Letter: 'Assault' launched on city staffers

Through his Grant County Conservatives Facebook page, Mr. Pereira published a rallying cry:

“We have to continue the assault on those remaining in power on a local level.”

In a separate post, Pereira and his conservative PAC warned Corum Ketchum, John Day’s interim city manager, “you might want to keep your resume up-to-date.”

Mr. Pereira then continued his self-proclaimed assault on city staff by appearing at the Dec. 13 city council meeting and publicly accusing Mr. Ketchum of disseminating propaganda.

The next day Mr. Ketchum resigned. Who could blame him? He was clearly the next target of assault of these groups. The silence and lack of intervention from Mayor-elect Rookstool was especially concerning, and certainly implies agreement with Mr. Pereira, a political ally who strongly supported her campaign. Sadly, Rookstool actually doubled down, asking staff to corroborate Mr. Pereira’s claims and questioning their work ethic, apparently ignoring procedure that should be followed with any instance of personnel complaints. The city has now been left without a city manager for the first time in decades.

Mr. Pereira would like you to believe that John Day employees are rats fleeing a sinking ship. The reality is they are being bullied online, harassed, and intimidated into leaving our community by him and his political allies who have engaged in an unrelenting campaign of cyberbullying, harassment and ethics complaints against city staff and volunteers.

Recently elected council member Sherrie Rininger has also encouraged them, calling the city’s staff “underhanded” in their business dealings. Mayor-elect Rookstool, councilor- elect Rininger, and their allies in these PACs ran a drain-the-swamp campaign. There was no swamp, save the one they were bringing.

If you are a John Day resident who values things like clean water, toilets that flush and streets that get plowed, you may want to reconsider your support for those in a leadership role whose “different direction” for the city may jeopardize them.

Judy Schuette

John Day