BETHANY, Okla. (KFOR) – The Bethany City Council announced a special meeting to consider an investigation into the mayor Tuesday, just a few hours after residents learned their utility bills will be hiked up $30 a month.
It has been a busy few days in City Hall, as officials scramble to address the sudden resignation of the city’s eighth city manager in three years.
Bradd Brown was hired back in October, and in the short time he’s been in the role, he uncovered a $4 million shortfall in the budget.
“The past several budgets, if you look at them, all have a shortfall,” Brown said.
He hasn’t found evidence of foul play in the bookkeeping, but said there are a lot of underlying reasons for the recent years of bad budgeting.
“Basically, I think there’s some chaos in Bethany over the past several years,” Brown said. “You’ve had a changeover in finance people, city managers, and I think some budgets got passed that probably shouldn’t have gotten passed.”
What he won’t comment on is his own contribution to the turnover or the vague advice he left for the mayor and the city council in the resignation letter submitted Friday.
In a memorandum, Brown said in part, “I have been the 8th City Manager to serve the City of Bethany in the past three years. I have come to understand the reasons for such turnover, during that short period.
“My sincere advice for the Council moving forward is for the mayor to remove himself from the ‘daily administrative operation’ of the City, especially involving personnel, and focus on the duties allowed under the Council-Manager form of government.”
Bethany Mayor KP Westmoreland said he was surprised to see Brown resigned, and that Brown never spoke to him in person about the criticism in the letter.
“He talked about things that he felt, like staff, was bothered by some of my questions,” Moreland said Tuesday morning. “But he never alluded to saying that I was delegating or dealing with personnel matters.”
The mayor proudly admits he has an office in City Hall and that he works to be there full-time, engaging with the staff with what goes on. However, he said his involvement is limited to asking questions that he believes serve the public.
“I do ask questions,” Westmoreland said. “I’ve never told a city manager who they should hire or fire. I will give my opinion on things, but that decision is theirs.”
Former city manager Janet Smith shared her surprise at Brown’s resignation as well.
“It was surprising to see that his frustration level had already risen to the point in three months that he was ready to resign his position,” Smith said. “But I certainly do understand it because I encountered the same things while I was there.”
Just a few months after Smith was hired as city manager, Smith was put on administrative leave then terminated amidst a dispute with some members of the City Council that she said stemmed from similar problems as Brown is facing.
She said in her time there, she also had to deal with the mayor overstepping his role and micromanaging daily operations when she was meant to be taking directives from the full council.
“If there are city council members that want to come in and talk all of the time, usually they want to talk about whatever their personal agenda is and more often than not, that’s exactly what it ends up being is a personal agenda,” Smith said.
Last year, a former city employee sued the city for wrongful termination, alleging city council forced then city manager Smith to fire her for personal reasons.
The petition sates, “During the meeting in which Smith terminated Phipps, Smith explained that she did not believe that Phipps’s termination was justified, but she had been forced to terminate Phipps by the City Council.”
Going forward, Smith said she would recommend city council members save their questions for email or for a public setting like a council meeting, so that everyone is privy to the answer. She noted this would also prevent the perception of misconduct.
“The state statutes say that the city manager is the one that hires an fires employees and they alone have the authority to do that, but the perception many times is that council can put pressure on a city manager to fire certain employees if they’re unhappy with them,” Smith said. “So, it’s certainly understandable when an employee is asked a question that they could think, well maybe my answer is going to put me an in a bad light, so let me answer in a way that is going to to be what they want to hear.”
Because the lawsuit is ongoing, Westmoreland declined to comment except to say the decision to terminate that employee was solely based on the city’s financial needs.
Looking at the city’s current financial state, the mayor said he doesn’t blame Brown for resigning and intends to see residents through the near future.
“Right now we’re looking at about $2 million that we needed to come up with, and the $30 utility rate increase would give – in about 90 days – would probably give about $600,000 that we’re making that we weren’t otherwise making,” Westmoreland said. “So, $1.4 million is what we’re looking at, how are we going to come up with those cuts?”
Brown said he the city has already implemented a hiring freeze and emergency expenditures, which has helped reduce expenses. He said the accounting firm hired to help audit the city’s finances are not yet complete tracking where all the money has been going, but that he’s hopeful after already seeing an increased revenue.
As for the utility increase, he said he hopes that number will change sooner than later.
“We hope to make adjustments to that not only to the base rate, but the usage tables,” Brown said.
That doesn’t necessarily change the frustration, even outrage, felt by many Bethany residents Tuesday.
“I was expecting a rate increase,” said Arvel Williams. “Not that high, but a rate increase because of the recent problems with the city financials.”
Williams said he was disappointed to hear about Brown’s departure, and troubled to see his criticism of the mayor.
“The mayor doesn’t have any authority to be involved in that stuff and is restricted from being involved,” Williams said.
The mayor maintains he’s done nothing wrong, and is only concerned about the good of the city. Now his actions may come under scrutiny.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the City Council members S. R. Hunter, Kathy Larsen and John Herren called a special meeting to consider retaining a special attorney who would conduct an investigation into “potential improper interference by the Mayor of City Administration including the City Manager, Staff and Employees in violation of the City Charter, City Statutes.”
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Bethany Library. There will be an opportunity for members of the public to speak for up to three minutes each, but no action will be taken on what is said.
“If I’m the problem with the City of Bethany, then so be it,” Westmoreland said. “But while I’m mayor, I’m going to fight for the citizens.”