Days after the Argyle Town Council voted to end Town Administrator Rich Olson’s contract, and after an incident at Town Hall, the Argyle town secretary/assistant town administrator and the assistant town secretary have resigned.
In a special council meeting on May 31, most council members voted to have Olson work remotely on an as-needed basis through Aug. 31. The agreement means Olson is “effectively gone,” said Mayor Bryan Livingston, who opposed the decision and is now assuming many of Olson’s duties until a new town administrator is hired. In a council meeting this spring, some council members criticized Olson’s job performance and accused him of trying to bring apartments to Argyle, leading to their decision to end his contract.
On Thursday, two days after the special meeting about Olson, Argyle Councilman Ron Schmidt said he got a call from a town employee who was “distraught and crying in her office” along with two other female employees.
“There were some discussions between them and the mayor, and she said she couldn’t take it anymore,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt and Mayor Pro Tem Rick Bradford contacted the police department, and Chief Emmitt Jackson and other officers responded to Town Hall. The staff members declined offers to be escorted to their vehicles.
Livingston declined to comment on the incident on the advice of legal counsel.
Assistant Town Secretary Bailey Love and Assistant Town Administrator/Town Secretary Laura Calcote resigned in the day or two after the incident on Thursday. Livingston said Wednesday that there haven’t been any other staff resignations.
“I can confirm that both Ms. Calcote and Ms. Love submitted their voluntary resignations to the Town last week and are no longer employees of the Town of Argyle,” Livingston said in a statement Wednesday. “It is the Town’s practice to treat employment matters as confidential; so, without discussing details or specifics, I appreciate their service to the town and give both Ms. Calcote and Ms. Love my best wishes in their future endeavors.”
The departures of Olson, Calcote and Love leave a near-complete void in the town’s administration department during a busy time in the town’s calendar.
“(The council) has no plan for where we go from here, in the middle of budget season and a major road reconstruction effort and with development decisions ahead that will require capable and experienced leadership,” Livingston said last week.
Baethge said the town has begun discussions about finding replacements for at least one of the open administration positions.
In a recent council meeting, some Town Council members acknowledged that the town has had difficulty in hiring staff members and retaining town managers/administrators. Livingston said last week that the town has “a reputation for making life difficult for the people we hire.”
“We see very few qualified applicants when we have jobs to advertise,” he said.
Council members recently said they were disappointed when good town employees choose to leave, especially when an heir apparent to Olson — former Town Secretary and Assistant Town Administrator Erika McComis — left the town to become city manager in Breckenridge last summer.
“Sadly, for years the majority on this council has seen fit to micromanage and to interfere in the proper management of the town staff,” Livingston said in a statement last week. “We have paid the price in high turnover. The constant interference by this body has also held us back in achieving important goals.”
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