Council will meet on future of city manager

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2003 | 9:34 a.m.

The Boulder City Council will meet behind closed doors next week to discuss City Manager John Sullard's job performance and possibly wrap up the meetings prompted by the mayor's call for Sullard's resignation in May.

If council members wanted to fire Sullard, they would still have to wait until after Dec. 3 to do so. Sullard's contract prohibits the council from firing him during the six months after an election.

However, Mayor Bob Ferraro said Monday he doesn't think Sullard will be fired.

"I just don't see much of an appetite for termination among the council members, but that's just a guess," Ferraro said.

Under Sullard's contract he can be fired only if four of the five council members vote to fire him.

Ferraro wouldn't say Monday whether he still thinks Sullard should go.

Councilman Mike Pacini said he still thinks Sullard should remain city manager.

The other three council members, Andrea Anderson, Karla Burton and Roger Tobler, wouldn't say Monday whether they think Sullard should be fired. They said it would be inappropriate to discuss the matter in public at this time.

Sullard said he has no plans to resign.

The council and Sullard were scheduled to discuss goals for the coming year on Monday. But the meeting ended after about 15 minutes, when the council agreed that before talking about setting goals they should evaluate the city manager.

The council scheduled the Monday meeting after a June 9 closed-door session between Sullard and the previous council, which did not include Tobler or Burton. At that meeting the council decided Sullard should meet with the new council in three months to set goals and again three months later for a job review.

The June 9 meeting was prompted by Ferraro's call for Sullard's resignation during a council meeting a week before the June 3 general election.

During that May 27 meeting, the council was told the new Boulder Creek golf course ran an operating shortfall of about $480,000 during the four months between opening day on Jan. 4 and the end of April.

The information contradicted pre-construction projections that showed the $22 million course would make about $60,000 after its first six months open.

The early golf course financial projections were included in a city newsletter sent to all residents in early May, which Ferraro said left him and others with the impression that the course was still on pace to meet projections.

Ferraro used the rosier projections in his re-election campaign against Bill Smith, a former councilman and critic of the golf course. Ferraro beat Smith by 18 votes.

Ferraro said he blamed Sullard for allowing the misleading information on the financial health of the golf course to go to the public.

Sullard said Monday that he thinks the financial situation at Boulder Creek is clearer now, and since the end of May he and other city staff have taken a more active role in reviewing the golf club's finances.

Earlier this month Sullard and the city's finance director presented the council with a plan to trim $1.2 million from the city general fund to cover debt payments on the golf course.

Sullard has been city manager since July 1997. His annual salary is about $128,000.