To the editor:

For heaven’s sake! Please help me understand how the city manager’s forced resignation makes for a better relationship between city commissioners and city government? Since when do you throw out the baby with the bath water?

Does anyone truly, honestly believe Mike Wildgen didn’t invest all of himself into his position? Since when do you evaluate a person’s performance on perceived failure alone and separate this past year from the whole of his tenure? Since when is someone with his demonstrated commitment and experience so unsalvageable and unalterably incompetent that forced resignation is the only alternative left?

Did city commissioners hold so little confidence in Mr. Wildgen that they felt sabotaged by events that overran even the most experienced of trained professionals in city management? If so, wouldn’t it have made more sense to hash this out behind closed doors, instead of creating this incredible debacle?

Does anyone truly believe that by whatever definition used, progress is served by eliminating the one person who knows best the players as well as the process of city management? If anything, the city is far more vulnerable to manipulation of growth and planning without Mr. Wildgen. And the inevitable turnover in elected city commissioners only worsens the situation.

These questions and more need to be answered in full by city commissioners immediately.

Deborah Snyder,

Lawrence