Zoom audio problems result in early adjournment of Tuesday meeting
by E.E. Mullens
WALSENBURG — David Harriman, Walsenburg’s Director of Public Works and one of the longest serving city employees, resigned from the city in a letter to interim city administrator Greg Sund late last week.
“I have worked for the City of Walsenburg over twenty-five years and unfortunately find it is time to part ways due to conflicting views with some members of the City Council,” Harriman said in his resignation letter dated Friday, August 21, 2020. “It has been a pleasure working with the entire Public Works Team and I greatly appreciate all their support in all the major accomplishments we have achieved for the City of Walsenburg over the years,” Harriman wrote.
Neither administration or city elected leaders mentioned Harriman’s resignation in a shortened Zoom meeting plagued by audio problems Tuesday night, but Sund did confirm the resignation on Wednesday morning and the city did make available a copy of Harriman’s resignation letter to the World Journal.
Harriman was contacted for further comment on his resignation, but had not responded by press deadline.
In the shortened special meeting Tuesday, the full seven member city council voted unanimously to approve and ratify Mayor Brian Lalander’s signature regarding an amendment to administrator’s David Stahl’s employment agreement. In effect the amendment confirms Stahl had not received a six month performance evaluation from city council as he ended up working in the position for only 45 days before a traffic accident effectively ended his ability to continue in the job.
The city council has continued to negotiate a resolution to the situation as Stahl remains the official city administrator, but has not performed the duties of the position since October 4, 2019. Stahl entered into his employment agreement with the city on August 20, 2019. Midweek, Mayor Lalander said he hopes the situation will be resolved sometime next month but gave no further details. It is not expected Stahl will ever return to work for the city.
Council voted to go into executive session at 6:21 p.m. Tuesday to discuss personnel issues and returned to the regular session at approximately 6:48 p.m. with no comment or vote resulting from the closed door session. It appears the executive session was a continuation of discussions held in public in the opening minutes of the meeting concerning the council evaluation of interim administrator Sund’s performance, according to Sund in a telephone conversation with the WJ Wednesday morning.
With the public barred from city council chambers Tuesday night due to the necessity of council members meeting there in person for the executive session, Mayor Pro Tem Greg Daniels called for an adjournment of the special meeting a 7:17 p.m. after repeated complaints that Zoom meeting attendees from the public and news media could not hear council discussions clearly. Councilman James Hudgens was the only official who attended the meeting via the Zoom video conference hook up. The vote to adjourn the meeting early passed unanimously.
The council had been attempting to discuss problematic staffing and budget issues including the municipality’s organizational structure, department staffing, job descriptions and qualifications, employee evaluations, the city’s hiring practices and employee compensation issues.
Staffing hurdles and budget limitations were the theme of the meeting although discussions were cut short due to the audio quality issue.
Sund told the WJ Wednesday morning that he expected these discussions to be back on the city council agenda for their next regular meeting Tuesday, September 1, 2020.
