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Jason Stilwell
Friday, June 27, 2014 11:01 AM
Jason Burnett (Jason@BurnettforCarmel.com)
Open Letter To the Editor
Open Letter To the Editor.docx

Mayor Burnett: per our conversation earlier this week I drafted the attached letter for the two of us to work from. Give
me a call this afternoon after you have a chance to take a look at it. Jason S

Open Letter To the Editor:

As the Carmel by the Sea mayor and city council, we are disappointed and troubled
by the Pine Cone's pattern of personal attacks on city staff.
We value the unique privilege of a community newspaper in a city as small as Carmelby-the-Sea. We also appreciate your interest in the actions of the city council and your
independent investigative role. A watchdog is valuable to a vibrant democracy but
overstating facts and personal attacks on the people capably serving our community
crosses a line.
It is unbecoming of your paper and your role in our community to use your pages to
embarrass and attack city staff without cause and without allowing a rebuttal. To
remedy this, we ask respectfully that you publish this letter, issue a retraction, and cease
the continued mean-spirited attacks that have become a pattern.
The most recent attack involved our city administrator, Jason Stilwell, and our timely
response to an information request. The essence of your story is that city management
responded to a request by the Bay Area News for city salary information with a PDF
rather an Excel spreadsheet. Oddly, this elicited a long front-page rant from the Pine
Cone making reckless, baseless and defamatory statements about Dr. Stilwell.
What was lost in the reporting is that the requested information was fully provided. The
seemingly simple request for salary information was complicated by our decades old,
misconfigured IT systems and the frustrating inability to provide the reports requested
with a few keystrokes. That being said city staff compiled the data and the information
requested was fulfilled without redaction or omission.
We have been working to upgrade the entire city IT system over the past two years. Last
year a key city council initiative was to complete an IT Strategic Plan and budget. This
year a key city council initiative is the implementation of Phase 1 of the plan, including
updating the financial and bookkeeping systems.
Over the past two-and-a-half years under the direction of Mr. Stilwell, we have
established an organizational structure with systems and appropriate oversight where
none had existed for years. We are seeing positive results of this transformation even
during this period of change. More positive results for the community are forthcoming.
As the current management works to add structure and professionalism to our city
cleaning up a decade of challenges and is more transparent. Decisions are made
publicly, the city's purchasing follows a competitive process, and public records are
disclosed timely, openly and to the extent we are able to.
This pattern of personally attacking city managers and employees, ignoring past
problems, and refusing to acknowledge progress must stop.
Today the city has focused objectives that are responsive to citizen priorities, policy
plans to deliver quality service, and a management system that is focused on

performance. Last year the city received its first ever GFOA Distinguished Budget
Award recognizing excellence in financial budgeting and reporting. In every area, we
are becoming a professional, well-managed city.
We ask you to help us continue this transformation in a constructive, accurate matter.
This would be a service to the community and to your readers. The continued personal,
baseless attacks are not.
S/Mayor and City Council