MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — The city of Mountlake Terrace is paying the former city manager nearly $75,000 as part of a separation agreement.
Arlene Fisher resigned Sept. 11 in lieu of termination, public records show. The documents don’t detail why she was about to be fired.
Instead, the records document how she and city officials agreed to keep problems quiet and provide an upbeat explanation for the departure.
The city sent out a press release at 8:58 p.m. that day, saying, “Arlene and her husband enjoyed their summer vacation this year in Eastern Washington and have since decided to relocate back to Eastern Washington to be close to family.”
“The city thanks Arlene for her service,” the release said.
The city press release, which was approved by Fisher, was part of the separation agreement and echoed Fisher’s one-sentence resignation letter. The Herald recently obtained the documents through a public records request. Fisher, who is in her 50s, started at the city in early 2014. She previously had worked in Cheney, near Spokane. Her salary in Mountlake Terrace was about $140,000 a year.
Under the agreement, Fisher will receive her regular pay of $11,812 a month for the next six months, for a total of $70,875. For a city of 19,900 people, that averages out to about $3.56 per person.
Fisher also will receive pay for a week of accrued vacation time and partial compensation for unused sick time.
She and her husband enjoyed their time in Mountlake Terrace, especially “all the wonderful people we met during the civic events and fundraisers we participated in,” she said in a statement last week.
After a vacation near Spokane in August, “we realized how much we missed Eastern Washington thus we decided to move back,” she said.
Fisher’s contract allowed her to leave without cause at any time if the city waived a 60-day notice clause, according to a City Council resolution from Sept. 11. In the separation, she and city officials agreed not to sue each other, and not to say anything negative about each other in public. The city attorney wrote a letter to City Council members saying they “should refrain from speaking in a derogatory manner about Arlene.”
The City Council unanimously approved the settlement. Longtime Assistant City Manager Scott Hugill now is serving as interim city manager.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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