Council ousts city's embattled manager.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

JUNCTION CITY - After she once again refused to resign, the City Council voted 4-1 to fire City Administrator Roberta "Bert" McClintock during an ugly and heated, standing-room-only meeting here Tuesday night, ending years of personal squabbles between the longtime city employee, councilors and residents.

Council members, saying it would be inappropriate, refused to say specifically why they were firing McClintock, a city employee since 1979 who was hired to manage the town in 1994. Their refusal infuriated many residents and employees loyal to her.

"What is the issue with the city administrator?" asked Mike Campbell, the city's youth sports coordinator, during the almost hourlong public comment portion of the meeting that preceded the council's vote. "I've been waiting years to hear that. Rumor and innuendo is no way to run city government."

The firing follows the Dec. 9 resignation of Mayor Jon Edwards, elected 13 months ago, who stepped down after McClintock refused his request to quit. Edwards said then that the inability of McClintock and the City Council to work together was again leading the city into chaos.

Judging by the 80 or so residents and city employees who packed the town's small council chamber Tuesday night, the issue has deeply divided this community of 4,700 that prides itself on close-knit families, its schools and the annual Scandinavian Festival.

Most who spoke did so in favor of McClintock, and Councilor Dave Brunscheon, who voted along with Councilors Dwight Coon, Barry Schweigert and Brenda Thomson to fire the city administrator, told the crowd he was disappointed that more of his constituents who had told him they wanted McClintock gone would not speak up.

"I've had a lot of people come to me and say Bert's not doing her job," Brunscheon said. "Amazingly, those people don't want to stand up and be counted tonight."

Councilor Ethan Nelson cast the lone vote to retain McClintock. Councilor Larry Crowley, who led the meeting, did not vote because he took over as interim mayor after Edwards resigned, and the mayor only votes to break a tie.

Crowley, Schweigert and Thomson were all part of a citizen's group that had been critical of McClintock before all three joined the council in the past year. Some city employees and residents feel their only agenda in getting elected was to get rid of McClintock, calling a recent investigation into an accident involving a city-owned recycling truck a "witch hunt."

"I feel used," an angry Jason Haddy told the council. Haddy was driving the truck in June when he damaged a fender by hitting a dirt pile. "You're using me to get rid of her. I think that was your agenda in the first place."

The council recently hired Lake Oswego labor attorney Kathy Peck at $190 an hour to interview city employees about improper policy procedures involving the accident and other City Hall ailments. And some city employees have talked of starting a union to protect themselves against what they feel is a capricious council.

McClintock was involved in a long-running dispute with former police Chief Mike Cahill, who resigned, that also divided the town. It took a mediation effort by U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan to sort out the mess that ended in March 2002 with a settlement that gave Cahill a year's salary and resulted in an agreement that neither he nor the city would sue each other.

No one would talk publicly about that dispute or its source, either, although it's believed to have sprouted from a city investigation of discrimination charges by a female former police officer, Chantal Thomas.

After her public ousting, a visibly upset McClintock thanked the city for "a wonderful career" of almost 25 years. "I'm extremely saddened that my journey has come to an end in this fashion," she said. "I truly believe that every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it, and I've tried to autograph my work with excellence."