AZCentral.com has a poll on the handling of Mark Pentz's employment by the Chandler City Council. You can cast your vote here (the poll is in the lefthand sidebar).
April 13, 2006
Recall Effort Brewing Around Sepulveda and Orlando
Edythe Jensen has a new article at AZCentral.com describing the fledgling effort to recall Councilmen Sepulveda and Orlando:
2 groups weighing recall of councilmen
2 pushed ouster of city manager
Edythe Jensen
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 13, 2006 12:00 AMTwo resident groups have taken the first steps to recall councilmen Matt Orlando and Martin Sepulveda for their roles in ousting City Manager Mark Pentz.
"This is very preliminary," said Ray Pilara, a computer analyst who is organizing one group that created a Web site on Wednesday: www.chandleraz.biz. "We don't want to waste taxpayer money on a recall if we don't have sufficient backing from the electorate."
City Clerk Marla Paddock said no one has taken out recall petitions, but two individuals picked up information packets during the past week. She identified the second as Ray Metcalf. Efforts to contact Metcalf were unsuccessful; however, Pilara said he is aware of other recall groups and is working to organize them into one.
The link in the article isn't working as of right now. The recall website can be found here.
Response from Becky Jackson
Becky Jackson's response to the Amazing Jake's inquiry regarding the Mark Pentz performance appraisal and subsequent separation agreement can be found here.
Email Becky Jackson at becky@jackson4council.com.
Response from Trinity Donovan
The Amazing Jake posted Jeff Weninger's response yesterday to the City Manager controversy here.
I received Trinity Donovan's response to my inquirty this morning. Following is the text of her response exactly as she sent it:
Jake,
I appreciate your email.
I attended the 11 hour session where the decision was made. I have talked to individuals passionate about this issue. I read emails and other public records regarding Mark Pentz. I reviewed the evaluations others gave him and the evaluation summary he created for himself. From what I know regarding this case, I personally did not find an overwhelming set of circumstances that would give cause for the city to dismiss Mark Pentz. What I did find was an apparent breakdown of communication between a group of bosses and their employee. I support evaluating our city manager, but the evaluation process needs to be improved.
As a former CEO and current Vice President, I have had many years of experience evaluating employees. A review is not the time to bring up new information about an employee's performance. There should be communication throughout the year, with written documentation if necessary. Then, the review serves to sum up the year, documenting the achievement of previously agreed upon goals as well as the expectations for improvement and progress on expectations from the past review.
Thank you,
Trinity
Candidate Donovan brings up an excellent point that I had overlooked in my outrage over this travesty. An annual appraisal IS NOT the time to bring up new information, but should be a summary of feedback already given over the course of the year. There should be no surprises in an annual review.
