For the second time since July, Pacific Mayor Cy Sun has fired the city’s clerk.
He said Tuesday afternoon that he had just fired the employee, who he brought on after he got rid of her predecessor in July.
“She was a new hire on (a six-month) provisionary period, and our relationship just didn’t work out, so I let her go,” Sun said in a phone interview with The News Tribune. “You can call it insubordination, or whatever you want. A clerk is hard to come by, because I have to delegate a lot of power to her. We have to get a good relationship so I’m confident. It’s a great responsibility.”
The position was one of seven a Pierce County Superior Court judge ordered the mayor to fill in September, after the employees were fired or resigned under Sun’s tenure.
The mayor said he couldn’t say when he’ll start the process of hiring another clerk.
“I can’t answer that,” Sun said. “It could be a while, it could be 10 years from now, or I might die tonight.”
City Attorney Kenyon Luce said the first clerk the mayor fired settled with Pacific for $175,000 for wrongful termination, among other allegations.
Sun was arrested in July when he tried to enter the first clerk’s locked office, which was among the reasons he gave for her discharge in a dismissal letter. She prompted the arrest by locking the office and leaving the keys with police, he said.
The city’s insurance provider carried through on a threat to stop covering Pacific at the end of 2012 if the situation did not stabilize. In December, the city found higher-cost coverage that allowed Pacific to remain a city, a process that the recently fired clerk helped facilitate.
Before that, the City Council had been preparing for Pacific to disincorporate or be annexed.
A campaign to recall Sun is in the works, but has not yet been allowed to collect signatures for a special election to oust the mayor.
Sun appealed a King County Superior Court decision to allow the campaign to gather the signatures.
The recently fired clerk could not be reached Tuesday. Her city voicemail said: “There is no person in this position as of Feb. 26 at 2 p.m.”
Alexis Krell: 253-597-8268
alexis.krell@thenewstribune.com
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