Sensational Headlines
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 22 December 2010 — 18 comments below »
I was considering running either of the two following headlines this morning, you know, for the sheer sensationalism of it:
City Becomes Police State
City Manager Nelson Oliva agreed to a very costly buyout of his contract — a full year’s salary plus considerations on his mortgage — to be replaced in the interim by Police Chief Fred Deltorchio. The chief has always been easy to work with, so he seems to be a natural fit and a steady hand for the position.
Fil-Ams President: Lochner Is Like Hitler
Former mayor Frank Batara, who served from 2002-2006 — although he was never elected because he ran unopposed — compared Tom Lochner’s reporting in the Contra Costa Times to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. That is what he said, and it’s disturbing. Manipulative, indeed.
But — following my better judgment — I ultimately decided not to run either of those two sensationalist headlines.
Also — Laila Kearney of the Hercules Patch liveblogged the city council meeting last night. It is worth a read. (Batara’s statement is mentioned at the 7:37pm mark.)
OMG. If this is true, the Council has no “huevos”, and desperately needs a better HR advisor and a good labor attorney.
I can’t believe they would have green lighted a year severence for a man who is horrible for the City. Poor return on our money. As an at will employee, it’s simple to just fire him, without any notice at all, and he has no recourse. And, if you want to be kind, give him two months pay, max. Why a year? Did he threaten to sue? So what! What did he have on the City that they were afraid of him revealing? I think he had more skeletons in his closet than the City did. I’m disappointed if this is true. He is not worth that high price. Sorry we didn’t know that those terms were being considered. Great to have him gone, horrible to be paying such a huge cost…$276,000 for the year, plus unknown additional medical expenses. At the very least, let the guy buy his own insurance. I think he can afford it.
The council saw the writing on the wall.
But if they want to save the city the additional costs of a recall Balico should be forced out.
That could prevent the other two from being recalled.
Hercules is bleeding money. Get Long back to help fix the problems and, to prevent a lawsuit for his unwarranted termination.
Just remember that this new council is inheriting problems from the last council’s infamous orchestrations on the last days of its existence. The two new council members were outvoted in bringing Charlie Long back in the closed session meeting. However, as reported, the city attorney has agreed to have an outside law firm specializing in labor issues to review the termination of interim manager Charlie Long during the same closed session meeting.
Regarding Nelson Oliva, how can you terminate with cause if just a few weeks ago, the old city council formally asked him back? He should have been terminated with cause when the grand jury report came out. He could have been terminated in the days where the NEO scandal was foremost in every Herculean’s mind. His severance payout is a compromise that we needed to move forward. Firing him after being asked to come back would be hard to defend Hercules in court. I am sure that Nelson would be providing tons of information to protect himself but damaging to the past councils and Hercules. It would be a circus that will further disrupt and destroy our fragile state of mind.
Nelson Oliva is quietly out. Let us move forward. Let us now heal. We need to compromise and maybe forgive. Definitely, do not forget the incompetence and lack of respect the previous councils have shown to Hercules citizens. With this, we will maintain our vigilance.
Let’s see. We fired Charles Long for cause. The cause was making the public aware of the problems the city has.
We remove N.E.O and NEO and provide them an extremely long term severance in one case and two months of pay for the other.
ummm,
I must have grown up with a complete misunderstanding of right verses wrong and a completely backwards view of ethical behavior.
Past mistakes by the previous council didn’t prohibit the new council from making better employment related decisions, especially for high-level exempt staff, who should NEVER be promised advance formal written notice before they are terminated. Looking forward, the next City Manager should be employed at the will of the Council, and should have a contract provision that says they understand and acknowledge that their terms of employment are at the pleasure of the Council, and their employment can be terminated at any time, for any reason, with or without cause, and without advance notice or without any expectation of a compensation or severence package. It sounds cold, but the City has been burned, big time, and you don’t need to walk through this fire again. Glad they’ve hired a good labor attorney to address such issues for the future. In my 30 years experience in labor relations, I was aware of only one case, involving a public sector department head, where a year of severence was paid. It’s rare. The City has some wacky pay practices, and I suspect there are more out there that haven’t been publicized. Most folks don’t profit when they don’t perform well on a job. But while we may disagree on the terms of the severance package, I do appreciate your feedback.
Seems like the World is upside down when you fire a City Manager and then hand over a big severance. Pinole did it too. They cut loose an inept City Manager and paid her a years salary which they couldnt afford. incredibly, Thne Chowder heads on the City Council and their backers (CCOP) rehired the SAME City Manager! Stupid is as stupid does… Herculeans, dont make the same mistakes. Clean House and get GOOD people to run your city.
@ Susan Tarvin — I’m sorry, but I would never work for an organization under such a contract as you describe, nor would I hire an HR manager that would require it to be that way. The position of city manager is difficult and thankless, at least largely so. And the city of Hercules needs a well-qualified, talented and creative executive with a background of success (someone like Charlie Long comes to mind). That requires a salary, benefit package and contract commensurate with the duties and the characteristics residents seek in the city manager’s position. We cannot expect to pull ourselves out of the hole we seem to be in by bottom-feeding.
well said Jeffrey..
I agree Jeffrey. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that it’s going to be quite difficult for Hercules to attract top talent for the CM job. On one hand, there is nowhere to go but up if one is honest and hard-working which should be part of the recruiting platform. On the other hand, we have a city mired in a history of corruption, mismanagement and financial turmoil with three council members out of five who still seem to be part of the problem. Put yourself in a potential CM’s shoes: this person will either be eager for employment and willing to take below-market terms or this person will be highly employed and won’t take the professional risk to come here without above-market terms. I’m betting on the latter. Just like a poor credit rating, our tarnished reputation will cause us to pay more until we polish it up and this will take time.
Remember they are now paying an attorney to determine if they wrongly terminated Long, and they may be facing a lawsuit. If they lose they have to pay him too. Instead of cutting their losses theycontinue to make things worse. Its almost as if they want to be recalled.
When I first read this posting, I assumed that these were fictitious stories intended to be sarcastic. Do we really know what the terms of Oliva’s severance package were?
@ Jeff Boore — Since the council reinstated Nelson Oliva on December 7, it would be pretty difficult to argue that they had cause for termination in the past two weeks. The City will likely be forced to pay close to the severance outlined in his contract. The actual terms will be released next week when the termination becomes official.
“It’s almost as if they want to be recalled.”
Susan: I’ve been marvelling myself at some of the ham fisted and wrong headed decisions being made. It is as if they are intentionally trying to incite a rebellion.
I note that Oliva was quick to deny that anyone made commissions on the Bio-rad transaction discussed on Tuesday. Thanks for clarifying that, and hopefully putting that to rest. But Mr. Balico and the city remain silent on whether any commissions were made by public officials or their families on any other real estate transactions involving the city. And while denying a business relationship with Mr. Sakamoto, Mr. Balico remains silent as to whether contracts were let with entities owned or managed by family members of city officials (family members either by blood or marriage). There are rumors that certain landscaping and janitorial contracts have been let to Mr. Balico’s relatives. I have seen that question posed to Mr. Balico on Patch, and to date he has not responded.
Mr. Balico, if there is no truth to these rumors, why not answer the questions now, and be done with it? You should clear your name if there is no truth to this. If these rumors are true, please explain why such actions are legitimate? Perhaps you don’t believe this is a problem. This all goes to the appearance of impropriety. I was glad to hear Mr. Delgado state in his inaugural address that he will NEVER vote to hire a family member.
Jeff: Most people agree that top level City executives need to be held to a much higher standard for performance and conduct than all other civil service employees, who are only terminated for cause with advance notice, several written warnings, etc. Most public sector employees working in Contra Costa County don’t get generous severence packages such as this, and most executives get something far less than what our City is apparently paying out.
An Apology from Former Mayor Batara
Jojo,
Pls. forward my message below to the community. I sent this to WC Times but was told that the earliest they could include it would be next Wed., Dec 29. Given the nature of my comments & the emotions it has stirred in the community, I wish to let everyone know how I feel; that I truly regret my comments.
Frank
Dear Editors:
At the Dec. 21 meeting of the Hercules City Council, I made some comments about recent developments in our city, and how concerned I was about how our residents had become divided and even angry. I attributed some of that to the reporting of Mr. Tom Lochner, and proceeded to associate his work with Hitler.
That was wrong of me to say that, and I want to apologize.
I also personally apologized to Mr. Lochner, & told him that “in my enthusiasm to express myself, I crossed that line of decency,” & asked him to forgive me. I also would now like to apologize to my fellow Herculeans for having said that to another human being as it has never been in my character to be unkind to anyone.
I just wanted to express my concern about the need to have accurate and balanced reporting of facts. That has not been the case, but it is not totally of Mr. Lochner’s doing. It is also the result of the silence of Hercules city officials to not promptly and openly respond with their side of a story. Our citizens deserve openness of government, but also fair and balanced reporting of facts.
Frank Batara
Hercules
Jeff, I believe this comment by you;
“Since the council reinstated Nelson Oliva on December 7, it would be pretty difficult to argue that they had cause for termination in the past two weeks.” would not be the case. As he did not reach the 60 day mark and was not terminated, he was simply returning to his job with no “break in service”. He is not a new hire. Everything prior to his leave is still in play. Perhaps you should appoint Ms. Tarvin as your labor management consultant because she is on the mark about how the rest of us are treated in the real world. I hope the Army Corp would not allow you to perform as Mr. Oliva has and then give you a years pay as a reward. They would likely keel haul you on the M.V. Grizzly.
OH yea, I meant to add…..
HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Merry Christmas everyone!