Weaverville – A read of the Weaverville Town Council’s email communications reveals a board at war with its council members, and the town manager. Much of this appears to have led to Weaverville Town Manager Selena Coffey’s current medical leave from a ‘hostile work environment.’
In an April 22 email from Coffey, she explains to the council why she could not work on her new job description/expectation document with Town Attorney Jennifer Jackson. The new “expectation document” seems to have emanated from a Jan 28 email that Mayor Patrick Fitzsimmons sent from his private email trying to get around public records law criticizing Coffey’s job performance, which was made public in last week’s Tribune.
Coffey explains the reason for her email, saying, “As I was locking my office door and leaving town hall after being excused from the closed session this evening, I overheard Attorney Jackson tell council quite assertively that I had ‘refused to work with her’ multiple times on the expectations document. This is untrue and I cannot let this go uncorrected.”
She declares, “These are expectations for ME and MY job, not the attorney’s, and I believe that your town manager should have complete buy-in and understanding of expectations of its governing board, not the town attorney…I cannot have buy-in if I’m being rushed through the review of the document without fully understanding the implications of the document.” Coffey says she was “not available to shift focus” as she had only “three weeks to finish preparing a proposed budget.”
She explained, “I have said that I could not work on the document with Attorney Jackson (never said I refused)…I sent you all the email on March 25…and asked for a deadline, to which I received no response, except from 2 [council] members stating that they withdrew their support for the document, another who told me in person that he wasn’t supportive of the document, and another that said it was a waste of time.”
Coffey makes reference in the email to the incident that led Vice Mayor (VM) Catherine Cordell to step down after she allegedly called Councilwoman Michele Wood a ‘liar.’ “I will reiterate that the hostile environment in which I’m operating and cold shoulders at the office and in meetings from council members is very damaging, not only to me, but to you as council, and to our whole team. I don’t feel that calling council members liars or demeaning each other ever has a place in a professional setting.”
Wood initially asked about the incident, refused comment, but has since changed her mind and sent the Tribune this comment: “If Councilwoman Cordell thinks this is about a ‘dispute’ between her and me, she is ignoring the bigger issue. A majority of this council wanted her removed as vice mayor because of her continued hostility and disrespect of our town manager in front of her staff, the council, and the public.”
In a May 11 email, Wood, expounding on the issue, said, “I can safely say we were all taken aback by the unexpected outburst directed at me while the mayor and town attorney sat there and did nothing, knowing that Catherine’s accusation that I alone wrote the evaluations document was incorrect. Catherine verbally and inappropriately attacked me, and I responded…And for that I will apologize to council. But I do not accept equal ‘unacceptable behavior on both sides.’ Removing…[Cordell]…is bigger than what happened in our closed session room. This is about her ongoing blatant disrespect to our town manager…”
In a June 14 email, Coffey states, “I do not understand why the last two emails…from the mayor and vice mayor have been seemingly targeted at me. I also don’t understand why the town attorney is not stepping in to try to stop the behavior. It is her job to step in on issues like this that are, at the very least, meant to intimidate, embarrass, or taunt me…I continue to be very hurt by these continued actions and feel that there is effort being made to force me out, to force my resignation…I am asking you to please take action on this as quickly as possible before it spirals further out of hand.”
Asked if she had resigned as town attorney to take the town manager position if the council didn’t renew Coffey’s contract, Jackson responded, “No. It [sic] might add that the Town Manager’s contract is open-ended and does not have an expiration date that would require a renewal.”
Reporter’s Note: This is a developing story with more updates to come next week. We are currently sorting through numerous disorganized emails to keep readers informed about the evolving situation with Weaverville’s leadership in a timely manner.