Those of us who are old enough to have lived through a change of command in an organization know that when the old boss leaves things come out in the open.
We are seeing signs of this over at the city with the situation relating to the firing of one of the deputy city managers. The most probable scenario in my judgment is that the deputy city manager and the city manager got crossways and the city manager decided to fire her. Yes, I have read the news reports where the former city manager has said that she “helped” the deputy city manager. Maybe they were in cohoots all along.
Speculating further it looks like the deputy city manager threatened to squeal about past events and the city came up with a solution designed to shut her up. Unfortunately that solution will cost us money through the city pension system for the rest of the former deputy city manager’s life.
Stories about how the city manager used fear to control what city employees said in public have been circulating for years.
Now the city manager is gone and I suspect that we will be hearing things from some of the employees that will make our hair curl.
The new city manager has little to gain from covering up the prior city manager’s past deeds. In fact cleaning up the mess at the city and replacing the old team would help build confidence in the city manager form of government. Proponents will be able to argue that having a city manager is a good thing–you just need a good city manager.
In fact one of our regular readers commented that the QOL that we need most is Quality of Leadership.
The story is going to get messier. Expect to hear things about some council members and senior city staff that will make J. R. Ewing look like a monk. Whether the outside financial influences will be able to stay out of the stories remains to be seen.
Don’t expect to see our district attorney get involved. Short of a nuclear event over at the Times we probably will not see them help here either.
Our best hope is to find ways to shine light on what has happened.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
I can’t help but wonder if the purported disagreements between Wilson and Shang were exaggerated to give Wilson an excuse to help a friend and enable them to leave together. Either way, it’s not an acceptable situation. It’s also not acceptable that the Mayor is quiet on on the subject of a city employee sitting at home while drawing a $175,000 salary. Then there is the matter of Shang’s pension being manipulated, creating or increasing a long-term financial obligation of the city. How is that not fraud or theft?
The city should release a copy of the severance agreement so that we can see whether it contains language requiring Shang to keep quiet. It’s not like she was dealing with matters of national security. They could easily redact any truly personal information, but leave terms and conditions for all to see.
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Absolutely agree!! The mayor and the city manager have to step up to this one. Or forget ever having any public confidence in this government.
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There is nothing in the severance agreement requiring Shang to keep quiet. It is a regular, run-of-the-mill severance agreement, the terms of which were agreed to when Shang was hired. Bottom line, Wilson fired Shang & didn’t care, or forgot, that she had given Shang such a great termination package.
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If you are let go from a City position for cause the City should start the process for separation. Shang should not be rewarded for poor performance. Oh wait, the City does reward poor performance, First Transit is still raking in Tax dollars. First Transit employees would throw paper balls at each other during staff meetings. I reported the First Transit director being under the influence while at a staff meeting. The result, I didn’t go to anymore staff meetings. New buses and dedicated City employees is what improved the City’s transit, not Shang or contracted management.
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I think Wilson decided she was going to give her friend a golden parachute without asking anyone(because its legal) and blame it on either Holguin,Limon, Robinson, or Anne Lilly. She had the power and no one could do anything about it. She has never cared about the Taxpayer.. This mimics the Ballpark deal in a way. Most likely Anne Lilly wanted Shang fired after reading her statement in the Inc.. Davidk mentioned it in his prior article that it could be about the tree, city employee deal. This sort of makes sense in that Anne Lilly said that she knew all about Shang’s deal. Maybe she forgot that Wilson didn’t tell everyone else. No one else has admitted to knowing, but many have admitted to not knowing.
She should not get the new job they are offering to her IMHO based on this underhanded deal. Iowa would be smart to stay away from Shang also IMHO. It’s funny how others are trying to blame Holguin, Robinson, and Limon for something they didn’t even know about until after the Times article. Someone need to get to the bottom of this.
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Who can do something? This sounds similar to that town in California run by corrupt officials making sure they got paid big taxpayer bucks while in office.
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