News on the alleged "best City Manager the City has ever had"

Former Peoria City Manager, Randy Oliver's contract as City Manager of Surprise, AZ has been terminated so hastily that the Surprise City Council didn't care that it would cost the city about $200,000 to let him go.

In Surprise, Oliver was paid $185,000 annually and received a monthly car allowance of $583. In addition, he received compensation for moving expenses ($3,267.45) and $4,800 in temporary housing and related expenses. Keep in mind that Oliver only had a two year contract which was effective July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2010. Apparently, they couldn't tolerate him for three more months.

As previously reported by Peoria Pundit (upon Oliver's exit from Peoria), one of the knocks noted against Oliver was that "he didn’t manage employees very well". Notice that Councilmember Walcott's comment below alludes to the same thing.

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Surprise City Council fires manager March 26, 2010 4:28 AM

4-3 vote ends Oliver's tenure after rocky year

Surprise City Manager Randy Oliver’s contract was terminated without cause at Thursday night’s City Council meeting.The termination without cause will cost the city about $200,000.Oliver elected to have the item heard in public.

Oliver said he was surprised because no council member had approached him to discuss it before placing the topic on the agenda. “I wish I knew the genesis behind the item before it came to council,” Oliver said. “We could have worked together to address the issues.”

Oliver acknowledged he has had to make difficult decisions in his tenure, but had never had to dismiss so many employees in his career.

Oliver gave a presentation to defend some of his decisions, including laying off what amounts to about 10 percent of the city employees, as well as reducing or eliminating employee and council perks such as mileage. Take-home pay was not reduced, Oliver said.

Oliver left the meeting after the vote. Interim Assistant City Manager George Kolb will serve as acting city manager until the city takes action on Oliver’s replacement.

Read the entire article here.

Related articles: Council acts to investigate finance blunder, implement safeguards; City's latest budget moves mean eliminated positions, some layoffs

Maybe he was just over it...

I have no idea what happened with the blog Obrien's Briar Patch, but I really enjoyed reading his blog and miss his political commentary.

It appears he went off line shortly after crossing the Peoria Pundit’s Billy Dennis. I know they call Billy “Big Pun” in some circles, but I wouldn’t think he has anything to do with this... would you?

Who is the real Big Pun?
Disclaimer: This is satire.

Peoria Blogger threatened with a lawsuit

From Infospigot:The Chronicals via Peoria Pundit




From Peoria, Illinois—a city that will always be synonymous in our minds with Jack Brickhouse and Mudbone—we have this:


Yesterday, a private investigator representing Globe Energy—a U.K. transplant that set up shop in Peoria to make energy-efficient industrial heating systems—paid a visit to a local blogger named Billy Dennis. The local head of Globe, David Jones—described variously as "a nice man" and a "foul-mouthed individual"—got some critical attention back in March when he announced in the Peoria Journal-Star that he was less than enamored with the labor force in the Land of Lincoln: "The work ethic in this state is awful. ...r It's difficult to find good people."

The online version of the Journal-Star article drew a comment from a reader who identified himself as a former Globe employee. In essence, he described his ex- boss and other managers at the company as bigoted jerks. That comment was quoted in its entirety on a Peoria blog and thence on a citizen journalism site called the Blog Peoria Project, which Billy Dennis manages.

And here's where we get back to the private investigator.

The PI showed up at Dennis's door Saturday morning--nearly three months after article and comment were published--with a letter from an attorney. The missive demanded that Dennis remove the former employee's comment from Blog Peoria because the statements therein breached a Globe confidentiality agreement. If the offending comment was not taken down by Monday, the letter warned, the company would sue. Dennis has not posted the full contents of the threatening letter, and I won't guess under what laws or on what grounds the company believes its demand is enforceable. But in the meantime, the letter has had an effect: The blogger who originally posted the comment has removed it. It has reportedly disappeared, too, from the Peoria Journal-Star site.

Dennis's response was to re-publish the comment on his own blog, Peoria Pundit, while he considered whether to knuckle under to the company's threat. He has until tomorrow to decide, but he says he's already made up his mind: "F*** 'em." Maybe the Peoria Pundit Defense Fund is next.