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UN-EDITED FACEBOOK THREAD RE: THE ZEPHYR’S ‘UPHEAVAL AT CITY HALL’ STORY…11/15-16/2015

On November 15, 2015, we posted a link to a Zephyr story called, “Upheaval at Moab City Hall,” by Jim Stiles, on our facebook page. The article reached almost 5000 fb readers and was shared by many, including Julianne Waters, who re-posted the article on Moab City Councilwoman Heila Ershadi’s facebook page. What followed was a heated and somewhat contentious discussion.
Sometime late on November 17, Councilwoman Ershadi deleted all of her own comments and apparently de-activated her account. However, I had previously cut and pasted, and screenshot,  the post and entire comment thread, a few hours before the deletions.  A week later, Ershadi restored her comments and re-activated her account. But on Friday, December 4, she apparently de-activated her account again. As of 1:30 PM on December 8, it is still missing from fb. With Julianne Waters’ permission, we provide the comments in their entirety, before the deletions. Since then, more comments have been added, though none from Ershadi…JS
Here is the post and comment thread from the facebook page of:   Julianne Waters

I for one was truly flabbergasted when I heard of Dave Olsen & Ken Daveys dismissal. This is a very interesting article and one that should be shared immediately with Mayor Dave and the City Council. There’s a lot of fishy stuff going on. What do you think, Heila Ershadi?

NOTE: The purpose of this article is to provide Moab citizens with information; I have no vested interest here, other than as a former longtime Moab resident (32 years)…
canyoncountryzephyr.com
Comments
Kerry Soliz
Kerry Soliz I think Jim Stiles is bored and trying to stir up problems.
Steve Johnsonrod
Steve Johnsonrod I think the city was looking for a henchman when they found this woman, her background is shady at best.
Kerry Soliz
Kerry Soliz According to a biased article. I will wait and see.
Julianne Waters
Julianne Waters Kerry, I for one was quite dismayed at how Dave Olsen was treated after decades of amazing service to the city of Moab & to be given an hour to clean out his desk? If nothing else it’s an epic fail on decorum. It’s also good to have eyes wide open & it sounds like there’s some interesting history, bias or no.
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Heila Ershadi

Heila Ershadi Julianne, I think if I were seeing the restructure from another perspective, and not from the inside, I would feel exactly like you. However, being on the inside, I was privy to other information. Because it involves personnel, it’s not legally or ethically advisable for me to discuss it.

It was a very, very hard choice for me. I live here, after all, and I knew that some people would be upset. I used to do a radio show with Ken. But making decisions because of your personal relationship with someone is just not ethical.

And certainly, it was not a surprise for David or Ken, I am quite sure. That’s a rumor that made it into print, unfortunately.

The city manager’s background was investigated by our hiring committee, which included Chief Navarre. Rebecca Davidson was forthcoming about the controversies she’s been involved in, and I do believe the committee did due diligence. That said, I’m getting refreshed on the specifics of their investigation, as I think that is important info to relay to the public.

The action of this city manager, and all city managers, should be reasonably scrutinized. It’s my duty (and all the council’s) to know what’s going on and take the public’s concerns seriously, and I have at least one meeting tomorrow to discuss some concerns regarding oversight and communication between staff, the city manager, and council. Not because I have evidence at this time to suggest that there’s major impropriety going on, but because if there is any opportunity to serve the public better, to improve transparency and communication, then we should take it.

I want to put out something that addresses head-on the concerns of the public, and teases out fact from rumor. (And perhaps other council members will want to do this, too, I am not sure yet. Just speaking for myself here). But I want to be really, really sure I have all the info before I start saying much. A half-truth can be worse than a lie, and gossip can seriously tear people’s lives apart. So it’s important to be careful, always.

Heila Ershadi
Heila Ershadi And the dangers of mis-portrayal go both ways: I don’t want to go around saying everything is fine if it’s not.
Julianne Waters
Julianne Waters Heila, thank you for this thoughtful response. I have the Utmost confidence in your Integrity and forth-rightness. Thanks for doing that difficult job!
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 hrs
Heila Ershadi
Heila Ershadi Thanks, Julianne. : )
Kerry Soliz

Kerry Soliz IF the treatment that has been depicted by Jim Stiles is true then I too would be dismayed, however, at this point, I believe his report to be untrue. I do not believe there was a surprise firing and a two hour window to clean out an office. I believe both ken and Dave had notice this was going to happen, were given adequate advance notice and a decent severance package. I am disappointed in Jim for spreading gossip and instigating emotional reactions.

Before crucifying our council, I will wait to see what other information comes out.

Shame on you Jim.

Janet Buckingham
Janet Buckingham Why do you believe this, Kerry?
Kerry Soliz
Kerry Soliz Speaking with council members personally.
Janet Buckingham
Janet Buckingham Hmmm….I thought they weren’t supposed to discuss personnel matters.
Kerry Soliz
Kerry Soliz I think it is reasonable for them to answer direct questions and they did not delve extensively into personnel issues but addressed questions I had about the article in the Sun and Jim’s report.
Kara Dohrenwend
Kara Dohrenwend If a council member can say something to you personally, it should be publicly stated as well.
Kerry Soliz
Kerry Soliz True. I am hopeful there is more transparency forthcoming.
Kara Dohrenwend
Kara Dohrenwend It is COMPLETELY unethical to say something to you, or any individual, as a council person without being able to say it to the general public
Jim Stiles

Write a reply…
 
Jim Stiles

Jim Stiles RE: Kerry Soliz reply comments above: Okay, Kerry Soliz…enough is enough. Get YOUR facts straight. First, I did not report that Dave Olsen had to vacate his desk in two hours— the Moab weeklies, the Times-Independent and the Moab Sun news first reported that information. What I did in the Zephyr story a couple weeks ago was to provide links to those articles. I also included links and long excerpts from other articles written about Rebecca Davidson by other news sources, from Davidson’s time as a city manager in Timnath, Colorado and Kemmerer, Wyoming. My sources included 9News in Denver, the Kemmerer Gazette, the Times-Independent and the Moab Sun News. The facts and information I provided were all substantiated and had been available online to the public, in some cases, for years. All I did was to consolidate that information.

Did you even read my article or do you base your accusations on the gossip and innuendo fed to you by others?

Yes, I have known Ken and Dave for many years, and I did not like the way they were treated, especially by city council members. I plead guilty to being loyal to decent, good men.

Like · Reply · 1 · 6 hrs
Kerry Soliz
Kerry Soliz Enough is enough Jim. Yes, I read your article and forgive me for mixing up two articles. Unfortunately they both had an accusatory and ugly tone. I remain skeptical of your motivation and disappointed that you felt the need to report in such a biased way in my opinion. I will wait for more information to surface before I throw our council members under the bus.
Kerry Soliz
Kerry Soliz Did you speak directly with Ken and Dave? What was their opinion? I am curious.
Jim Stiles
Jim Stiles Thanks for keeping an open mind, Kerry. Never let the facts get in the way of preconceived notions.
Kerry Soliz
Kerry Soliz You see. Your response is very accusatory and I found the tone of the article to be the same. I think taking a wait and see what more information comes to light is a moderate and good place to be. It appears you do not respect a position that doesn’t completely agree with you. As I said, I did not like the biased tone if your article. That is my right to feel that way.
Jim Stiles
Jim Stiles Ok Kerry…
Jim Stiles
Write a reply…
Daniel Suelo
Daniel Suelo Kerry, I was a bit astounded reading your comments. It’s good to put aside personal feelings about a messenger & actually read the message before critiquing it. Jim basically left out his opinions and presented other articles about Davidson, showing a history of the same eerie pattern. Maybe this pattern is very strange coincidence. But it is good to question & investigate a really really strong fishy smell.
Here’s another link not in Jim’s article: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/…/small-town-paying-big…

Julianne Waters
Julianne Waters Interesting article, Daniel & it certainly raises thought-provoking questions. Is the City of Moab also employing the City Managers Engineering company? If so, it could smack of history repeating itself in a small town.
Daniel Suelo
Daniel Suelo That is a good question.
Like · Reply · 1 · 5 hrs
Jim Stiles

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Janet Buckingham
Janet Buckingham To reiterate what Jim Stiles wrote above: He did not write the articles that appeared in our local papers and they pretty much offered the same reporting that Jim did. Jim dug a little further and offered background on the city manager that the local papers did not. That’s the only thing he did differently. I appreciated the links and the timeline he offered in his article. And it surely did not sound like David Olsen was expecting his immediate dismissal and surveillance when he was fired. His quotes in the TI made it clear he was NOT expecting it and was confused as to what caused his sudden firing. So clearly neither he nor Ken had been given written or verbal warnings that they had done anything wrong and were in danger of instant termination. In the real world of government, corporate business and larger nonprofits, a restructure typically involves the ethical treatment of long time employees and a REAL effort to redistribute them within the organization; that obviously did not happen. It baffles me that out of 50 or so applicants for city manager, the city felt compelled to hire the one that had a history of conflict, controversy and questionable actions. I’m sure a police background check didn’t reveal anything; she obviously has no criminal record. But where there is this much smoke, there’s fire. My guess is before it’s over, Moab City will need a hot shot team to fix this mess. After 20-some years of a largely harmonious city government, what’s happening at City Hall is UGLY and it is not in any way, shape or form Jim Stiles fault. That’s just silly. Jim is and always has been an excellent reporter. Point fingers where they belong to be pointed, not at journalists doing their jobs.
Like · Reply · 1 · 5 hrs
Daniel Suelo
Daniel Suelo ” It baffles me that out of 50 or so applicants for city manager, the city felt compelled to hire the one that had a history of conflict, controversy and questionable actions.”
Jim Stiles

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Julianne Waters
Julianne Waters I tend to agree with Janet’s assessment. I am very glad to have Heila Ershadi on the City Council. I’ve known her for years and trust her balanced judgment. I’m happy to hear that she is going to pursue this situation further to shine further light on the situation. I’d especially like to know what, if any, other ways the City is contracted with the current manager either directly or indirectly. With the history, this could be very telling. I’m also of the ilk that believes that where there’s smoke, as Janet said, there tends to be fire. It would be good to have all the facts on this to avoid being burned.
Like · Reply · 1 · 4 hrs
Janet Buckingham
Janet Buckingham So, I’m curious. How much of the new city manager’s past was known at the time of hiring? How thorough was the vetting, besides, of course, a criminal background check? Did Moab City call references and former employers/council members in Kemmerer and Timnath? Because I can’t imagine consistently shiny references just knowing what little we do know. And if a council member told Kerry that Ken and David were given notice, why didn’t the rest of the community know this was happening and didn’t know for about three weeks?
Like · Reply · 1 · 1 hr


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