To the Editor:

None of the criticism and emotion directed at the John Day city manager is really his fault. I am wrong to hold Nick Green responsible for anything in our city that I find objectionable. Green is just an employee — an employee who has been elevated to the status of local monarch by an elected governing body.

In my view, the mayor and councilors have made assumptions about the intelligence, integrity, competencies, and intentions of the city manager which have resulted in a growing dependency and false sense of security to such a degree that the informed conscience that should exist within the body of the City Council has been surrendered to the will of one individual — the city manager.

The real power of an informed group conscience and directive leadership should exist with the mayor and within the council. Instead, they have reduced themselves to a committee of “yes men.” The mayor and council seem to exist as little more than formality, their function hardly more than ceremonial and their accomplishments amount to little more than an illusion of a democratic process, and it is this illusion of democratic process that provides the cover and legitimacy for the ongoing initiatives, goals and ambitions of one man — the city manager. How did we end up with our elected officials allied with a city employee waging a war of utter disrespect upon the people who elected them? Where is our representation?

If I were mayor or a council member, I would be embarrassed for having placed myself in a position where I could not exist nor function without the ongoing presence, input and guidance of the individual I supposedly employ. It is no wonder there are plans in place to continue using taxpayer dollars to keep Nick Green in an advisory capacity even after he steps away from the city manager role. I suspect the mayor and City Council have very little if any comprehension of the behind-the-curtain workings and manipulations of the man they employ, and I believe they know that they will be unable to keep these schemes in motion without him.

Paul Sweany

John Day