VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA’S LARGEST BANKRUPT CITY EVER, has decided to change the table settings by firing their city manager Joe Tanner. The city is working out the details of his severence package with the goal of being able to vote on it in next Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Tanner is the city’s seventh manager in the past four years. That’s a lot of severence payoffs to handle for a city that’s broke. He has held the post for 2-½ years, logging in some seniority, and was at the helm nearly a year ago when the city filed bankruptcy. Tanner has consistently argued that the police officers and firefighters were overpaid and the budget suffered for it. Tanner, who earns $341,000 yr., offered to take a 10% pay cut himself, but he never implemented it.
The city closed two of its eight fire stations and is considering closing two more. ISO has said that half of the city is likely to have its rating down graded from Class 3 to 10. The police are unable to get their cars repaired and don’t have enough ammunition for training. And yet the council is proposing to sell more junk bonds to purchase the city post office building and lot to build a multi-story parking garage.
Last August the AP reported: About 20% of the police officers have left the force in the past year and another 15% are actively looking to leave as soon as they can. And the word is getting around among the criminal element. Robberies and burglaries are soaring and many citizens don’t even call the police anymore because they often don’t even show up.
IAFF Local president Kurt Henke said he would wasn’t surprised at Tanner’s ouster. “We’re ambivalent, at best,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, Mickey Mouse would run this city just fine.”
Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has the latest details on this new chapter HERE.
Read the Firegeezer report on last year’s bankruptcy filing HERE.
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