My assessment of Mike’s Actions
Like my phone call with Brett discussed in the earlier blog post, I don’t feel like Mike was intentionally covering for Jeff initially.
When he had asked to talk to me in January of 2022, he didn’t seem to be calling to “cover up” what Jeff had done. If that had been his intention then he had done a worse job of it than Brett had. Mike had told me that Jeff had no basis to say the council wanted Leslyn removed, and had recounted to me what I knew to be baseless concerns about Leslyn. If he wanted to cover for Jeff, he could have easily told me that Jeff’s statement had been warranted and left it at that. But he was clearly calling to find out if I was going to be making allegations against Jeff when Jeff ran for mayor, and he clearly was opposed to the very idea that Jeff should be held accountable for his misconduct.
To me, it was clear that Mike, like Brett, had been heavily manipulated into believing that Jeff had done nothing wrong, and that there were problems within the SEDC which Mike should have been concerned about but which Jeff was handling appropriately. And once Mike and Brett made up their minds that Jeff was doing nothing wrong, they refused to even investigate the matter. They stuck their heads in the sand and ignored all of the red flags which I and the other directors were trying to bring to their attention. They both stated that they knew these issues were not mine alone, as they themselves had stated they had heard concerns from other directors.
Mike should have known that he had an obligation to call me a year prior when I had asked him to. He should have realized that all I was asking for was communication, and he had shut that down improperly. As I said earlier, the SEDC, its Board of Directors, and its CEO were in the midst of a crisis, created by Jeff Bickerstaff, and the council was ignoring our cries for help.
They should have read my email in mid-March, after the CEO resigned, and realized that something was going on with the relationship between the Board Liaison and the BoD, and they should have supported Frank’s motion for a joint meeting to have a discussion about the issues.
Instead, at every opportunity they had blocked communication, and they left the BoD with a dishonest Board Liaison for almost a year, while giving Jeff exactly what he wanted.
But now, in 2022, Mike had a choice. I had tried to open his eyes by providing written documentation showing that the concerns which had been implanted in his mind by others were simply not true. I knew it would be an uphill battle. It had taken me a long time to realize for myself how much manipulation had gone on, and what the truth was behind the issues, but I had to hope that Mike would see the truth and would finally realize that Jeff did indeed need to be held accountable for his actions, which had been unwarranted, dishonest, and unethical.
Like the choice Brett faced, he was either going to demand integrity and accountability, or he was going to do nothing and let the dishonesty go unchecked. His refusal to respond to my emails regarding this matter (and his actions that followed) shows which path he chose.