Former Port Townsend Mayor Brent Shirley hopes to have his complaints against City Manager John Mauro heard this week, when he meets with the city attorney and human resources director on July 11.

“They reached out to me,” Shirley said. “It was about three weeks after I told the hearing examiner that I didn’t want my complaint pursued as an ethics issue.”

Shirley said he is mildly optimistic about the meeting, particularly after Port Townsend Mayor David Faber dismissed Shirley’s complaint last week as “salacious rumor” and indicated that city council would not act until Shirley could substantiate his claims.

Shirley served on city council from 1980 to 1982, then as mayor of Port Townsend from 1983 to 1993. Following his tenure as mayor, Shirley said he has stayed connected to many former colleagues and has heard numerous comments regarding Mauro from past and current elected officials and employees.

Shirley said those comments reached critical mass, and he sent a letter to council on May 6, alleging that Mauro mistreats city council members, employees and citizens. In the complaint, Shirley expressed concerns about Mauro’s professional credentials and advanced the allegations that Mauro had a history of mistreating city employees.

City council then forwarded Shirley’s complaint to Phil Olbrechts, the city’s hearing examiner. Olbrechts handles ethics complaints, among other duties. Olbrechts then contacted Shirley and asked if Shirley wanted his complaint reviewed as an ethics violation.

Shirley declined instead asking that city staff and council treat his complaint as though he were an employee, using rules and guidelines outlined in the city’s personnel manual. Specifically, Shirley asked for an investigation into Mauro’s alleged conduct that could guarantee the confidentiality of those interviewed.

Shirley said that he has spoken to about 12 people regarding Mauro’s alleged behavior, but that they are afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation.

Because Shirley has declined the ethics investigation, he said he anticipates the July 11 discussion to focus on city policy. Shirley said he would be prepared to present findings from open records requests that support the allegations regarding Mauro’s behavior. That includes present city council’s evaluations of Mauro from 2020 and 2023, which caution Mauro on his temper.

Shirley said he also plans to read excerpts from a letter written by a person who was the target of one of Mauro’s alleged outbursts.He added that he was cautiously optimistic that some of the issues surrounding Mauro’s alleged misconduct may finally come to light.

While city council’s evaluations of Mauro have been made available and were reviewed, via open records requests, Mauro’s resume and application materials remain elusive.

Shirley asked for those documents via an open records request, but said on July 8 that he has not yet received them.

Mauro acknowledged last week for the first time that a summary of his credentials, provided to the city council when he was interviewing, had been “slightly misleading.” Mauro said he was out of the country and had not reviewed what the executive search firm provided. 

During the meeting on July 11, Shirley said he is going to ask why they aren’t releasing Mauro’s resume and application materials.

Leader staff also submitted an open records request, specifically for Mauro’s resume and any application materials, among other items. On July 5, the city released some of the documents requested, but Mauro’s resume and application materials, were not part of the release. A subsequent city email indicated another batch of documents would be released on July 12.

The Leader made multiple attempts to speak to City Attorney Alexandra Kenyon and the city’s human resources director, Cynthia Schaffer, but neither had returned calls or emails by press time.