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Wednesday, May 4, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I N I O
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Editorial…
Moving on from the manager mess
rigorous reviews and assessments of the city
Well that was messy — and expensive.
After two months of investigation and manager’s conformance to those expectations.
deliberation over complaints by some City If there are issues with the manager’s perfor-
of Sisters employees regarding former City mance or conduct, they must be addressed
Manager Andrew Gorayeb’s conduct, the directly and thoroughly and in a timely man-
City Council accepted Gorayeb’s resigna- ner. That is the only way to be fair to staff,
tion — with an attached payout of more than constituents — and the manager.
Mayor Chris Frye explained Gorayeb’s
$100,000. When the total bill is calculated
— paid leave, attorney’s fees, staff time, sizeable payout this way: “We believed it was
costs of the investigation — the taxpayers of in the best interests of the City. Looking at all
Sisters will have forked over likely upwards possibilities including possible litigation and
of $175,000 to close a chapter in its municipal associated costs, as well as staff time, we felt
this package was the best way to go.”
history.
Councilor David Asson, who voted against
Why was this episode so expensive? Why
did the City pay out so much when Gorayeb the payout, cited the Council’s “excess con-
cern regarding the possibility
chose to resign? Deliberations
of reprisal litigation.”
over the matter are privileged,
If, in the future, the City
but statements by Council
If there are issues with
expresses clear, well-defined
members and by Gorayeb in
the manager’s performance standards and expectations
his resignation letter make the
and provides strong guid-
tea leaves pretty easy to read
or conduct, they must be
ance and supervision based
— and point to some areas in
addressed directly and
on those expectations, they
which the City must improve
will always be on solid legal
its processes going forward.
thoroughly and in
ground and need have no fear
In his letter of resignation,
of any explicit or implicit
Gorayeb wrote: “I am greatly
a timely manner.
threat of litigation.
troubled by the dispropor-
There is no remedy for
tionately harsh discipline you
what
has gone before. The
have imposed on me due to
your belief that I have acted ‘at times’ contrary City must move forward. That will probably
mean hiring an interim city manager, then
to the city’s ‘Encouraged Conduct’ policy.”
That “encouraged conduct” policy should searching for a permanent one.
It would be a good idea to model the pro-
be made an “expected conduct” policy. The
Council must insist that any future city man- cess on the manner in which the school district
ager conduct himself or herself at all times in searches for a superintendent. That includes
an appropriate and professional manner, treat- significant citizen input on what the com-
ing staff, colleagues, council and community munity wants and needs in a city manager.
with respect and creating a collegial working Citizens should be able to serve on a hiring
committee to narrow down the candidate field
environment.
Gorayeb further noted that, “prior to this before the City Council makes its pick.
The City of Sisters has endured two tumul-
investigation, I have never been notified or
warned about deficiencies in my performance tuous and expensive city manager transitions
in the space of three years. Some painful and
or workplace conduct.”
Moving forward, the City Council must expensive lessons have been learned. It’s time
establish clear, explicit and firm expectations to apply them.
Jim Cornelius, News Editor
for performance and conduct — and provide
SEE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ON PAGE 8
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Robert
Reich
American Voices
Marissa Mayer tells us
a lot about why Americans
are so angry, and why anti-
establishment fury has
become the biggest single
force in American politics
today.
Mayer is CEO of Yahoo.
Yahoo’s stock lost about
a third of its value last
year, as the company went
from making $7.5 billion
in 2014 to losing $4.4
billion in 2015. Yet Mayer
raked in $36 million in
compensation.
Even if Yahoo’s board
fires her, her contract
stipulates she gets $54.9
million in severance. In
other words, Mayer can’t
lose. It’s another example
of no-lose socialism for the
rich.
The rest of America
works in a different system.
Theirs is cutthroat hyper-
capitalism — in which
wages are shrinking,
median household income
continues to drop, workers
are fired without warning,
two-thirds are living
paycheck-to-paycheck,
and employees are being
classified as “independent
contractors” without any
labor protections at all.
Why is there no-lose
socialism for the rich and
cutthroat hyper-capitalism
for everyone else? Because
the rules of the game —
including labor laws,
pension laws, corporate
laws and tax laws — have
been crafted by those at
the top, and by the lawyers
and lobbyists who work for
them.
Before we go to the
barricades, you should know
about another CEO, Hamdi
Ulukaya, who’s developing
a third model — neither
no-lose socialism for the
rich nor hyper-capitalism for
everyone else.
Ulukaya is the Turkish-
born founder and CEO of
Chobani, the upstart Greek
yogurt maker recently
valued at as much as $5
billion.
Last week, Ulukaya
announced that he’s giving
all of his 2,000 full-time
workers shares of stock
worth up to 10 percent
of the privately held
company’s value when it’s
sold or goes public, based
on each employee’s tenure
and role at the company.
If the company ends up
being valued at $3 billion,
for example, the average
employee payout could
be $150,000. Some long-
tenured employees could get
more than $1 million.
Ulukaya’s
decision
is just good business.
Employees
who
are
partners become even more
dedicated to increasing a
company’s value. Which
is why research shows that
employee-owned companies
tend to outperform the
competition.
Ulukaya just increased
the odds that Chobani will
be valued at more than $5
billion when it’s sold or its
shares of stock are available
to the public. That will
make him, as well as his
employees, far wealthier.
As Ulukaya wrote to
his workers, the award
isn’t a gift but “a mutual
promise to work together
with a shared purpose and
responsibility.”
A handful of other
companies are inching their
way in a similar direction.
Apple decided in October it
would award shares not just
to executives or engineers
but to hourly workers as
well. Twitter CEO Jack
Dorsey is giving a third of
his Twitter stock (about 1
percent of the company) “to
our employee equity pool
to reinvest directly in our
people.”
But the vast majority of
American companies are
still locked in the old hyper-
capitalist model that views
workers as costs to be cut
rather than as partners to
share in success.
That’s largely because
Wall Street still looks
unfavorably on such
collaboration. (Remember,
Chobani is still privately
held.)
The Street remains
obsessed with short-term
stock performance, and
its analysts don’t believe
hourly workers have much
to contribute to the bottom
line. But they’re prepared
to lavish unprecedented
rewards on CEOs who don’t
deserve squat.
Let them compare Yahoo
with Chobani in a few years
and see which model works
best.
© 2016 By Robert Reich
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.