Nice career move for Mr. Quirion for sure, congrats to him. The pension issue is to be expected but a factor nonetheless. Eventually all municipalities will need to get real on the huge burden the unfunded pension liabilities are on our kids. At that point MP and SJ will look normal. Until then, the cities that deal with the problem earliest will have hiring issues. A necessary, albeit unfortunate, trade off.

At least, at the Senior Management level, no big loss with Starla, Assistant City Manager, gone. After-all, Alex did hire an Assistant to the City Manager as well. Such a small city with such top heavy senior management.

Unfortunately The City Manager has said he would replace Starla--making sure that city management in our city contunes it's very top-heavy ways.

Why don't we just get rid of the City Manager, and let the city run with an Assistant CM and an Assistant to the CM. Too bad the council has no guts. Why don't they ask how Alex got the headcount for the Assistant to the City Manager.

Is this just a coincidence of young folks finding growth opportunities or is this a case of rats departing a sinking ship?
A good manager can motivate employees, and doesn't rely on salary levels as the only way to attract and retain people.

How about some investigative reporting?

From the inside the real story is the city manager is a joke. He has no business being the city manager in our beautiful city. 3rd top level exec in a week. Let's have a special council meeting and remove this jokester.

As far as investigative reporting goes - start with how much money has been wasted on consultants because the city manager isn't capabable of making the simplest of decisions. It's in excess of 500k and growing.

Also, look at staff surveys of his performance and working for the city. He should have been let go based on those results alone.

We are fortunate to have Alex. Finding and hiring top talent like Drew and Jesse is the most difficult job in the world. Retaining such talented people can be an impossible task in such a hot job market.

Alex knows what a normal city needs. He is moving the City of Menlo Park where it needs to be. Transparency and openness are key to the city's success!

McIntyre sounds like a union shill when he whines that pension benefits aren't generous enough. He should be on the side of taxpayers. It makes me wonder if he is advocating for the unions behind closed doors. We've got to get rid of him ASAP.

Jesse - Thank you. You have served the city well.

Jesse Quirion has done a fantastic job and it's a real loss to Menlo Park. He'll be missed but I wish him the best of success in his new job.

Given the ridiculously high cost of housing around here, it shouldn't come as a surprise that people might look at real estate values elsewhere and decide to move.

Those who have commented thus far, really have missed the big point. It is apparent that City Manager McIntyre is not a pleasant guy to work under. Not only are plenty of staff leaving, he has had disputes with Council Member Mueller, who was the only council person to have the guts to vote to fire him.

The City should be sued for McIntryre's refusal to deliver on documents requested in Public Record Acts requests. There is absolutely no doubt he violated the law, when he hired Malcolm Smith, with the objective of defeating Measure M.

It really is time for Menlo Park residents to wake up. Has Menlo Park turned turned into having a corrupt goverment, along the lines of Belle CA?

Anyone who have ever met Alex knows that he is very pleasant. More likely, senior staff don't want to stick around to get promoted, if it eventually puts then in line to be city manager. Alex has a very difficult job, Menlo Park can be a rough town.

We have never observed McIntrye in a dispute with Mueller. There was meeting where Mueller called Ohtaki and McIntrye tricky and possibly dishonest, but Mueller later apologized. Also, there has certainly never been a vote to fire McIntrye. Mueller did choose to make a protest vote, where he was clearly going to have no impact on the outcome, but he actually abstained. This was the contract the rest of council had agreed to in closed session. You could say that Mueller was ineffective at getting the contract he wanted, and abstained.

Finally, McIntrye is not a dictator. The city attorney if charged with releasing relevant documents for FOIA requests. It is not appropriate for city to sue the city manager because the city attorney is not able to produce documents that don't exist. If anyone can produce a document that was relevant but was withheld, please take your smoking gun to the DA.

Mueller definitely voted no on McIntyre's contract. But Mueller has never called anyone names like tricky or dishonest, nor has he been witnessed is a dispute with McIntyre. He once described a budgetary tactic as a trick to be avoided, and later apologized to Ohtaki when Ohtaki expressed offense.

This Almanac article below clearly sets forth the facts surrounding McIntyre's contract renewal.

Web Link

User "Don't sling Mud" wrote that Mueller "described a budgetary tactic as a trick to be avoided."

Drew Corbett's last trick is to avoid working for the City of Menlo Park.

That's pretty unfair to Mr. Corbett to use snarky juxtaposition to put words and motives in his mouth. It's also factually incorrect.
Mr. Corbett neither proposed nor had anything to do with the budgetary tactic being discussed by Mueller and Ohtaki.
All the Councilmembers had nothing but praise for Mr. Corbett during the City Bidget hearings.

Mr. Corbett has indicated he enjoyed his time in Menlo Park and is leaving for more money and a bigger City.

The City Manager has said it a coincidence he is losing three members of his executive team at the same time.