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Morro Bay still considering firing city manager and attorney

September 20, 2013
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Jamie Irons

Morro Bay Mayor Jamie Irons is resuming his effort to terminate the contracts of City Manager Andrea Lueker and City Attorney Rob Schultz.

At next Tuesday’s city council meeting, Irons will request that the council obtain outside legal counsel to guide them through the dispute over Lueker and Schultz’s employment. In a report authored by the mayor Monday, Irons asked the council to approve a contract of no more than $12,500 to hire outside counsel.

Irons suggested hiring an attorney for 50 hours at $250 an hour, which he described in the report as a “conservative high end estimate.”

On September 12, the Morro Bay council met in closed session to consider terminating Lueker and Schultz. Irons, along with Councilman Noah Smukler and Councilwoman Christine Johnson, called the closed session meeting on 24 hours notice.

Irons initially scheduled the meeting to occur in a City Hall conference room, but more than 100 members of the public showed up. The council moved the meeting to the Veterans Memorial Building, where a standing-room only crowd overwhelmingly supported Leuker and Schultz and circulated a petition to recall Irons.

After meeting in closed session for more than an hour, the council voted 5-0 to take no action.

Councilwoman Nancy Johnson and Councilman George Leage have both expressed opposition to Irons’s bid to fire the city manager and attorney.

Schultz said during the September 12 hearing that Irons violated several government codes in the manner in which he conducted the meeting.

Irons said that he did not obtain outside counsel for the meeting, but that he researched and followed the law.

No member of the council has yet levied any charges or complaints against Lueker or Schultz.

The council will meet September 24 at 6 p.m. at the veteran’s hall. The request to hire outside legal counsel is on the consent agenda.

 


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If Mbactivist is correct and there are compelling reasons to fire these two individuals the Mayor Irons should be recalled for gross incompetence and perhaps face criminal charges for harboring criminals and interfering with criminal investigations. If these two are more of the corrupt civil servants that are prolific in our county (Marx, Assbaugh, Gibson, Hill, Ogren to name a few) then Irons should also be fired for protecting them and shielding them from criminal prosecution for their crimes.


Not sure what those crimes might be because from what i have heard these folks are straight shooters. But if they are hardened criminals they need to be brought to justice and not just fired. There are too many civil servants that get privileged protection and are allowed to reap the welfare benefits they all receive from us poor taxpayers.


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Well, I asked over 24 hrs ago if there were any facts about problems with the people in question and MB hasn’t answered, so I would guess there isn’t any.


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Mark Twain once said: “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” So maybe mbactvist is afraid you are just going to distort whatever facts he/she gives you for your own cause. I don’t know why. There’s no distorting of facts going on in this discussion.


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Who’s idea was it to let that power plant keep belching out smoke for a little chump change fee? Not enough to put some slurry on our 3rd world, pothole ridden streets. Maybe they will double our already outrageous water bills and raise a little cash for another roundabout or something as exciting.. Who should I be mad at?


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This place is getting so bad I’m about ready to pick up and move to Fowler.


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where the hell is Fowler ?


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east-ish Colorado


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and Fresno


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Kettleman’s starting to sound better and better.


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How is your obvious clueless rant related


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It’s a clueless rant.


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You could be mad at the Chumash. They’re the ones that allowed all this to happen.


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There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Morro Bay Zone.


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Is this your way of telling us a Fifth Dimension tribute band is going to be playing at Harbor Festival? I hope they open with “Age of Aquarius”. That, or “Up Up and Away in My Beautiful Balloon.”


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If Irons wasn’t on a personal vendetta, because the City Manager and City Attorney wouldn’t cow-down to his every whim and demand, hire his friends who needed a job, then why doesn’t he share with the rest of us the legitimate rationale of the witch hunt he is on? He was simply a handyman that has been elevated above his abilities. He needs to be run out of down with that witch! How much tax payer resources have been wasted on his personal vendetta? He has been ineffective at his job.


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According to an article in this morning’s Tribune, “Asked whether he believes there is cause to fire the two, Irons replied, “I am not going to answer that. It seems evasive to the public, which I apologize for, but I need to protect the confidentiality of personnel matters and the city from litigation.”


A City Council would never take this kind of action without major, serious cause. Many of us who have seen this kind of thing happen in the corporate environment believe that the initial attempt to fire the two without cause was aimed at minimizing disruption and at protecting the careers of both the City Attorney and Manager so that they could more easily find other work – thus Irons held off on filing any formal charges or complaints. Since the City Attorney and Manager did not accept that very generous gesture, the two will probably now have to be fired for cause. I suspect that what Irons wants the legal advice for is to put together the for-cause case.


Residents know of many well-documented reasons for firing with cause. Those two have cost and are costing the City millions. If it costs a few hundred thousand to replace them, that is a real bargain by comparison.


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Do you have any real instances where these two have cost us millions,if so bring it on,from what many of us see is there was/is no just cause to fire these people, and no matter how its done even if these people would have been dirty it is still disruptive to change these positions needed or not.

What do you think it would cost to hire a contract attorney to keep up on matters that are going on right now till a in house attorney was hired, Rob is pretty inexpensive next to a 250 $ an hr attorney, and the next in line to hold over Andrea’s spot isn’t too well liked from what I hear.


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Mayor Irons should consider the sage advice of Mark Twain….”When in doubt, tell the truth.”


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I’m getting tired of hearing about toadies and crownies. Who cares if a person likes toads or crows. Is this still America or what?


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I’ve just been told that that’s not what those words mean. Apparently a toady is a person who “behaves obsequiously toward someone” and a crony is a “close friend or companion”. Can’t we just combine the two to save some space? Something like “croady” or “toany”? I’m just saying.


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Now that Thanksgiving is around the corner, the Turkey Jamie Irons should be more cautious as he might be gobbled up in the process.


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