SEQUIM — Vernon Stoner, the man chosen to run Sequim, wouldn’t say whether he’ll attend this Monday’s City Council meeting, though his past will be a main topic.
“I’m open, at this point,” Stoner said Friday afternoon, adding that his understanding was that the council had decided to reconsider his background as well as the pasts of the other finalists for the Sequim city manager post.
Stoner, then, may leave the council members to their devices, and stay home in Olympia while the council meets at 5 p.m. in the Sequim Transit Center at 190 W. Cedar St.
The council selected Stoner on Sept. 1, hailing him as a man who would rebuild relationships among city staff, elected officials and the community at large.
He was to start work in early October.
Now that plan is suspended, and no one is estimating how long it will take before another decision is made on who will be Sequim’s chief.
How did it happen?
How did Sequim, a city that has been without a permanent boss for 16 months and that finally picked Stoner, a 30-year veteran of state and local government, get here?
Nine days ago, the Peninsula Daily News learned that Stoner was the target of a sexual harassment tort claim filed May 14 by his executive assistant at the state Insurance Commissioner’s Office.
Stoner, the office’s chief deputy, was fired June 15 by Commissioner Mike Kreidler.
Stoner’s former assistant Shellyne Grisham received a $50,000 settlement from the state of Washington on Aug. 31, one day before the Sequim council voted to make Stoner its next city manager.
Stoner has said that he knew nothing of Grisham’s claim, nor of the out-of-court settlement that resolved it.
“There hasn’t been a finding against me of sexual harassment,” Stoner said.
Now Stoner, who is 61 and black, is suing the state, contending that age or race discrimination played a part in his termination.
He seeks up to $20 million in damages, according to his lawyer, Judith Lonnquist of Seattle.
The City Council had no knowledge of the claim and settlement until the PDN report, members have said.
They had planned to sign Stoner’s contract, to include a yearly salary of $120,000, during their meeting last Monday.
Instead the members took the advice of City Attorney Craig Ritchie, who recommended further investigations of Stoner and the other finalists for city manager.
“I welcome the background checks,” Stoner, who attended that meeting, said afterward.
Mayor Pro Tem Ken Hays, meanwhile, wonders how comfortable Stoner will be if he ultimately moves to Sequim.
“Almost everybody I run into has an opinion,” of Stoner, and it’s often negative, Hays said.
Stoner, for his part, is undeterred.
“That’s part of the adversity a city manager goes through every day. I accept it,” he said.
The other finalists for Sequim’s top job were Tillamook, Ore., city manager Mark Gervasi, former Olympia deputy city manager Subir Mukerjee and Steven Burkett, former manager of Tallahassee, Fla., Fort Collins, Colo., and Shoreline, near Seattle.
Information on Monday
During this Monday’s meeting, Ritchie will report on his checks of court records and documents related to Stoner’s work in, and departure from, state agencies.
Tom Waldron of Waldron & Co., the Seattle firm Sequim paid $20,000 to recruit city manager candidates, has said he will be at the meeting “to answer questions.”
Council member Paul McHugh has been vacationing in British Columbia for the past two weeks, but plans to be back for Monday’s session.
Reached on his mobile phone Friday, he declined to comment on Stoner until he hears Ritchie’s report — but added a pointed criticism of his fellow council members’ decision to fire city manager Bill Elliott last year.
“Had the four new council members not acted irrationally,” he said, “all of this we’re going through could have been avoided.”
Members Erik Erichsen, Susan Lorenzen, Hays and Mayor Laura Dubois, all elected the previous November, voted 4-1 to terminate Elliott on May 5, 2008. They fired him during a morning study session, with McHugh, who considered Elliott a good manager, casting the no vote.
“The irresponsible actions of the new members,” McHugh said, caused “this whole dilemma.”
Hays expressed surprise at McHugh’s assertion. During the interviews with finalists, he said, “it’s been remarkable how united the council has been.”
As for firing Elliott 16 months ago, “it was the most responsible decision we ever made,” Hays said.
He called Linda Herzog, interim city manager for the past nine months, a “professional, fully engaged” chief who has shepherded Sequim through difficult budget discussions and guided the city’s staff into a new work program, a list that has fostered progress on dozens of projects.
Lorenzen agreed, saying that as soon as Herzog took the job, she was “communicating and being proactive,” in the way she expected a city manager to be. To her mind, the city benefited greatly from Herzog’s transparent style.
Herzog’s official last day was Sept. 2, but last week she was still providing “transition assistance,” at the same rate she was paid since taking the interim position: just over $44 per hour.
But Ritchie is officially the interim manager, earning his $88,504 annual salary as city attorney plus 10 percent, for a total of $97,534.
Lorenzen said Friday night that she’s “anxious to hear Craig Ritchie’s update,” on Stoner and the other finalists during Monday’s meeting.
“The whole thing is very disappointing,” she added. Waldron’s search, which began in May, yielded finalists with whom she and the other council members were pleased.
Now, Lorenzen said, it seems the process “is dying a slow death.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.