The Manhattan Beach City Council Tuesday voted unanimously to fire city attorney Robert Wadden a week after he was placed on administrative leave.
The 4-0 vote to terminate Wadden’s contract was announced at the end of a three-hour special closed session council meeting held to evaluate his performance, the final of four such meetings held since an anonymous letter addressed to Wadden and accusing former Manhattan Beach city manager Geoff Dolan of sexual harassment was made public two weeks ago. Councilmember Nick Tell was not present at the meeting.
At its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night, the council voted 4-0, with Tell absent, to appoint Leland Dolley as the city’s interim attorney.
“I hold [Dolley] in the highest regard and I recommend him highly…He is doing this as a favor to us to help us through this transition,” said city manager Dave Carmany, who said he has known Dolley personally and professionally for 30 years.
Pursuant to Wadden’s employment agreement, he will receive no severance pay and the city will not enter into a separation agreement with him, officials said.
The city would not comment directly on why Wadden was fired.
“All employees have privacy rights and I can’t comment more on personnel [matters],” said attorney Christi Hogin, who was retained by the city last month as outside legal counsel.
Wadden’s termination came nearly 14 months after Dolan’s highly-publicized and secretive departure, which left many residents questioning the legitimacy of his $195,000 severance pay and additional $75,000 in accrued vacation time.
Citing legal advice from Wadden, the council had repeatedly declined to discuss the reason for Dolan’s departure, until the settlement of a lawsuit filed by watchdog group Californians Aware last month.
Californians Aware director Richard McKee filed the lawsuit against the city last April, claiming it did not provided proper public notice for a December 2009 closed session council meeting at which Dolan’s departure was decided. McKee also said the city, and Wadden in particular, continually denied his requests to see documents he said should be public, such as Dolan’s separation agreement and the anonymous letter, which accused the former city manager of “inappropriately touching” another city employee on a team-building retreat.
“In retrospect, we were given legal advice previously that was based on concern for Mr. Dolan’s privacy to the detriment of the community’s legitimate interest in knowing why we, as a Council, made that decision,” reads a statement signed and released by council members last month. “We hope that you will forgive us for relying on legal advice that resulted in our silence.”
Wadden, who started working for the city in 1996, could not immediately be reached for comment. His last employment agreement, restated in 2006, shows that his annual salary, including car allowance, was $180,000, along with other benefits.
According to the terms of his contract, he would have been eligible for severance pay only in the event of his involuntary separation from the city, with the exception of termination for cause, inability to perform duties or the conviction of an illegal act.
Dolley grew up in Manhattan Beach and has served as a city attorney for the cities of Lomita, El Segundo and Alhambra for 53 years, collectively. He will be paid $195 an hour for work assigned by the council, according to his contract. which can be terminated by him or the city with 24-hour written notice.
Last Thursday, Carmany sent out a request for proposals (RFP) for a permanent city attorney, the deadline for which is April 15.
One of the top priorities listed in the RFP is the selection of an attorney interested in “doing the right things and also doing things right.”
“We’ve got a tremendous opportunity here,” said resident Gerry O’Connor, who called for more community involvement in the recruitment of a new city attorney. “Let’s please make this a public process — a better public process than with the [search for a] city manager.” ER
