Garibaldi manager responds

Embattled Garibaldi City Manager John Schempf responded to allegations of poor behavior and resume inconsistencies at a special city council meeting on April 2.

Schempf defended his actions, arguing that the vendors who complained about him had been taking advantage of the city and were upset that he had stopped them from doing so. Schempf’s lawyer, Larry Linder, also attended the meeting and attacked the council’s handling of the potential termination.

Following the meeting, the council was scheduled to make a final decision on Schempf’s future with the city on April 3, but postponed the decision until another special meeting on April 8.

Schempf started the meeting by saying that when he had received a poor performance evaluation in the week leading up to the letter of potential termination he had been caught completely by surprise. Schempf said that he felt the termination saga had been triggered by the poor performance evaluation and that the other reasons being offered were pretextual.

Schempf then moved into a lengthy defense of many of the actions outlined in the packet attached to his letter of potential termination.

According to Schempf, the two letters criticizing his interpersonal style from the city’s IT and engineering contractors had been in response to him standing up for the city’s interests.

Schempf said that the IT consultant had moved out of state and left the work to a local employee who had another full-time job. When Schempf complained about the lack of timely response to the city’s needs, he said that the company had made the decision to terminate the contract.

In the case of Civil West, which handles many of the city’s engineering needs for infrastructure projects, Schempf said that he had saved the city some $150,000 by reducing the scope of a contract for work on fourth street.

Schempf said that he believed both the emails of complaint had been in response to his performing his job duties and trying to save the city money.

As for the inconsistencies in his resume, Schempf took responsibility for inaccuracies surrounding his tenure with Colfax, California, but pushed back on the other inconsistencies as minor and argued they would not have changed Garibaldi’s employment decision.

Following Schempf’s statement, Linder argued that the council had mishandled the potential termination and violated Schempf’s contract.

Linder argued that the letter of potential termination did not meet the requirements of Schempf’s contract regarding such letters, as it did not adequately detail the links between the alleged actions and breeches of the contract.

Linder also said that the inaccuracies in Schempf’s resume were irrelevant as his employment contract included a clause stating that it superseded any previous agreements between the city and Schempf, including any paperwork signed during the application process.

Finally, Linder said that the included complaints from city contractors had come in response to Schempf’s attempts to protect the city from overspending with the contractors and that firing Schempf based on them would violate Oregon whistleblower laws.

The council did not respond to Schempf or Linder’s statements and adjourned after allowing public comment, with two citizens voicing support for Schempf while councilors read three letters complaining about him into the record.

The council was scheduled to consider Schempf’s termination on April 3, but at that meeting tabled the question until a special meeting set for April 8.