Former East Ridge city manager William Whitson says he knew his bosses were about to fire him, so he decided to strike a deal.
“I lost the support of my council, OK?” he said Wednesday. “There were competing demands and interests. We did what’s best for everyone.”
PDF: Whitson Evaluation PDF: Whitson Contract
At least two East Ridge councilmen promised to vote to fire Whitson if he didn’t voluntarily resign. Whitson said he didn’t want to face a public firing, but he wanted the severance package that came with forced termination.
He settled in the middle.
With the understanding that the council would not vote to fire him if he quit, Whitson resigned Aug. 9, the same day he e-mailed Mayor Mike Steele and threatened litigation against the city if he didn’t get severance money.
That evening, councilmen voted to accept Whitson’s resignation and pay him $62,500 after he left East Ridge with a $701,308 budget deficit.
“Nobody feels worse about this than I do,” said Whitson, whose annual salary at East Ridge was $112,000.
He first requested about $83,000 in severance, but city officials refused.
Steele called the deal the most “peaceful solution,” especially compared to court battles.
“We have a culture in East Ridge and William has a culture,” Steele said. “Maybe what happened here is he should have taken more time to learn our culture and blend in. But he’s got a great future ahead of him. Some city or government agency will pick him up.”
Despite his apologies, Whitson compared his critics to “Monday morning quarterbacks.”
“It was a multitask environment. I was doing economic development, stormwater, code enforcement, everything,” he said. “You’ve got to understand, certain decisions were made in good faith.”
One of those decisions was to spend $560,000 – the estimated budget surplus from fiscal year 2009 – only to later discover that the actual surplus was about $80,000 less.
In October 2009, councilmen approved the $560,000 expenditure for such projects as a $15,000 “promotional campaign and re-branding effort” for the city, $27,000 in research costs toward a since-failed biodiesel program and $34,000 in employee raises for an East Ridge staff that “conservatively managed public resources,” city documents show.
“Truth is, we missed the projections and we probably should have had some better forecasting tools in place,” Whitson said. “But I don’t throw my staff under the bus. I was the leader of the team.”
The city’s politicians demanded explanation from Whitson three months before election time. In November, Councilman Larry Sewell and Councilman Brent Lambert – two of Whitson’s most vocal opponents – are running for city office. Sewell is running for a council seat and Lambert is running for mayor.
“We took swift and decisive action,” Lambert said. “There’s nothing we can do about last year except do what we did and move on.”
That’s what Whitson finds himself doing now, although he was vague about his future plans.
The last time he landed a job, he didn’t notify East Ridge about a previous resignation from Cairo, Ga., “because nobody asked,” and he won’t do it next time, either.
“I don’t put that stuff on my resume,” said Whitson, who’s still living in East Ridge. “In the city management business, unfortunately these changes happen. People who want to know about it will ask.”
He choked up.
“I’m fighting for my career, man,” he said.
Continue reading by following these links to related stories:
Article: East Ridge manager steps down
Article: Whitson threatened to sue East Ridge
Article: Whitson had history of not communicating information