As reported by the Port Townsend Leader, former Mayor Brent Shirley has filed a complaint against our current City Manager. It is based solely on private conversations with anonymous persons.  When asked if Mr. Shirley would like to have his complaint adjudicated through the hearings examiner where strict adherence to accurate and truthful statements would be required, Mr. Shirley declined. 

As observers and participants in PT’s city government, let us make it clear that Port Townsend should consider itself incredibly fortunate to have someone as dedicated, talented and honest as John Mauro for its manager. Here are a few examples. In the years 2000 - 2019, the city's annual general fund debt payment increased from less than $200K to $1.7 million to pay the annual debt on councilmanic bonds taken out instead of approaching the voters to support tax increases.

This was an obviously unsustainable trend given that most of this payment was required to come from funds for staff salaries.  That $1.7M annual debt costs us about 17 employees that would be paid from the general fund. Starting his first year on the job, John stopped this increase and has begun the process of paying down this debt and greatly improving the City’s financial position.

John and his staff negotiated a new agreement with the mill to ensure there are funds to repair and replace the transmission line for our water supply.

John hired a new public works director and oversaw the recent voter approval of the transportation benefit district to acquire needed equipment and skills to initiate much needed road reconstruction and repaving.  As we all know, our roads had been neglected for decades, probably as far back as Mr. Shirley's tenure.

Port Townsend has since received two national awards for John's creation of the Intergovernmental Collaborative Group and the Financial Sustainability Task Force. Local governmental groups (City, County, Port and PUD) are working better together than they have in many years.

All those years that PT was acquiring debt and losing staff, Mr. Shirley was silent.  All those years of neglecting our roads, Mr. Shirley was silent.  All those years of ignoring our growing housing crisis, Mr. Shirley was silent.  John Mauro is addressing all of these; he works hard and asks city employees to also do their jobs.

If Mr. Shirley is serious about his claims, he should take them before the Hearings Examiner, not rely on innuendo and character assassination.

Footnote: We offer this letter as private citizens. Rick Jahnke is chair of the Port Townsend Planning Commission and served on the Financial Sustainability Task Force. Debbie Jahnke is chair of the Port Townsend Parks, Recreation, Trees & Trails Advisory Board. We haven’t missed a City Council meeting in well over a decade.

Rick and Debbie Jahnke

Port Townsend