pt 2

DIFFICULT TO DIAGNOSE

Daly’s Linkedin page currently indicates he is open to working as an interim manager, interim CEO, project specialist or project manager. Linkedin, which is a business and employment-related social media platform, also lists his employment history as including his two-year stint as Waterville’s city manager, “managing a workforce of 100+ and partnering with a mayor and city council to build momentum behind a burgeoning downtown revitalization effort.”

Daly also frequently comments on municipal-related stories on Linkedin, including earlier this month on an article about a jury awarding a $12.5 million settlement to a former city manager in a racial discrimination lawsuit. “Good for him? Bad for the rest of us? It seems to me that exorbitant awards like this have a recoil affect that causes other cities to pull back on separation terms,” Daly wrote. “Regardless of the reasons for the award, councils will tighten up on contract terms.”

Prior to his arrival in Waterville, Daly served as town manager in Bedford, New Hampshire, as well as Salem, New Hampshire. He also was town administrator in Bedford, Massachusetts, from 1980 to 1984, and in North Reading from 1989 to 1995. His extensive resume says he has served as a regional and statewide Homeland Security program administrator, multi-state government collective procurement entrepreneur, management consultant and motorsports entrepreneur, and municipal management contractor.

RELATED Council hires Stephen J. Daly as Waterville’s new city manager In Waterville, Daly had two job evaluations, one several months after he was hired and another one just before he resigned. Council Chairwoman Rebecca Green, D-Ward 4, served on the city manager evaluation committee along with Klepach and Councilor Claude Francke, D-Ward 6.

Contacted this week, Post released Daly’s employment contract at the Morning Sentinel’s request, but said his evaluation documents are confidential. Lee, the city solicitor, directed the Sentinel to Daly, when asked why he left.

“That’s probably all I can really say which is not a lot, I admit,” Lee said.

Coelho, the mayor, also declined to comment on the reasons. “I think there’s an agreement between the city and Steve so, as far as I am concerned, there’s no comment,” he said. “It’s Steve’s story to tell. There’s nothing I can say about it.”

City councilors likewise declined to comment for the same reasons.

Councilors voted 5-0 on Wednesday, Dec. 28, to accept Daly’s resignation and waive the 90-day notice. Klepach and Councilor Tom McCormick, who is unenrolled and represents Ward 7, were absent from the meeting that was held in the holiday week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Moses, the municipal expert, said it is difficult to diagnose what happened with Daly’s departure. But after reviewing the section of his employment contract regarding termination, Moses said if the city manager had waited for the council to terminate his contract without cause, the city would have had to provide six months’ salary and health insurance, not the four months’ that Daly received.

RELATED Stay caught up on your town with our newsletter. Moses speculated that either Daly didn’t want his employment to be terminated without cause or that the council had reason to fire him with cause, “and that would have left him with no severance.”

None of the material obtained by the Morning Sentinel indicated that a termination was in the offing, although councilor Morris’ reply to Lee’s confidential memo on Dec. 16 thanked the city attorney for “laying out all the options for us to consider.”

A release agreement often is no more than the severance terms already agreed upon in the employment contract, plus a release of claims and mutual nondisparagement, according to Moses, who said one must compare a manager’s employment contract to the severance agreement to know for sure.