The Ends Justifies the Means?

Certain town politicians are now espousing the rationale that we must retain the Planning and Zoning Department director because she is too professional to lose. They are employing this rationale as their justification to excuse the director's behavior that had been allowed to go on under the former town manager. I am sorry that this story is not pretty. This article is based on official employee testimony that exposes the town to further criticism. As time goes on we may discover that all was not sweetness and light under the leadership of the former town manager. Personally, I cannot imagine being in the work environment described by numerous employees in the building department. In fifty or more years in the workplace, I have never witnessed anything like what is contained in the employee interviews. To say that girls will be girls or that managers repeatedly swear at staff, dismisses unacceptable behavior and abuse of power over employees with children to feed and mortgages to be paid. I am unable to stay silent in the face of numerous instances of humiliation and denigration. How this was allowed to go on for so long is something that needs to be investigated.

The commissioners appear to have a clear choice between their "useful" zoning director and the well being of an entire department. To me there is no choice and there is no lack of even more qualified land use and municipal code experts who can be retained by the town. We already hire consulting experts in several areas of town activities such as utility and beach projects. Marty Black comes to mind as an extremely qualified consultant who is already familiar with the town's codes and comprehensive plan. I believe Mr. Black is far more qualified and licensed than Ms. Simpson. Why not retain Marty Black?

No one is irreplaceable and no one should be indispensable when it comes to working conditions. If only one or two building department employees had complaints about their work environment, there might be a case for trying to mediate the manager / worker relationship. The current situation involves ten employees and descriptions about extreme and prolonged behavior patterns.

When one examines the input from all the land use experts who have disagreed with Ms. Simpson's interpretations of the town's poorly written codes and comprehensive plan over the years, it might be an unpleasant shock for the commission, the town's land use attorney and the town attorney if a new well qualified manager was hired to replace the current planning and zoning director. Perhaps that is why the commission has trespassed into areas of the town's charter that deny commissioners the right to hire and fire town employees. And that is just what the commission has done by hiring the former town manager's assistant to be the acting town manager, and then having her, in turn, return Ms. Simpson to the workplace, in spite of the fact that a well qualified acting town manager recently placed Ms. Simpson on leave until an investigation of her actions was completed. When the commissioners crossed the line in our charter they may have exposed the town to litigation. What the commission did was pure shenanigans to retain Ms. Simpson as a predictable interpreter of the town codes and comp plan.

I am one of many who feel that the current commission is abusing our charter and codes and that Ms. Simpson has repeatedly demonstrated her willingness to "find a way" by contorting and misrepresenting the the town's codes to suit the wishes of the pro-development commission and town attorneys. If Ms. Simpson had been doing a rock solid job of interpreting the town codes and charter, why has her work been challenged by so many residents and so many law suites?

I have always questioned Ms. Simpson's role in the cell tower struggle. I sincerely believe that she has been openly biased in favor of the cell tower builders. Rather than lead the commission to a place of informed decision making, Ms. Simpson has instead repeatedly told the commission that in her professional judgement that cell towers are the best solution. To the best of my knowledge, and having had conversations with Ms. Simpson, I am not aware that she possesses any expertise in the area of wireless communications. However, that has not stopped Ms. Simpson from leading an unsuspecting commission to baseless conclusions.

Marty Black would be an ideal solution for the present town dilemma. We do need expert advice concerning the future of our community and I believe Mr. Black would be of invaluable assistance.