City manager could be fired at Tuesday meeting

The Colusa City Council is expected to fire City Manager Jan McClintock at Tuesday's meeting.

But the embattled McClintock is going to have her say.

She has requested the matter be placed on the public agenda, rather than having it heard in closed session, which will precede the regular meeting at 7 p.m.

The council, on a 4-1 vote on July 19, adopted a resolution stating its intent to terminate McClintock's contract. Councilwoman Donna Critchfield dissented.

The vote came without any comment, and the council has been particularly quiet in the interim — as has McClintock, who was placed on paid administrative leave on July 17.

Three weeks earlier, McClintock offered to retire.

"This letter is to advise the City Council of my intent to retire from the City Manager position at the City of Colusa effective December 31st, 2012," states the letter to the council. It was dated June 28.

She offered to leave earlier, but no later than Nov. 7, if a new city manager or other management structure was in place.

At that time, she also sent a private letter to Mayor Pat Landreth, and it is that letter that may give some clues to what could be discussed Tuesday.

The letter discusses conflicts between some council members about discipline actions she has taken with at least one employee, and issues with a couple of downtown businesses, and the reasons behind the shift from Old Tyme Christmas to Hometown Christmas.

McClintock defended her own actions, and urged Landreth to review the issues independently.

Landreth has indicated his own frustration with a situation that has left the city in a kind of "limbo," but at the time of the statement, said no decision about McClintock's future had been made.

"It seems we are in a kind of limbo because there are city residents out there making speculations, and city employees making speculations, and we need to get out of that ..." Landreth said.

And, in fact, McClintock expressed in her letter what appears to be some surprise at the direction toward the possible termination of her contract.

She indicated she thought the council's intent was "to do a review and then work with me on whatever issues you felt existed," and added that "everything I did was done with a majority vote by the City Council."

Fire Chief Randy Dunn is serving as interim city manager in what has been a kind of revolving door of administrators at the helm of the city since the early 1990s.

The council is scheduled to address some kind of compensation package with Dunn at Tuesday's meeting as well.