The fallout from the James Freed interview is reverberating throughout the city management ecosystem. Hundreds of city managers were talking about the situation during this week’s annual ICMA conference in Austin. The story received front page coverage in the Sunday edition of the Port Huron Times Herald.
City managers across the nation are furious that an orchestrated campaign to ruin Freed’s career and reputation was perpetrated by the ICMA ethics staff. They are incensed by the notion that obvious conflicts of interest were not mitigated by ICMA CEO Marc Ott and that he allowed Martha Perego and Jessica Cowles to circumvent the established processes as set forth by the organization’s rules of procedure.
And they are appalled that executive board members would call a peer a “douchebag” and talk about “punching him in the face” in private text messages.
But the overwhelming feedback that I have heard the most over the last several days is anger and frustation over the fact that the ICMA has refused to comment or address the issue publicly.
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