In what had to be a Harvard Lampoon exercise, councilors held a standing ovation for a city manager who’s resigning nine months into the job.
Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain had to be kidding when he pulled out all the superlatives he could fabricate to thank Trucmai Tran Nguyen-Dever for her dedication to civil service.
Problem was he wasn’t kidding.
Nguyen-Dever was hired less than a year ago at a salary of $200,000 to straighten out the financial messes in the flailing Democrat-run city.
The woman who’s never managed a city before lasted all of nine months before deciding she was in over her head, quitting earlier this week.
Not only that, she wants councilors to ignore the part of her labor contract requiring six months notice.
In other words, she can’t leave town quick enough.
Not only that, but her resignation letter took a shot at “the level of control and oversight imposed” on her that “has made it difficult to effectively collaborate on thoughtful solutions.”
So while Nguyen-Dever is taking potshots at her bosses on her way out the door, LaFountain with a straight face is lavishing praise on the outgoing embittered manager “for her service to the city over these last nine months.”
Not nine years, not 19 years, not 29 years.
But nine months.
Can’t make it up folks.
And he wasn’t even done.
“She stepped into this role for a period that is a real challenge for the city of Biddeford and through all of it she’s shown us a positive attitude and great work ethics, so I want to thank her for that service on behalf of the city,” LaFountain gushed.
The mayor’s solipsistic speech was so touching it “garnered a standing ovation from city councilors, department heads, and meeting attendees, signaling their thanks” to Nguyen-Dever, Biddeford Buzz reported.
But wait, there’s more – LaFountain wasn’t done with lampooning the nine-month wunderkind.
“Public service especially these days is incredibly difficult and often a thankless job,” he said. “I appreciate that service that she provided to the city of Biddeford and our residents, and wish her well in what comes next.”
After the so-called mayor was done tricking taxpayers into thinking they’re being well served, he completed his euphemistic contortion by telling them he was beginning a search for a new city manager.
He never disclosed how expensive it is to hire search firms every nine months.
While Biddeford city officialdom was falling all over itself for its great hiring judgment, a dissent was filed in X by a lawyer who found it all purely lampoonish.
“That’s what you get when you buy shit with the Kirkland brand on it,” Marc Randazza tweeted, referring to Nguyen-Truc who Biddeford hired away for $4,000 a week from Kirkland, Washington, where she had been a public-works director.
“Where is this transparency that he ran on?” asked Raul Duke on Facebook , referring to LaFountain. “He needs to come out and tell people exactly what’s going on behind the scenes to cause this mess.”
Before LaFountain ousted the mayor in November’s election, he’d spent two terms as a councilor, so he needs to take responsibility for being council president when Nguyen -Dever was hired.
When he was running for mayor LaFountain promised “a culture of transparency, accountability.”
Fawning over the council’s ill-fated, expensive decision to hire an unqualified manager isn’t the definition of “transparency.”
It’s LaFountain politicking to make himself electable next time he’s on the ballot boasting about his “accountability.”
He’s taking the poor, hard-working taxpayers in Biddeford, Maine for fools.
