Commissioners Thank him for his time, cut him a final paycheck, and cut him loose ASAP
Here is one of his memos after being on the job for only 2 weeks.
To: San Mateo County Harbor Commission
From: Glenn Lazof, Interim General Manager
Date: May 19, 2015
On May 15, 2015, Commission President Sabrina Brennan informed me that if an item remained on the updated May 20 agenda, “she would make my live a living hell” she later added “and I will enjoy it”. I informed her that the appropriate course was to have the commission terminate my contract. She responded, “No I am not going to do it this way.” These statements were not meant as a threat, and I do not take them as such. It was a commitment to harass me, impugn my charactor, and interfere with my job performance, and I assume to attack me in my personal life as well. The objective is clear to me, to cause great enough hardship and stress that I resign, become ill, or accede to her demands on the most routine of subject matter.
The intention to inflict of injury to this contractor (and by extension District employees, and others) must be taken seriously. Further it confirms that at least in my case, and by extension others, these acts are deliberate, and aimed at shaping public policy in a manner inconsistent with the Brown Act, transparency, and good public policy. [1]
Our first concern is for the Health and Safety of our employees, contractors, and persons doing business with the District. I have been introduced to enough in these few days on site (3) to be convinced that the working environment created by Commissioner Brennan has possibly already harmed administrative staff, and immensely disrupted operations. President Brennan’s statement to me indicates that even worse, her actions, at least in some cases, are designed to cause injury, and that she derives pleasure from it, or at least wishes us to believe that she does. Therefore I have written a memo to all Staff directing that all professional contact with Commissioner Brennon cease, except at public meetings, or as expressly authorized by myself or a designee. (Attached)
I do not intend to resign. Nor will I will permit the Board President to injure me, or increase the liability risk to my employers, per the agreement between our two agencies. I am only aware of a few of the tools available to the President of the Commission to harass and create stress for an interim General Manager, but I expect to soon experience many others and will thoughtfully take precautions as these come about. First and foremost is to interfere with the performance of my job, in the shadows, and while increasing work demands in both public and private, followed by disparaging public comments. Another is voice or e-mail demands from one director, rather than policy direction and prioritization from a majority of commissioners. Another is over broad and excessive public records act requests from either the commissioner or associates.
Additionally there may be pressures created around noticing, agendizing, and providing information for special meetings of Committees or the Commission itself.
To protect my health and therefore permit me to assist this district until a majority of commissioners wishes to terminate my contract I intend to do the following:
I will eliminate to every possible extent, my contact with Commissioner Brennan, except at public meetings.
I will normally not attend special meetings called by Commissioner Brennan, and I advise other commissioners to do the same, as it can no longer be clear if the purpose is at least in part to injure me by forcing additional workload upon me (and the rest of our staff) with short notice. I will always attend meetings called by three or more commissioners, or at least ask for an excused absence when absolutely necessary.
I will shortly provide my short term plan for complying with Public Record requests while minimizing disruption to myself and others. This plan will improve our compliance, be more responsive, and pro-active in that we will steadily increase the availability of on line documents. It will come at a cost, but at least this will be a cost that can be planned for. To the extent, if any, that PRA requests are intended not only for information, but to disrupt operations, that type of request should taper off when they fail to disrupt. In any event providing public is a mandated cost, and we must to begin to resource it appropriately, as a routine matter.
These steps and others that I may employ to protect myself and others from injury may cause inconvenience. I believe they are far superior to the alternatives, and especially the current situation. Otherwise, I will do my best to limit my work hours to something close to normal full time, exercise, eat right, and enjoy my family time to arrive at work refreshed and ready.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
[1] The incident arose in a phone conversation limited to the two of us, when she ordered me to remove the Mavericks Item from the updated agenda for May 20. I believed the item was in the best interest of the district, had received no reasonable answer as to how delay would service the district, and importantly had (with the Commission President’s approval) contacted the Titans of Mavericks to request that the submit (or re-submit depending on your point view) the permit. Having received no argument for delay which outweighed the benefits of having the discussion, I persisted, resulting in the events described.
