Email to Jeff Bickerstaff, February 23rd, 2022
A few days after I filed for office, I reached out to Jeff. I very much did not want to have to go public with what Jeff had done. Even though I knew Jeff had horribly manipulated the board and the council, and that his actions to get the CEO removed had been completely unethical and dishonest, I did not feel like I needed to publicly expose his misconduct, but I just couldn’t let him ascend to an even higher position knowing that he had abused his previous position and lied to get what he wanted.
I knew there was a slim chance that he would see reason, but I felt I had to give him a chance. I had to give him a chance so that if his reputation took a hit, at least it would be because he had made a conscious decision to go down that path.
So I sent him the email which you can read below.
He called me that evening to ask why I would send that email, and I said because his actions had been unethical, or something to that effect. He said that he would not be dropping out, and that he would respond to any accusation I made about him. That seemed like an odd thing to say, as I would expect any candidate to respond when somebody accuses them of unethical conduct while in office.
I think it is important to note that in my email I hadn’t called out exactly what Jeff had done, just that he had been dishonest and taken unethical actions. I didn’t have to be specific, as we both knew what he had done. I feel Jeff confirmed that he knew what he had done from our phone call that evening, as he hadn’t asked me what I thought he had done, or what lies I thought he had told. He had simply said that he disputed that he had done anything wrong in a blanket denial. If he really believed he was innocent, wouldn’t he have asked me what I thought he had done? Wouldn’t he want some detail of what my accusation would be, so that he could be prepared to refute it? He didn’t have to ask because he knew what he had done.
Even if you’ve previously read my email to Jeff from February 23rd, 2022 before, please read it the end of this post.
Read it knowing that I had a recording of the phone call where he told me directly that the council wanted the CEO removed.
Read it knowing that Brett Franks, while calling me to make sure I could “move on”, acknowledged that other board members were telling him the same things I was telling him, and that Jeff’s story didn’t match up, but that he was fully opposed to investigating the matter.
Read it knowing that Mike Felix had acknowledged in our January phone call that Jeff had no basis for saying that the council wanted the CEO removed, yet he questioned who I was to want to have Jeff held accountable.
Read it knowing that Mike Felix knew no facts about the EDC, yet he had “concerns” about the CEO, which were completely unfounded and unfair (which I’ll get back to shortly), because somebody had planted those concerns in his head, using vague accusations to manipulate him into believing there was a problem.
Read it knowing that Mike Felix, despite saying that he had “concerns” a year prior, had refused to call me when I asked him to, when we could have addressed those concerns in an open transparent conversation.
If you read it knowing those things, you’ll see that I and other board members had repeatedly told councilmembers (or tried to tell them anyway) how dishonest Jeff had been, yet they repeatedly stonewalled our efforts, preventing meetings, shutting down conversations, and refusing to hold Jeff accountable, or even to investigate or discuss the matter publicly.
I had been patient for over a year, but I was frustrated that the city council, which I had faithfully served for almost 17 years, was allowing Jeff’s unethical actions to go unchecked, preventing an open dialogue of the problem, and even giving him exactly what he wanted.