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Dear Clayton Community:
Below are the historical facts that everyone is missing.
• Gary Napper retired in 2019. He had been our city manager for a very long time.
• The 16-year incumbent who was defeated in the election of 2018 is the one who started this nonsense that staff would leave if Jeff Wan was elected. Suddenly we get a city manager who reached retirement age and it’s somehow Jeff Wan’s fault.
• Interim Joe Sbranti was hired. He was retired from Pitsburg and therefore could NOT be hired as permanent and was also limited as to how long he could work for the city.
• Ikani Taumeepeu was then hired as a permanent city manager led by 28-year incumbent Julie Pierce. If you want to know why he didn’t last, you should ask Julie Pierce. All we know is he was allowed to resign and it cost the city $100k. But somehow that is Jeff Wan’s fault.
• The city then hired Interim Fran Robustelli who was eligible to be hired as a permanent and was by many accounts a good city manager. But 28-year incumbent Julie Pierce who was on her way out had to have her hands in everything and pushed to hire a permanent city manager before the new council was sworn in in late 2020.
• Fran was passed over and Reina Schwartz was hired. Again Tamara and her friends like Mr. Kiloran say that’s Jeff’s fault too.
• Reina Schwartz resigned right before the election in 2022 to care for a family member. You can see on her LinkedIn profile she was out of work for about a year. Again somehow that is Jeff’s fault.
• The city then hired Ron Bernal, who was retired and therefore limited as to how long he could work and could not be a permanent hire. Bernal is also a very good city manager and it was too bad we couldn’t keep him.
• And then we get to Mr. Bret Prebula. The mystery to me is that the people screaming the most for investigations all seem to have the same political stripes. That’s our history. How is it all Jeff’s fault?
The people who hate Jeff have hated him since the day he stepped up to run. And the most un-American thing I can think of is for one political group to call for the arrest trial and conviction of their opponents.
Sincerely,
Concerned Citizen
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