The two complaints about Port Townsend City Manager John Mauro have come to a standstill for now as the complainant, former mayor Brent Shirley, has yet to bring forward evidence to support his allegations, according to Port Townsend Mayor David Faber.

Shirley sent a letter to city council on May 6, alleging Mauro embellished his professional credentials to obtain the position and now engages in conduct that has driven away employees and created a hostile work environment for city employees and council members. Shirley alleges that Mauro’s conduct has also been directed at Port Townsend citizens.

“Brent has not provided more information,” Faber said. “His letter is entirely vague and has no specifics. We are waiting to hear something from him to substantiate these claims. This is salacious rumor, that’s all this is at this point, until it’s justified.” And until then, Faber said, city council will not move forward with Shirley’s request for an investigation.

Separately, Mauro acknowledged for the first time that his credentials may have been embellished, including an overall number that combined individual budgets, which suggested greater responsibility. However, that was done by the headhunting firm hired by the city to find a new manager. “I’m told by those in attendance that the consultant put together a one-page summary of my resume for a community event in June 2019 that was part of the interview process — and that summary was not vetted by me,” Mauro said.

Peckham and McKenney, a Roseville, California, executive search firm that specializes in local government agencies, was hired to fill the vacancy. Tony Dahlerbruch, chief executive officer of the consultancy, referred questions back to Port Townsend. “All the information from the recruitment process was provided to City at the time of the search,” he wrote in a July 1 email response to questions.

In the city’s initial response to Shirley’s complaint, city attorney Alexandra Kenyon of Kenyon Disend, PLLC, sent Shirley’s letter to Phil Olbrechts, the city’s hearing examiner. In an email exchange, Olbrechts asked Shirley for clarification on whether his request should be construed as an ethics complaint. Shirley responded, telling Olbrechts that he did not want his complaint, or investigation request, to be pursued or construed as an ethics issue because it ensured it would be kept in-house. 

Instead, Shirley said he wants city council to consider his complaint as though he were a city employee lodging a complaint against a co-worker or manager, and that council follow procedures for such as outlined in the city’s personnel policy manual.

“Experiences of too many past and current employees, public officials and citizens demand a complete investigation of the alleged behaviors,” Shirley wrote to the council. “I request that council appoint an independent investigator to this matter, meet with me and others to begin their investigation, at which time, under a pledge of confidentiality, evidence can be provided to the investigator that will provide more details to substantiate the grounds for this complaint.”

In an interview June 28, Shirley said he has spoken to about 12 individuals who have first-hand experiences with Mauro, yet none of them are willing to go on the record. Shirley said they remain too intimidated to speak without a guarantee of confidentiality, the reason he believes and outside investigation is needed.

“People are afraid,” Shirley said. “Everyone’s intimidated, including me.”

An open records request filed by Shirley yielded city council’s evaluation of Mauro dated June 16, 2023. In that evaluation, council members cautioned Mauro on his temper and tact. However, the same evaluation showed city council members scored Mauro’s overall management with a 4.405 out of a score of five.

Prior to becoming Port Townsend’s city manager, Mauro served as the chief sustainability officer for the city of Auckland, New Zealand. During the summer of 2019, Mauro interviewed for the Port Townsend city manager’s position and the council ultimately selected Mauro in July.

On June 21, 2019, in a story about Mauro’s selection to the manager’s post, the Peninsula Daily News reported that Mauro was directly responsible for 20 employees and a budget of $211 million. This reporting, Shirley said, fueled his allegation that Mauro had embellished his credentials to earn the city manager’s position.

Faber said the reporting, which appeared in Peninsula Daily News (PDN), wasn’t accurate. “John prepared a lengthy resume. I saw it and the recruiting firm saw it, but that resume was not provided to city council.”

Faber explained that Peckham and McKenney gathered, condensed and amalgamated Mauro’s resume and professional experience for council, and in that process, Mauro’s Auckland departmental budget, his responsibilities and the number of employees he managed became conflated.

Mauro said the same.

“In my application materials, I clearly stated my budget authority and employee count as Auckland Council’s Chief Sustainability Officer (in the Chief Sustainability Office),” Mauro wrote in an email to Leader staff on July 1. “Budget was broken down to team/projects ($1.5m), a green bond that I signed alongside the CFO and CEO ($200m), and a rotating energy efficiency fund ($10m) that the CFO and I put together.”

“I’m guessing that those budget numbers were added up (the $211m number you/they refer to) as a shortcut by the consultant.  The same with staffing – I had anywhere between 10-20 staff, depending on whether one counted full-time employees of Auckland Council, or whether one counted the frequent research fellows, interagency ‘secondments,’ and other staff that worked with me and my team.”

He also took issue with reporting at the time. “PDN reporting is inaccurate and not something I was able to notice in June 2019 since I was at the time living in the southern hemisphere and still focused on my job in Auckland.”

In regard to whether city council at the time focused on those numbers as a basis for hiring Mauro, Faber said, “Those figures (staff numbers and budget numbers) were not a basis for hiring John.”

And former Port Townsend city council and mayor, Michelle Sandoval, who served during Mauro’s hiring, concurred.

“I suppose we reviewed bios, but don’t remember specific numbers that you mention (PDN reporting on employees and budget). But indeed I remember the interviews of the final three candidates,” Sandoval wrote in a June 28 email response to Leader staff. “We all knew John had no experience as a city manager, but none of the three finalists had. John was impressive with his energy and intelligence.”

Sandoval said her “advocacy for John was also based on the results of the comprehensive process we undertook together with the community. John was the choice by the majority of all of the team members set up to interview the candidates. Those various teams included city staff, council, community leaders and other elected officials throughout the county. And then he was far and away the overwhelming choice of the public at the community meeting.”

Sandoval served a Port Townsend’s mayor from 2008 to 2012, and again from 2020 to 2022. She served five consecutive terms on the Port Townsend City Council.

“For two years I worked very closely with John during a very difficult time — the pandemic,” Sandoval said. “All bets were off. We had to invent how to move through the unknown and the fall out on all aspects of our community, including the Public Development Authority. John was a stalwart leader. He was here barely four months when the pandemic hit.”

“John has had to deal with many long unresolved issues,” she continued. “The golf course, the pool, the streets, staff aging out, need for staff shake up and coming out of the pandemic — a city in major transition because of intense growth that intensified because of Covid and climate refugees.”

“I’ll remind you our former, first (and only) city manager (David Timmons) came under a nasty PR campaign to get him fired in his early years, as well. Those critics even resorted to personal attacks. This kind of complaint comes from people who dislike change,” Sandoval said.

“Granted that’s just about everyone. But those who have been here the longest have the hardest time.”

She said Mauro “was hired to move us forward and that tweaks lots of folks. It’s a challenging position.”

Shirley said he may take his complaint in person to city council. Meanwhile he said he continues to gather anecdotes and scour public records for evidence to support his claims.

Mauro said he would like the focus to shift to what his administration has accomplished. 

“The line of inquiry about my qualifications is confusing given what my team and I have accomplished in my nearly five years here,” Mauro said. “I don’t expect everyone to agree with where we’re headed — and that’s really a policy/Council decision, not mine — but we’ve won numerous national and state awards for a long list of accomplishments.”