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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 2021)
PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 9, 2021 Emails show city staff reacting on the fl y DISCHARGED Reverbs of shot at city hall INVOICE: Investigation of city mgr. cost nearly $8K By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes An investigation that, at least in part, led to the resignation of Keizer City Manager Chris Eppley cost the city more than $7,900. Eppley fi red a gun inside his city hall offi ce in early March prompting the Keizer City Council to call for an investigation less than a week later. Jim Ferraris, a recently retired police chief, conducted the inquiry into the incident. Keizertimes requested a copy of the invoice the city received from Ferraris Investigations & Consulting. The request was promptly fulfi lled and the invoice includes an itemized list of expenses. The paper did not receive a response to a request for the investigation report by press time. The city was charged $5,750 for the investigation, prep, report writing, inter- views, transcript review and phone calls. By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes When former city manager Chris Eppley discharged a gun in his offi ce on March 4, it triggered numerous emails among members of the city staff . Keizertimes requested copies of any emails sent in the wake of the incident using city servers and received 13 pages in return. It includes the full incident report Eppley fi led in the wake of fi r- ing a gun in his offi ces and matches, identically, a description Keizertimes obtained two weeks ago. Eppley reported that the discharge happened at noon on Thursday, March 4. The fi rst email sent came from Kristen Meyers, a human resources gen- eralist with the City of Keizer, at 12:54 p.m. Meyers had to “quickly” create a new form since the typical incident report was only made to include events resulting in “injury, illness, or exposure to a contagious disease.” Meyers states that she called Machell DePina, Keizer’s human resources direc- tor, who said “at a minimum detail the incident completely.” At 1:09 p.m., the chair of the Keizer Civic Center Safety Committee, requested a “private chat” with Meyers. Reimbursement for travel time and mileage (the invoice states 876 miles were logged during the investigation) amounted to $1,425. Transcription services were billed at $786.10. The total billed to the city was $7, 961.70. According to the Oregon Secretary of State business registry, Ferraris Consulting’s principal place of business is in Powell Butte, 141 miles from Keizer. The business’ registered agent is a company on River Road in Keizer and its mailing address is in Wilsonville. It was announced Thursday, April 1, that Eppley had off ered his resignation, which the council accepted. Eppley is expected to receive six months salary and a year’s worth of insurance coverage in exchange for not fi ling a lawsuit against the city. A statement read by Mayor Cathy Clark implied that Eppley’s due process rights might have been violated when a portion of his incident report on the matter was made public. brainfood ANSWERS sudoku crossword BRIAN & APRIL McVAY 503.510.6827 - Call or Text anytime As lifelong residents, we are your Keizer neighbor. We know this market and we are here to help! Enjoying real estate since 1998 3975 River Rd N • Suite 3 • Keizer Oregon Licensed Real Estate Brokers An hour later Meyers responded she could not discuss the “current situation” and told him to document any informa- tion he wished to share. At 5:06 p.m. Meyers emailed DePina with an update on how the rest of the day played out. DePina had apparently reached out to Tammie Harms, an employee of the city’s legal department, who was also in the civic center and heard the shot fi red in Eppleys’s offi ce. Meyers states that Eppley called her into his offi ce where “he apologized for the incident and that it was awkward for me.” Heyen had also stopped by to ask who would complete the supervisor’s portion of the incident report and if it would be him. “I steered clear of giving defi nitive answers,” Meyers wrote. On Friday, March 5, Debbie Lockhart, Keizer deputy city recorder, sent out a notice that an executive session would be held the following Monday, March 8, at noon. City Councilor Roland Herrera for- warded the message with the executive session notice that included the inci- dent report and two image fi les to a per- sonal email account on March 23.
