Seaside staff turnover leaves City Hall with a leadership void.

For the second time in recent weeks, the police chief of Seaside has been appointed as acting city manager. But in an era of high turnover and a series of personnel investigations, doing two jobs at once might be the norm.

As staff writer David Schmalz has reported in recent weeks, City Hall is bleeding staff. Former Human Resource Director Sandra Floyd resigned effective March 1. Assistant Public Works Director Carolyn Burke has been out since April 5. Finance Director Victor Damiani submitted his resignation on April 8. Public Works Superintendent Dave Fortune announced his retirement on April 18.

And on April 18, City Council placed City Manager Jaime Fontes on administrative leave while there’s a pending investigation into Fontes.

This all leaves a lot of unanswered questions about what is going on. Schmalz has been following a trail of breadcrumbs to figure it out, but personnel matters are confidential. But we can read between the lines to see a culture of intense distrust and a battle for control within City Hall.

The first chapter of this story was an investigation into the city attorney, Sheri Damon, regarding complaints by some employees about her workplace behaviors. Since then, there have been other investigations. The former HR director, Floyd, wrote to Mayor Ian Oglesby in February: “The volume of complaints and the severity I am receiving are astonishing.”

That employees of an organization of this size might complain, and that their employer (the City of Seaside) has a responsibility to investigate those complaints – and resolve them – is par for the course. The apparent bitterness and distrust that have emerged along with the series of investigations is unusual.

It looks like a power struggle has been playing out between Damon and Fontes, the two officials appointed directly by City Council. (Worth noting: They should be on a team, not engaged in battle.)

Fontes sent a searing email about Damon to members of council on March 21. “I am stating for the record that I am deeply concerned that the City Attorney’s actions over the recent months have shown a complete disregard for the strictures of the Municipal Code, the Brown Act, and her general duties to the City,” he wrote. “Instead of protecting the City from liability, Ms. Damon’s actions have invited liability.”

There could have simply been a series of HR investigations that were conducted, completed and wrapped up. But instead, the series of complaints and investigations continues, implying underlying issues that remain unaddressed.

Former city attorney Don Freeman was retained as special counsel, with a role of coordinating various investigations. To seek a dispassionate third-party investigator with no relationship to Seaside city staff, he asked the city’s insurer (California Joint Powers Insurance Authority) to recommend a firm. They suggested law firm Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Rudd & Romo, which has taken on the investigative role – what Fontes described as “unauthorized, politically motivated investigations.”

At least one investigation involves questions of whether he appropriately hired Floyd, with whom he had worked previously in the City of East Palo Alto. It’s a pretty typical thing to hire a proven colleague; it could be a reasonably typical thing to investigate and find the hiring justified and move on. But in Seaside, the investigation has multiple people hiring their own lawyers and running scared.

I asked Mayor Oglesby about how to keep the city’s business moving forward while staff turnover is so high. He is generally optimistic about proceeding with big economic development projects, the annual budget (with a fiscal year beginning July 1) and also day-to-day city business.

He’s also optimistic about less staff turnover in the future. “That’s the goal, yes. I would love to see that,” Oglesby says.

But if regular line-level staff are caught in a power struggle between the city attorney and city manager, that’s no condition in which to advance big projects, or small ones for that matter. It’s just head-down survival mode.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com.