The City of Bishop and City Administrator Ron Phillips have mutually agreed to end the employment relationship between the City and Mr. Phillips effective January 26, 2022. Mr. Phillips will remain on administrative leave until the effective date of this separation and Deston Dishion will remain Acting City Administrator. Under the parties’ agreement, Mr. Phillips will receive severance pay equal to six months’ salary and health benefits, consistent with the severance under his contract. The City Council wishes Mr. Phillips the best in his future endeavors and will be considering options for filling the City Administrator position.
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Yet another example of the letter and spirit of Ralph M. Brown Act being subverted:
What did the City Adminstrator do to get himself fired?
We deserve to know.
The purpose of the Brown Act is to assure that the People – the electorate – know what their elected and appointed officials are up to, so that the People can hold them accountable at the polls.
Without that knowledge, democracy itself becomes a sham: “We the People” becomes “Wee, the People.”
And after having spent 23 years of my legal career in county counsel offices, advising officials about the Brown Act and sitting in innumerable closed sessions with them, I can bear witness to the fact that public officials spend more time and are much more interested in avoiding the requirements of the Brown Act than complying with them.
Which is why, although I was and continue to be villified for doing it, I issued a press release after the Board of Supervisors met in closed session in response to my threat of litigation and decided to change the name of Inyo County’s Portagee Joe Campground.
I thought the People had a right to know what action the Board had taken on a metter of public concern on their behalf.
And also because, despite my repeated demands that it do so, the Board of Supervisors had no interest in telling the public what it had done in secret, despite the clear mandates of the Brown Act.
Someone had to do it.
Thank you.
Mr. Phillip’s was ineffective as City Adiminstrator- at best he was nothing more than a shadow lurking behind Zoom meetings, at worst he just was never there and completely unresponsive. In three years the city has gone through 2 administrators and nothing has been done, I feel sad for the city staff who have to continue to work through constant changes and ever mounting responsibilities, without effective Leadership from a good CAO. With his contract having not officially expired the City is probably legally required to pay him 6 months of benefits.
How many high paid City Administrators has Bishop gone through in recent years?? How much has this debacle cost tax payers when taking into consideration the head hunter fees and contract payoffs incurred? It’s ridiculous!
What’s the story? Fired?