FW: May 7th Agenda Item CS4 Public Employee Performance Evaluation City Manager McDonald, Cristal <[email protected]> Received After Agenda Printed Thu 5/16/20244:23 PM
5/7/2024 - Regular Meeting
To:Smith, Andrew <[email protected]>
Cc:Ramirez, Kimberly <[email protected]> Public Comment - Correspondence From: Warren, Cindy <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 8, 2024 4:47 PM
To: McDonald, Cristal <[email protected]>
Subject: FW: May 7th Agenda Item CS4 Public Employee Performance Evaluation City Manager Importance: High
From: Kassen Klein <
Sent: Monday, May 6, 2024 7:40 AM
To: Kassen Klein <
Subject: May 7th Agenda Item CS4 Public Employee Performance Evaluation City Manager Importance: High
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Good morning,
I'm emailing my comments out of respect and consideration for your city manager as well as you individually and collectively, to avoid public criticism and embarrassment.
When I first started thinking about what I was going to say I thought of a multitude of examples I could cite. Many of which I know you've heard from others about consistently. So please, do not discount or dismiss my comments. Also, these comments are consistent with my experiences and observations not only over the course of the past several years, but with previous administrations, too. It's cyclical. And it's time for a change.
We (the city) are at a crossroads. Ask yourselves, has the city fully recovered from the Covid pandemic? Are we better off than we were four years ago? No, the "Covid Culture" hasn't gotten better and continues to exist inside city hall today. This is evidenced by performance and moral. Frankly, we are doing less with more. More employees, less efficiency. A cursory review of the data indicates this. Look no further than staff new-hires, budget, processing timelines., etc., etc. Of utmost concern is the succession planning and (number of) personnel in the city manager's office. The position Kristen filled was floated as the succession plan to replace Kim. Nothing personal, but Kristen is not qualified to be our city manager. The new second ACM is too new to evaluate. But why was a second ACM necessary? We operated for 25+- years without two ACM's. What's changed? We're actually closer to buildout than ever before, so why? And while the remaining buildout is critical, neither of our top three executives have development experience.
Look no further than the behavior of your city manager as examples of the deterioration and degradation of city hall. How can you respect and trust your city manager when she continually speaks negatively about me, Alan Long, Randon Lane and other longtime respected community leaders. I imagine we're not the only ones. I'm sure Fay Wons and the "Train Lady" have been targets, too.
Before the five of you, it was Jonathan Ingram and Christi White. Think what you will of them, but they were elected by the residents and the disrespect by the city manager and/or any staff member is unacceptable and intolerable. But wait! There's more. Each of you know YOU have been the target of the same derogatory backstabbing! Many of us know it and many of us know that you all know it. This is typical behavior of the divide and conquer manipulation and management.
What's worse is staff is the subject of similar character assassination! THE MOST GLARING AND DISRESPECTFUL example of this are the comments YOUR city manager has made about Ivan, the absolute most loyal soldier, to several of you! This is indicative of behavior that has manifested at city hall, in staff. And this culture affects moral. Moral affects performance.
Performance affects the city and the people you represent.
Is this the person you individually and collectively want to represent you? Because the city manager is YOUR employee, your representative. And you all are representatives of the people.
As representatives, you can choose to lead, or you can simply fill a seat. The choice is yours. Certainly, choosing to do nothing is a choice. But what will your legacy be? Now, one or more of you may ask "but what will we do, who will replace her?" Or say, "we can't remove her before we know who the replacement is." To which I respond: You can't keep the cancer because you're afraid the chemo will kill you.
When I was a boy, my dad had a saying (what would be a meme today) paper clipped to the visor of his 1964 Ford Econoline van: Sometimes the have and have nots can be traced back to the did and did nots.
Please! The five of you collectively come together on this critical matter, make a plan, start the process.
Time is of the essence.
PASSEN KLEIN & EXPED KASSEN KLEIN
Real Estate Development Entitlement Consulting
CONSULTING Murrieta, CA 92564
PUBLIC POLICY