Daryl Somerville, Chandler, AZ

Now we get it.

It was very puzzling to many of us as to why the new contract extension for the city manager was done in such a rush. I am assuming that it needed to get done before any of the city employee concerns were made public. The article written by Rob Port as well as some of the written notes that were copied in the article are very disturbing to say the least.

It appears the city manager is letting his staff know that you will do things my way, and if you disagree you will need to keep that opinion to yourself. He also insinuates that the entire council is backing him on this type of intimidation. I was under the impression that the city manager answers to the city council, not the other way around. The damage this has done between the city manager and the employees is irreparable.

The city employees always wonder what the ramifications will be should they choose to offer their suggestions that might improve operations, speak up, or discuss any workplace issue that he or she might be having. The very close personal relationship between the mayor and the city manager left the city employees feeling like the only place to turn to was to members of the community or people such as Rob Port.

Our city employees deserve a good work environment with good leadership. It is hard for me to believe that the mayor or even one city council member was not aware of what was going on between the city manager and his staff.

My question is if you even had an idea that this might have been going on, how could you possibly vote to give the (Golden) contract extension to the city manager before researching and finding out what was going on? My advice to the city manager would be the same that he gave to the city employees. You might want to dust off your resume.