City Manager’s Deal an Issue of Trust

* This letter is in response to the action taken by the Lancaster City Council earlier this month, concerning the employment of City Manager Jim Gilley.

In the council’s opinion, Gilley was doing an excellent job and deserved to be rewarded with all kinds of perks and raises. They established a four-vote requirement to terminate his contract because he was treated unfairly by a previous City Council. They do not trust the citizens of Lancaster to choose council members who might not recognize Gilley’s many creative and clever talents in the next election.

This is not an issue of Gilley’s abilities or his management style concerning his employment as city manager. It is an issue of trust between the present City Council and the citizens of Lancaster.

The council seems to have taken the view that only they and Gilley know what is good for this city. The City Council has become a special interest group of its own. This will not be tolerated.

We citizens must send a message in the next election that this type of government is not acceptable. If Gilley wants to remain city manager, his contract must be renegotiated. The terms should not be the subject of debates and discussions in the coming election. If these terms are not acceptable to him, then we must revoke his contract no matter what the cost. It is time to terminate the city attorney’s services. He should have advised against this type of contract.

Mayor Arnie Rodio said it very well, “If you don’t like it, at election time replace me.” What fools we are if we don’t take his advice and replace him, and Councilmen George Root and Henry Hearns.

FRED BRODISH

Lancaster