TOWN OF BRATTLEBORO
Town Manager’s Office 230 Main Street Brattleboro, VT 05301
(802) 251–8151 FAX (802) 257–2322
PRESS RELEASE
TO: Local Media Date: May 20, 2022
From: Town Manager’s Office
*************************************************************************************
For Immediate Release:
Statement from Brattleboro Town Manager Yoshi Manale
I have submitted my resignation to the members of the Brattleboro Selectboard, and they have accepted it. My last day will be June 3rd.
Brattleboro is a beautiful town that I was excited to work in. People here are warm, friendly, gracious, and welcoming. There are fantastic recreational opportunities, great local food, and outstanding cultural offerings. And, of course, it is located in a beautiful setting of mountains, ponds, and rivers.
Until I took this position in Brattleboro, the smallest community I worked in was almost five times that of this town. The larger populations afforded me anonymity that I did not appreciate until now.
The town manager position is intended to be the administrative head of all the town departments, offering helpful, detailed information to the members of the Selectboard and executing their will for the best of the residents. In a small town like Brattleboro, I have quickly discovered that the prominence of this position creates drawbacks for me to fulfill the duties of the job most efficiently. I am not the right fit for this position.
I am leaving with a sad heart. After consulting with the Selectboard, I am sure that I have made the right decision to move on.
I wish the town of Brattleboro the best, and I thank the Selectboard, town staff, and the many welcoming community members and friends I have met for the opportunity to serve you all.
Wow
That was quick… about 140 days.
140 days can be converted to one of these units:
12,096,000 seconds
201,600 minutes
3,360 hours
140 days
20 weeks
38.36% of 2022
: )
Story behind the story?
https://www.facebook.com/100064369224866/posts/378772010945103/
The heart of Yoshi’s resignation is the following:
The town manager position is intended to be the administrative head of all the town
departments, offering helpful, detailed information to the members of the Selectboard and executing their will for the best of the residents. In a small town like Brattleboro, I have quickly discovered that the prominence of this position creates drawbacks for me to fulfill the duties of the job most efficiently. I am not the right fit for this position.
What could Brattleboro Town Manager Yoshi Manale be pointing to when he tells us that the prominence of Town Manager, created drawbacks for him, “to fulfill the duties of the job most efficiently?”
There is surely a story behind the story worthy of chronicling.
Advertising for his replacement
I think that Brattleboro should advertise for his replacement with a statement that salary negotiations for the position start at $0.
Seemed to be okay with them with Recuse Inc. Might as well continue the tradition.
Could there be a connection?
The short tenure of Yoshi Manale coincided with sacking Rescue. The previous town manager, to the best of my knowledge, never said anything even remotely hinting that firing Rescue was in the works, and the selectboard unanimously supported that action, somehow having reached this major decision with virtually no open discussion.
All of a sudden, “Here’s what we’re going to do too you, starting day after tomorrow.” Something very dysfunctional is happening with our town government. Selectboard member Tim Wessel has written an explanation of why he thinks getting rid of Rescue was a good decision, but with thundering silence he avoids any acknowledgement or justification for why this important decision was made behind closed doors.
Wessel is now a candidate for state senator. I cannot vote for a person whose idea of democracy is that to be elected means that the voters have empowered him to act on their behalf (behind closed doors outside of public scrutiny) with no accountability to we the people. In fact I am shocked at how clueless Tim Wessel seems to be as not to realize how deficient his explanations sound.
Not just Wessel, but former town manager Peter Elwell, and all of the selectboard members, owe the people of Brattleboro disclosure of how this behind-the-scenes- decision got cooked up. How did they avoid the Open Meeting Law?
While I am at it: Where is the 4th Estate?
The sackers will be sacked...
I find it doubtful that a new Town Manager would suddenly do something big right away without some sort of prompting from somewhere, or at the very least tacit approval and a nod to go ahead and do it. Maybe it was an original idea out of the blue that no one in town government had any idea of (that’s even hard to write without laughing) but….
Whether it was right or wrong to sever ties with Rescue is one issue, but the other bigger issue is the rollout of said decision. No consensus was built and most people were in the dark about this until it happened. Then “the Charter says the public doesn’t have any say” as a way to start off the first discussion added fuel to the fire. Then digging in and justifications of the decision makers. Ouch.
"The larger populations afforded me anonymity that I did not appreciate until now."
Took a job as _the_ executive of the BPD and expected
anonymity
yes not the right fit
More details on the interaction with Rescue Inc
The link below is to the BCTV recording of the Rescue Inc Special Town Consortium Meeting held on Thursday, May 19, 2022.
For those who might be unfamiliar or need a refresher, the introductory deals with the services provided by Rescue Inc. and some relevant background. At about 40 minutes, give or take, there begins a discussion of the timeline of interactions between the Town of Brattleboro and Rescue Inc.
This is the first time that this level of detail has been made public and is worth reviewing by anyone following this issue in the Town.
https://youtu.be/vQRHLFFodiQ
Thanks for the meeting note
A good assignment for an intrepid citizen journalist… write up that timeline and share it here for all to see! Might take an hour. Do it!
Kevin at VT Digger says...
“Manale will leave with a lump-sum $60,000 severance payment representing six months of wages, as well as 12 weeks of continuation of health coverage benefits, $3,565 in accrued time off, up to $6,000 in moving expenses and a letter of recommendation, the agreement states.
Manale also will “not knowingly make any statements to any third parties which might reasonably be construed to disparage Brattleboro or harm its reputation,” the document says. In turn, municipal staffers and the selectboard won’t publicly denigrate the outgoing town manager….”
https://vtdigger.org/2022/05/24/brattleboro-town-manager-resigning-after-5-months-to-receive-almost-a-years-pay/
And
as Kevin expertly points out, this compensation, plus the EMS study, the new contract with Golden Cross…
…it almost equals the “savings” this year by the selectboard dropping Rescue.