SLO County supervisors to discuss hiring a new administrator

Chewing on this some more, it’s an interesting omission by the author, in June, the Board on a 5-0 vote extended Mr. Nilon’s contract. So the initial concerns (from the story) by Sups Peschong and Arnold must have been satisfied by Nilon’s 3 months of performance on the job. Very satisfied or they would have begun the job search, right?

Whoa there a-little bit. I read all the public records request info the Tribune published on Nilon and despite my initial glee to get rid of a creep, I have come to the conclusion that, based on what I read, this guy might have gotten railroaded.

First no employee complained that he inappropriately touched them. County Counsel said, “There are no written complaints.” During his first week, two female employees noted that Nilon briefly touched them: one of them on the back as they were negotiating a small cubicle and the second noted that she was briefly touched on the back when Nilon held the door for a number of employees entering an office. Neither complained that it was inappropriate. There were no further notations of Nilon touching anyone. That’s it.

Nilon was never accused of asking for sexual or romantic favors. In fact no one said that they were ever asked to go to coffee, lunch, drinks or dinner. No one was followed on social media. There is no accusations of sexual harassment. That’s it. 

From what I can tell, nothing that was done by Nilon rises to the occasion of an employment action. 

Whoever they hire, the new CAO needs to constantly look over their shoulder. The record shows the current Acting CAO Rebecca Campbell took copious notes of every thing Mr. Nilon said or did that she disliked. This was the foundation of the “evidence” against Mr. Nilon. Interestingly, Campbell was the Assistant CAO and competed against Mr. Nilon for the interim CAO position and lost to Mr. Nilon. She then spent six months taking notes on Nilon and then after Nilon’s dismissal, Cambell became the Acting CAO.  

My guess is that the new CAO will be Grover Beach City Manager, Matthew Bronson. He’s Ortiz-Leggs’ darling. He runs a small 2 square mile city with a $18 million budget; so he should be easy to control by the Board. Campbell won’t get the job because the Board knows she’s a backstabber. The recruitment was too quick to be a national recruitment, despite Board promises. So that leads one to conclude that they’ll be going local. We’ll see.