Lead up to the SEDC Board Meeting in February of 2021
Leading up to the February 26th board meeting, the CEO expressed to me that she was afraid of how far Jeff would go if the board did not acquiesce to his request to dismiss her, and she expressed that her work environment was becoming very toxic, as she was aware that the City Manager and her Board Liaison were actively working to undermine her. I was aware that Jeff was already being dishonest and manipulative, and I was worried that if she was not dismissed that he may publicly defame her, which would have been devastating. Her job in Sachse was already in jeopardy, but if Jeff went to the council and made public comments derisive of her job performance it would jeopardize her entire career. Without the Mayor's support for a joint session, I did not feel like I could protect her from that outcome.
Shortly after the CEO had started working for the SEDC in 2014, she and I had met for lunch. I laid out what I and the board expected from her, and what she could expect from me. One of the things I told her was that I would protect her from political attacks, but I was failing her in that regard. The CEO deserved to be judged by the facts of her performance, not by the lies that Jeff was spreading, but with the Mayor and council refusing to intervene I was powerless to protect her from the lies Jeff and Gina were using to bias the council against her.
BoD Meeting on February 26th, 2001
At the board meeting, which was conducted virtually due to Covid, we had some usual business to attend to prior to Jeff’s agenda item. Gina was on the call when the meeting started, but when we went into Executive Session to discuss the CEO’s employment she dropped off without warning. She had never dropped from a meeting before, and that she did so unannounced was shocking. At the time, when I still didn't fully comprehend how she had been manipulating the council, I suspected that she didn't want to be put into a position where she had to back up Jeff's criticism of the CEO, but in hindsight I think she was worried about two issues. First, several boardmembers including myself had learned that she was talking about the CEO to the council behind our backs and she wouldn't have wanted to answer questions about that to the board. Second, I think she wanted to be able to tell the other councilmembers that she had no idea what had happened in the meeting. It became clear from later conversations with councilmembers that they were only told that the CEO had resigned, but not that she had been asked to resign in lieu of being fired, under pressure from Jeff. If Gina wasn't involved in that discussion then she wouldn't have to lie to cover for Jeff as she could just plead ignorance about what had transpired.
Jeff made his case to have the CEO removed. My assessment of his reasons for her dismissal was that they seemed to be pretextual and had little merit, and I know other board members found them lacking as well. I don’t recall every point he made, but a few of them were these:
- That the CEO should have been more involved in negotiations with PMB for the development on PGBT.
- That he thought the CEO should have taken more of a leadership role in building the Strategic Plan in the fall of 2021.
I pushed back a little on Jeff’s critique of the CEO, who had opted not to be on the call for this portion of the meeting, to make a point to the other directors of how absurd his attacks were. In the end, out of concern for the CEO's well-being, and wanting to avoid Jeff spreading lies against her publicly, I agreed to remove her. We brought her into the meeting and told her we would like to negotiate her resignation in exchange for a severance package.
We took a couple weeks to finalize the severance package and she signed her resignation in mid-March. Part of that severance package was a one-year moratorium on both sides speaking about the other party publicly. The CEO had asked for that clause because she was worried that Jeff, Gina, or Melinda (the city's HR director) may spread defamatory accusations to other potential employers. That was a sign of how bad things had gotten for her, and how much she feared their wrath.
Rebuttal of Jeff’s Criticisms
The City’s Control of the PMB Negotiations
The City Manager, Gina Nash, had taken control of the negotiations with PMB from the start. The board was told repeatedly that the city was driving the negotiations as they required participation from several city departments, and Gina and Jeff were present for those discussions. The board obviously knew of the importance of developing the land along the PGBT and wanted to be involved, but the city was running the show. The CEO had never made a decision to not be involved, she was just excluded by the city. Forcing her way into the negotiations would have been ridiculous and pointless.
SEDC’s Strategic Plan of 2020
For Jeff’s criticism that the CEO should have taken a larger role in creating the SEDC’s Strategic Plan in 2020, I need to provide some background.
The SEDC undertook the project of creating a "Strategic Plan" in June of 2020. The CEO had asked me, as president, how I thought we should build it. Some organizations would have the initiative be “staff-driven”, meaning the CEO would build the entire plan, some would use a “board-driven” method, meaning the board would build the plan at extensive planning sessions, and some would use a hybrid method, where the staff and board work together to build a plan.
I felt the hybrid plan would be best, as it would allow the board to have substantial say in the plan's construction, while also allowing the CEO to keep us on track setting realistic achievable goals. I suggested that the CEO should bring up the options to the board as I didn’t want to make the decision alone.
I think it was at the July meeting where we first discussed how we would build the plan, and the board agreed that the hybrid plan was preferable. It meant that the CEO would put together pieces over the month, and the board would review what she had assembled and brainstorm along with her at our meetings. It was an iterative approach that worked well for all of us.
As Board Liaison, Jeff was present when the board first discussed how we would build the strategic plan, in June of 2020. He was absent from the first two special meetings we held to work on the strategic plan, but he was present at several later meetings where we worked on the plan. He never criticized the approach that we had selected, and I don’t remember any input from him about the hybrid approach we had chosen. I also don’t recall any criticism of the plan from Jeff as we were building it, though he may have offered advice or opinions on pieces of it. As Board Liaison he typically took a “hands-off” approach unless he was asked a question, but he had every opportunity to speak up if he had concerns. I don't recall Jeff ever raising any issues to the CEO or me about the strategic plan, and none of the board members whom I have asked remember Jeff raising any concern during the process about the CEO’s performance of her duties on the Strategic Plan.
When the plan was complete, the CEO and the BoD presented the plan to the council. The CEO had asked the board to present it to the council along with her, as we had built it together. The council approved it unanimously, including Jeff. One councilmember has said that it was the first plan that he felt really good about.
Based on this history, it was beyond absurd that Jeff would criticize the CEO's role in the creation of the plan. She had done exactly as I and the board had asked, and we delivered a strategic plan which was very well received by the council.
Jeff's criticism of the CEO's role was a sign that he was grasping at straws. The board had just recently concluded the CEO's review in July of 2020, which had been a continuation of discussing the exit interview of Ben Walker (name changed), without complaint or criticism from Jeff or the City Manager. The most visible thing that the SEDC had done between that review and the February meeting where he was asking for her removal was the creation of the Strategic Plan, so if Jeff needed to point to something that had soured him on her, that was the obvious target. He couldn’t criticize the plan itself as he had voted to approve it, so he had to attack her role in its creation. He had backed himself into a corner, and was choosing the only target he could find to lash out at. He could only say that he thought she should have taken more leadership in the creation of the plan, but in fact she had done exactly what the board had asked and expected of her in working with the board in a hybrid-model. Even if he didn't like the model selected, the CEO was not the one who chose it. It was solely the board's decision to choose that model.
(As an aside here, I was only one of the seven board members who witnessed these events. If you don't want to take my word for what transpired please reach out to the other directors. I am confident that their recollections will closely match mine though they may have a better memory for the details.)