The Sealy City Council elected to terminate the city managers contract “effective immediately” at last weeks city council meeting. The process began 2 weeks ago with a special meeting being called on May 15th that consisted predominantly of nothing but the city council meeting in executive session. You can view that meeting below:
During the executive session, certain employees were called in to speak and, it is assumed, to answer questions from the council. The result of the meeting ended in no action being taken by the council.
Last weeks meeting began with tension during the “Petition(s) and/or Request(s) from the Public” section of the meeting. Diane Wuthridge took to the podium and spoke to council about “concern from reports of some things that happened after the meeting last week”. She stated that she wanted the reports brought to light because they “exemplified the unorthodox approach that our manager uses to handle the budget, the city employees, and the stress of the job that seems to be difficult for him to fill.”
City Manager, Larry Kuciemba, then interrupted Wutheridge to point out to the mayor that comments were not to be made to or at individuals. He went on to state that he felt that her comments, that were made the previous week at the special meeting, were slanderous and he cautioned her that if her comments were slanderous at this meeting that she would be libel for that. Several more comments were made between Wutheridge, Kuciemba, as well as the mayor before the city attorney broke in to clarify that Wutheridge needed to be cautious on how she framed her statements and to not aim them at the city manager. The exchange can be viewed in the video below.
The city council meeting then continued normally and finally recessed for executive session. When the council reconvened the the mayor asked for action on items disccussed in executive session. Councilperson Sandra Vrablec put forth the motion to terminate the city manager’s contract effective immediately and Councilperson Dee Anne Lerma seconded the motion. The council then voted 5-1 to terminate the city managers contract with Councilperson Larry Koy being the only “Nay” vote. You can view the vote in the video below:
The council then voted to adjourn. With the City of Sealy not having a deputy city manager the position will remain vacant until an interim city manager can be appointed.