Tread Lightly: A Measureable Outcome

The banker's bruhaha grows in size and shape: after being fired a few days after his public questioning of a local city manager at an open city council meeting, the former banker's former boss sent the terminated employee a letter that puts him "on notice" that he will be the target of a lawsuit for destroying the bank's reputation after a firestorm of media coverage and public pressure erupted.

In a classic case of covering one's own assets, the banker's boss says that he "warned" the employee to "tread lightly," evidently a "warning" with an implied "or else" that the employee failed to heed and which led to his firing. However, according to the boss, the firing decision was NOT based on the employee's public appearance at a city council meeting, nor any of the coercive tactics used by the city manager and/or city mayor and/or city council members that preceeded the firing.

The banker's boss is now at the center of the situation that began at a city council meeting. The media firestorm arose AFTER the boss fired his employee because the employee raised the question whether he has the Constitutional right to ask questions of his elected representatives in a public forum. The banker's boss created the appearance of giving into the city manager's coercion when he fired the employee, even though he adamantly denies that allegation. Perhaps, however, he's a football fan, and most fans of football believe that the best defense is a really strong offense.

In this case, I doubt that the banker's boss is going to get out from under his own actions regardless of how offensive he becomes.

One of the readers of the online paper sent this quote from a press release made by the bank executive (Kavanaugh) upon the hiring of the recently-fired employee (Libby):

"It's always been in our business plan to develop some kind of presence in the Coachella Valley where many of our investment advisory practice clients are at least part-time desert residents," says Kavanaugh. "The timing is now right for us based on having many clients with homes and other assets in the region plus having been fortunate to find a professional with Haddon Libby's expertise and community connections available. With several community and major banks in the area experiencing a wide range of problems that are hindering their lending capacity and Haddon becoming available, this became an opportunity we just couldn't pass up." [http://www.ff-inc.com/news/default.aspx?id=221]

I don't see the clearly-defined "goals" that Mr. Kavanaugh justified as "cause" for firing the employee after the city council meeting, nor do I see failure to "tread lightly" as a reason to terminate an employee. What I honed in on is the joy at finding "a professional with Haddon Libby's expertise and community connections" in praise of the recent new-hire.

That seems to be the key to the whole mess: the bank values its "community connections" far beyond Mr. Libby's Constitutional rights!!

I'm going to guess that even a casual examination of financial records will reveal a banking relationship between the city, the city mayor, the city manager, members of the city council (both public and private accounts), and Mr. Kavanaugh's bank. When push came to shove, Mr. Kavanaugh shoved Mr. Libby under the bus. However, after the past several days of intense, unrelenting media exposure, Kavanaugh did indeed achieve his goal to "develop some kind of presence in the Coachella Valley."