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Baker resigns as City Manager, effective immediately

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Mesquite City Manager unexpectedly tendered his letter of resignation on Wednesday, May 12 at about 2:30pm. Mesquite Mayor Al Litman confirmed that he had received the hand-delivered letter which stated that Baker’s resignation would be effective immediately.

“He did hand me the letter and I handed it back to him,” said Litman in a Wednesday afternoon interview with The Progress. “But it had been signed already. To the best of my knowledge, I’d guess that that office is empty right now and cleared out of all personal possessions. It was just that fast. There was no two weeks notice or anything. It was immediate.”

Litman said that, as of Wednesday night, Acting City Attorney Adam Anderson was still in the process of researching the regulations extensively to determine next steps to be done in the transition toward a new City Manager.

“I imagine that, until we have an interim in place that I would take over that position for a short time,” Litman said. “I would then appoint, with the confirmation of the City Council, an interim City Manager. Then we have to begin the whole process of searching for a new permanent candidate.”

Litman said that an interim City Manager might be appointed in a special meeting of the City Council, or the appointment may have to wait until the next regularly scheduled meeting on May 25.

“Mr. Anderson is checking on all of those details now to see that it is done correctly,” Litman said. “Rest assured everything will be done by the book.”

Relations between Baker and the Mesquite Police Officers Association (MPOA) has been strained for some time. But that relationship finally boiled over late last month when allegations about Mesquite Police Chief MaQuade Chesley were posted to a local website called Mesquite Citizen Journal (MCJ).

In the April 27 MCJ post, Baker was quoted confirming that “an individual” had made claims regarding “an employee.” Baker reportedly said that, because of a conflict, the city was unable to investigate the matter internally. So the person filing the complaint had been referred to the Attorney General’s office.

The MCJ article asserted that “multiple sources” claimed that the complaint was in regards to alleged misconduct on the part of Chesley. These sources remained unnamed in the post and no proof of the alleged misconduct was made available.

Later in the evening of April 27, in a statement before the City Council, Baker confirmed that Chesley was indeed the subject of the complaint.

During public comment at the April 27 meeting, Baker was criticized by rank-and-file police officers for even making any comment at all regarding a personnel matter under investigation. Such matters would normally be kept confidential, they said.

In a public comment at the meeting, MPD Sergeant Wyatt Oliver claimed that this was just the latest in a long string of situations where Baker had not adequately supported the police department and the MPOA.

“As a union (MPOA) member, I am sick and tired of the City Manager’s office bulldozing us in every aspect and in everything we try to do,” Oliver said. “Time and time again, we put ourselves out there to make the city a better place. But we are put in a position to be put down by the City Manager, to be ignored and not given information we request. It is unacceptable.”

By the time of the next City Council meeting held this week on Tuesday, May 11, those sentiments had extended to a vocal portion of the general public. Several residents made comments that sharply criticized Baker and his leadership. Many of these comments called upon the council to conduct an investigation into Baker’s conduct.

“Are we spending unnecessary funds on investigations that the City Manager and Acting City Attorney should be handling internally?” asked Mesquite resident Dean Gallo in a comment. “Is the City facing lawsuits because of (Baker’s) poor management and leadership shortcomings? Is it appropriate that it appears that he is sharing sensitive information with those who he should not be? I think these are legitimate concerns that should be addressed by the City.”

“Our City Manager has made decisions which have exposed our City to tremendous negative attention,” said resident Brent Williams. “He threw the police department’s top leader to the wolves without considering the negative implications it would produce. If you, Mr. Mayor; and the City Council; don’t take action on this obvious management problem, you will lose my support.”

During the Mayor’s Report at the meeting, Litman expressed general support for all City staff members. “Let me clearly state that I support every member of the staff of the City of Mesquite unless I’m proven otherwise,” he said.

Litman specifically mentioned the Chief of Police, the MPD and the MPOA in his comment.

“There are those in the city that would like nothing better than to divide this city,” Litman added in his report. “The end game I’m not even sure of; but rest assured, there is an end game. As far as collateral damage goes, I don’t think they really care. But my response to it is that they are not going to win the battle.”

In the Wednesday interview, Litman said that Baker had been “number one in (that) collateral damage.” Litman added that the critical comments made about Baker at Tuesday’s council meeting, had been “brutal” and that he regretted that the relationships had become so sour and divisive between the two sides in the community.

“I have been trying for weeks to reconcile all these parties involved in this,” Litman said. “Throughout all this division, I’ve done the best I can to hold it together. But apparently, with all this going on, Mr. Baker just wasn’t willing to let this work out. That is unfortunate.”

Litman said that he would continue to do what is needed to move the city forward from this point. “We are going to just keep working on it,” he said. “We’ve got a good solid City. Everything is rolling along pretty well. We just have a few bumps in the road that we are going to have to deal with; and we will be able to do that.”

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7 thoughts on “Baker resigns as City Manager, effective immediately”

  1. Aaron Baker did great things during his short tenure as city manager and was well respected by his employees. Its a shame he has to go out like this. I’m getting very tired of seeing this kind of thing going on our little town. Things have gotten very ugly here in the last several years and we have lost lots of good people because of it. Personally I’m sick of it. I don’t know what churches are teaching people in this town, but when so many people of the same faith have so much trouble getting along, it’s obvious they are not teaching “love thy neighbor”.

  2. Dear MVProgress,
    Please, please, please don’t fall into the trap of allowing all the hate filled and decisive complainers from Mesquite simply transfer all their hate to the pages of this excellent paper. It’s all about politics. A group of Mesquite citizens with extreme political views were trying to oust current leaders and now will almost certainly shift the MVProgress to get their messages out. Don’t let Moapa Valley become a hotbed of hate and a divided community.
    As you know, the Mesquite Citizens Journal, a blog posing as a newspaper, ceased operations after massive citizens complaints. Now you can expect names like Barbara Ellestad, David Ballweg and Mike Young (of the OPD board) to start trying to spread dissension and ill will in the pages of this paper. Please don’t let it happen. This is a great place to live. We don’t want that kind of hate here. Thank you

  3. For years, the MCJ has been attacking city leaders, candidates and everyday citizens who fell on the wrong side of the editor, Barb Ellestad. The MCJ has been noticeably going downhill recently with almost no news but a steady stream of “yellow journalism “ and hit pieces with vague, mysterious lack of details. It’s good that rag is gone.

  4. I am curious. When the mayor says that he has been trying to work things out, how exactly?
    He listens to his constituents say that they have issues with the MPOA letter. He hears them say they are concerned, and yet “they will not win the battle.”
    His version on help and mine must be defined definitely. Because hearing his comments and those of the MPOA, makes me very concerned that any opinion that does not fit their agenda is not going to be listened to.

  5. David Ballweg

    Mr. Bill Bishop:
    It is quite astonishing that you are blind to the fact that you are the instigator of hate in this publication that you so rail against in your comments. The individuals you accuse of hate only offense is they disagree with your opinions. Do you not even consider that the individuals you accuse could and do love Mesquite. Your opinions are just that; your opinions. The civil approach would provide a thesis or better, actual facts to support your opinions instead of such antagonism that further divides the community.

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