Rancor, Recalls and a Resignation

Things have gotten awfully muddy in Blue Lake.

The city council’s decision to part ways with longtime City Manager Amanda Mager early last month has laid bare deep divisions in the small city of about 1,200 residents, prompting an extended series of social media spats between those applauding the newly elected council majority’s move and those decrying it and a lack of transparency in the process.

Things came further to a head last week, when a group of residents used the public comment period of the Blue Lake City Council’s May 27 meeting to serve three of its members — Councilmember Kat Napier, Mayor Pro-tem Elise Scafani and Mayor John Sawatzky — with official notices of an effort underway to recall them from office. News then broke two days later (via the Lost Coast Outpost‘s Ryan Burns) that another councilmember, Christopher Firor, one of only two holdovers from the previous council, had resigned his post two minutes before that meeting began. Here’s a brief rundown of what we know about Mager’s separation from the city, the recall effort under way and Firor’s resignation.

No Paper Trail

It remains unclear who on the Blue Lake City Council decided the city should part ways with former City Manager Amanda “Mandy” Mager after 10 years of service, and when the decision was made, much less why.

The council met in closed session May 6 to discuss Mager’s employee performance, as it had done five times previously since the start of the year, but reported having taken no action at the meeting. Two days later, amid rumors Mager had been fired, the city released a statement saying she “and the city council have mutually decided to end their relationship May 9.” The council then voted unanimously 4-0, with Firor absent, on May 13 to ratify a separation agreement with Mager, the provision of which included the wording of the May 8 announcement, indicating the separation agreement had been reached in principle prior. Experts told the Journal this is an apparent violation of California transparency laws, which require that final employment decisions by a council — like deciding to enter into a separation agreement — be made in an official meeting and be reported out of closed session. (They say the council again violated the law May 13 when the city failed to put separating Mager from her employment with the city or ratification of the agreement on the council’s closed session agenda.)

City Attorney Ryan Plotz has repeatedly declined to answer questions about when the council’s decision to part ways with Mager was made and who made up the majority of members that reached it. Sawatzky has directed such inquiries back to Plotz, while other council members have not responded to Journal emails seeking comment.

In the aftermath of the city’s May 8 announcement, the Journal filed requests with the city under the California Public Records Act seeking a copy of Mager’s contract, as well as any formal complaints filed against her during her tenure, and documents related to their investigation. Additionally, the Journal requested any written notice of intended removal given to Mager, which would have been required under the Blue Lake Municipal Code if the council had begun the formal process of firing her, as well as any written reasons for the action, which the code provides Mager could have requested.

Plotz responded that the city has no records of formal complaints filed against Mager during her almost decade-long tenure, and no documentation of her being given a notice of intended removal.

So there’s nothing in the official record to lend clarity to who on the council decided to part ways with Mager, exactly when or why. What we do know is that on March 13, at the council’s direction, the city renewed Mager’s contract and gave her a $10,000 annual raise. Then, less than two months later, the city agreed to pay her four months’ salary — $30,000 — and health and benefits in exchange for terminating her employment and her promise not to sue the city.

Recall Process Underway

As rumors that Mager had been fired on May 6 swirled — and before the ensuing statement about a mutually decided separation had been released — a group of Blue Lakers gathered in Perigot Park and began talking about launching an effort to recall Napier, Sawatzky and Scafani just months after Napier and Sawatzky took office after the November election, with Napier winning her seat after her name was pulled randomly out of a box to break an electoral tie with incumbent Adelene Jones.

That effort took an important early step forward May 27, when proponents served each of the trio of council members with a notice of recall petition signed by the required 30 Blue Lake registered voters. The proponents then posted the petitions in public spaces, as required, in lieu of publishing them in a local newspaper of record, as Blue Lake does not have one. The notice offers two reasons for each of the three recall efforts: the council’s decision to part ways with Mager and its decision not to approve the city’s overdue Housing Element in the face of threatened fines from the state of California. (The council majority, while declining to discuss anything regarding Mager’s departure from the city, has charged that more time is needed to approve a quality Housing Element and have asked the state to be given until the end of the year to do so.)

The notice must now be approved by a local election official — typically a city clerk for a municipal election, though Blue Lake doesn’t have one — after which proponents have 40 days to gather the required signatures to qualify the efforts (it’s one petition for each council member) for the ballot, which in Blue Lake’s case is 30 percent of registered voters, or about 248, depending on the latest registration numbers.

If recall proponents are successful in reaching that threshold before the deadline, the city must declare a recall election within 14 days and then hold that election within 125 days. The city would bear the election’s cost.

Speaking to the Times-Standard, Sawatzky said the recall effort was “definitely expected” and charged it is part of an intimidation campaign that has included threats from unnamed residents.

An Unexpected Resignation

Amid all the rancor of a recall effort, Firor, appointed to the council in October to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Elizabeth McKay (who told the Times-Standard she stepped down because she was struggling to deal with the criticism often levied at the council during public comment periods), quietly tapped out.

“Please accept this letter as my formal resignation from my position as city counselor for Blue Lake, effective immediately,” Firor wrote in a letter sent to interim City Manager Dani Burkhart and office clerk Tonie Quigley two minutes before the start of the May 27 council meeting. “This decision was not made lightly, but after careful consideration, I believe it is the right time for me to step down.”

Firor went on to write that it has been “an honor and a privilege” serving residents of Blue Lake and that he is proud of the work he accomplished. He further wrote that he was grateful for the opportunity to work with “dedicated city staff and engaged citizens,” but the letter makes no mention of his council colleagues.

Firor did not respond to multiple Journal inquiries seeking comment for this story.

The council can now decide whether to appoint someone to fill Firor’s seat, to go through an application process or to hold a special election. Its next regularly scheduled meeting is June 24.

Editor’s note: This story was updated from a previous version to correct an error as to when Councilmember Elise Scafani was elected. The Journal regrets the error.

Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the Journal’s news editor. Reach him at (707) 442-1400, extension 321, or thad@northcoastjournal.com.

This article appears in Humboldt Crabs Baseball.