dubois and council member Walt Schubert said Thursday they were not aware that Stoner had been fired.
“The thing is, I was asked to resign, and I chose not to,” Stoner said in a telephone interview from his Olympia home.
“I got fired.”
Dubois and Schubert had joined other council members in about 20 hours of closed door executive sessions before the council selected Stoner, without publicly deliberating, in a 6-1 vote on Tuesday.
The council directed the executive search firm Waldron & Co. to negotiate a contract expected to pay Stoner $120,000 a year.
Stoner said he expects to sign the employment agreement in time for the council’s approval at the Sept. 14 meeting, and to be on the job Oct. 5.
Possible special meeting
But after Schubert and Dubois learned of the termination in an interview with Peninsula Daily News, they left open the possibility of a special council meeting before Sept. 14 and promised to check into the circumstances of Stoner’s departure from the state Insurance Commissioners Office.
“I’m sure we will want to look into it,” Dubois said.
Dubois and Schubert said they would consult on a course of action with City Attorney and interim City Manager Craig Ritchie of Sequim, as well as Waldron & Co. of Seattle, which produced Stoner’s name as a candidate as part of a $20,000 executive-search contract.
Waldron did not inform the council of Stoner’s firing, Dubois and Schubert said.
Lane Youngblood and Tom Waldron of Waldron & Co. did not return repeated calls for comment on Thursday.
Hired in 2008
Elected state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kriedler hired Stoner in April 2008 to replace the retiring Mike Watson, agency spokesman Rich Roesler said.
Stoner was deputy director for operations of the state Department of Labor and Industries when he replaced Watson, Stoner said.
“I was asked to come in as chief deputy to manage the day-to-day operations” of the agency, Stoner said.
Stoner and his wife, Sandi Swarthout, a lobbyist, hosted a campaign event for Kriedler in August 2008 before Kriedler won re-election, according to a Kriedler campaign notice posted on the Internet.
Kriedler lowered the boom in June 14 without saying why, Stoner said.
“It was a surprise,” Stoner said, though indicating that there had been tension between them.
“We had a falling out,” Stoner said, and suggested that the move was political.
“When you are working for an elected official, you are working for an elected official,” he said.
After firing Stoner, Kriedler brought Watson out of retirement to fill his old job.
Roesler said that Kriedler would not be available for an interview on Stoner’s termination.
He said the agency would not comment on the firing beyond offering a prepared statement — written by Watson.
‘Change in staff’
“[Stoner] was an at-will employee, and the commissioner chose to make a change in staff,” Watson said in the statement.
“We don’t discuss personnel matters. But the commissioner sincerely wishes Vernon well in his new endeavor.”
Dubois, Schubert and Stoner gave different accounts of what was said about Stoner’s departure during the closed-door executive sessions, which are not recorded.
Stoner said he told the council that he left the agency after a rift had developed between him and Kriedler, but did not say that he was fired.
Dubois and Schubert said they did not recall him saying that, and Dubois said he did not give any reasons for his departure.
Stoner “was brought in because they had financial problems, and he was brought in to fix it,” Schubert said.
“He was done with the assignment.”
Stoner did not include the reasons for his departure in his resume.
“I’ve never done that in the past,” he said, adding he “did not have a reason” to list the termination.
“Look at all the opportunities related to my resume,” Stoner said.
Stoner was regional administrator for the state Department of Labor & Industries from August 2006 to June 2007, deputy chief executive officer of Sound Transit Regional Transit Authority from April 2001 to August 2006 and was Vancouver city manager from April 1996 to September 2000, according to his resume.
His listed employment history dates to July 1970, when he was public relations representative for Potomac Edison Co. in Maryland.
As chief deputy insurance commissioner, he helped oversee a $23 million budget and 215 employees.
Revisit selection?
Dubois said she did not know if the City Council should revisit Stoner’s selection as city manager.
“I suppose we could,” she said.
“I’d have to look into it. Anything is possible.”
Schubert, who running for re-election in November against Ted Miller, said he would have liked to have known that Stoner had been terminated from his former position before selecting him as city manager, although he added that the knowledge may not be enough to prompt looking anew at the appointment.
Schubert said other candidates had included in their resumes that they had been fired, and he wants to know why Waldron did not inform the council.
“I would be surprised if they did not know about it,” he said.
“I will definitely go back and ask Waldron what it’s about.”
Sequim has been without a full-time city manager since the council fired Bill Elliott on May 5, 2008.
Sequim Police Chief Bob Spinks served as interim city manager until December 2008, followed by Linda Herzog and, most recently, City Attorney Ritchie.
Council members tried on their own and failed to hire a city manager in November 2008, then turned to Waldron.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
