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After enjoying a standing ovation Monday night in honor of his 29 years with the City of Palo Alto, departing Community Services Director Richard James spoke out in defense of recently fired Children’s Theatre Director Pat Briggs.
“The fault lies in the traditions and processes set in place more than three decades ago and continued through institutional momentum,” James said in a surprise twist to usually predictable retirement comments.
“I believe these are not the faults of one woman and they are certainly not the faults of criminal minds.”
He called for city leaders “to understand, to do what’s right and to help mend this community.”
Most of his 29 years with the city were quite pleasurable, but the last six months have been rough, he said.
“The personal and organizational damage that has been done I think is far-reaching and lasting,” James said.
He also thanked the Palo Alto community and his colleagues.
“My years have been very enlightened with meeting great, great people from the past and from the present,” James said. “I carry so many memories.”
James was the first of a series of speakers to plead with the City Council to reinstate Briggs — terminated June 30 after 47 years.
Monday night’s testimonies continued a vigil of sorts that began in January, when the police investigation became public and four theater staff members were placed on paid administrative leave.
Again, the council heard from a chain of community members, spanning generations, that Briggs had been a life-changing role model careful to abide by city policies — 23 people spoke in support of Briggs Monday night.
“Someone has it in their power to halt this. It is way past time to use it,” theater supporter Kathleen Walkup said.
“I’m here to speak about what I feel is a miscarriage of justice,” Bonnie Bernstein said. “These are two honest citizens who deserve to keep their jobs.”
Former Program Assistant Richard Curtis was also recently terminated for breaking a condition of the administrative leave when he used his computer and tried to print out records he said related to defending his performance.
Rather than firing Briggs, instead name her “director emeritus,” Alpha Crews said.
Leif Erickson — executive director of the nonprofit Youth Community Service, son of founding members of the Friends of the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre (and husband of former auditor Sharon Erickson) — said this incident could compound the skepticism and mistrust of government found in young people.
“I believe this decision will be overcome and reversed,” he said.
It’s time that Richard James and Leon Kaplan be added to probe. How these two guys could have overlooked this mess for so long needs to be investigated and documented.
I question the propriety of doing/saying this. We have processes in place, including police investigations, etc. that ought to go forward unhindered by special interests. Whether you “know” or “like” someone is irrelevant.
Palo Alto is investigation ridden. The first response of the City Attorney’s Office and Human Resources Department is a formal, costly investigation. No wisdom, no judgement, just legal overkill wherever possible.
> Leif Erickson — executive director of the nonprofit
> Youth Community Service, son of founding members of
> the Friends of the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
> (and husband of former auditor Sharon Erickson)
Astounding .. now we find out that the former City Auditor is linked by marriage to the “insiders” of the Children’s Theater crowd ..
No wonder she was blind to what was going on there ..
It’s been weeks that this matter has been in the public eye .. and just now we’re finding out about this linkage between a high City Official and this mess at the Children’s Theater.
So Richard James thinks “The fault lies in the traditions and processes set in place more than three decades ago and continued through institutional momentum.”
James had 29 years to fix these “traditions and processes.” Now he urges the city to “do what’s right.”
What exactly is “right” after this long fiasco in which Briggs, Litfin, Curtis and our police department have been dragged through the mud? At this point, everyone – including council members Morton and Klein – looks guilty of something.
Although Briggs was obviously careless with money, it would have been less traumatic for her and her many admirers to let her retire. Her managers are as much to blame for the financial mess as she is.
Leif Erickson said “this incident could compound the skepticism and mistrust of government found in young people.”
Nonsense! How can government be trusted if it doesn’t hold people accountable? Young people will be best served by learning there are consequences to bad behavior. Briggs mismanaged public funds. Kids need to learn that when you have a job and you fail in an important aspect of it, you are not nominated for sainthood.
Taxpayers will be best served by having the council find out why we’ve had such sloppy financial “institutional momentum” for 30 years.
With a new city manager, now is the time to guarantee that the right policies and procedures are in place – and are being followed.
City of Palo Alto is ONE HAPPY FAMILY. Everyone looking out for each other.
To hell with laws, rules regulations. Who cares !
Oh heck the Auditor did’nt care, two city council members had their fingers stuck in the cookie jar.
The facts are that no one administrator can be blamed. The City had sloppy policies. The Council admitted this Monday night when, after decades, they finally asked that an auditor put something in place. It wasn’t just Briggs, but many depts. in the City who constantly went nuts because City policies weren’t clear. Supervisors did the best they could with what they had. James didn’t speak out when he was employed because he probably would have had his head chopped off. It’s too bad he waited, but it is understandable .
The Council had other priorities through the years. The accounting problems were just that–accounting problems. But rather than looking at their own sloppy administration, and rather than really checking out facts about what the police found, management let an investigation go forward that did NOT include an investigation of themselves–easier to blame one or two people in a sub-dept. The whole city administration is guilty as are the city councils of the past 20 or 30 years. The police had reason to ask questions about what they found. But they didn’t look in the right place for answers.