For the week of November 13 - 19, 2002

Hailey deserves answers

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While Hailey Mayor Al Lindley was issuing press releases on his decision to resign from office Friday, the rest of Hailey’s elected leadership was locked up like a Brink’s safe.

The city attorney wouldn’t release Lindley’s letter of resignation to the public and pleaded that he needed time to research whether it is a public document. There was never a question that under Idaho law the mayor’s letter was a public document. The mayor is an elected official, not a city employee to whom different rules apply.

Determining whether or not the letter is a public document is not a matter that required days of legal research. It was a stalling tactic.

Late Tuesday, Lindley himself finally released the document, which only muddied matters with its reference to a vote of "no confidence" by the city council.

Questions about what vote, when or where any vote was taken were left unanswered.

Calls to members of the city council produced only "no comment" to the many questions surrounding the resignation and Lindley’s claim that it was the result of allegations of verbal sexual harassment against him.

Hailey citizens were left with nothing but conjecture and rumor to fill in the blanks. The lack of response from the city council cloaked the situation in mystery.

The council’s failure to address the mystery is a grave disservice to a good community. Hailey deserves some answers—it deserved them yesterday.

 

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