Back in the 90’s there was a song, Kick Him When He’s Down by the group Offspring.
The title of that song came to mind as I recently came across the news that the controversial “Conflict King” of Colton and Fontana, Mark Nuaimi, had been axed from his full time job as Assistant City Manager for the Inland Empire City of Colton. Nuaimi apparently still retains his elective office of Mayor of the City of Fontana, which is just blocks from Colton. It was Nuaimi’s “dual role” of being a top level management official in one city while being the top level elected official in the neighboring city which earned Nuaimi the title of “Conflict King” – and garnered him a starring role in a lot of You Tube videos such as this one below…
Last month, John Weeks a columnist for the San Bernardino Sun, in a piece he penned blasting Nuaimi for his berating of the Sun, reported that:
I have written about Nuaimi several times, including here, where I talk about his hubris, and how he rhetorically assaults people who disagree with him calling them names. My main issue with Nuaimi is that from talking to so many people, it is very clear that he does not see his role as being an advocate for the rights of property owners in his cities (well, I guess it is singular now, as he has been “relieved” of his Colton conflict) but rather that he has been elected to operate what seems like a game, call it “SimFontana” where he decides (through his supreme intellect) what uses people should make of their property, rather than working with property owners to see their dreams come to fruition.
I don’t know that I would have written about Nuaimi’s being terminated from his job as Assistant City Manager in Colton but for something else I found out — that unlike almost all (if not all) of the other dozens of Colton employees let go this year, Nuaimi has departed with a massive "Golden Handshake" deal that I figure will cost Colton taxpayers the better part of a couple hundred thousand dollars!
I have attached Nuaimi’s Employment Agreement with Colton. For the uber-curious, you can read Section 6, C , (1). There you will note that Nuaimi gets 4 months basic severance and then one month for each year he worked for the city. He worked for Colton for 3.75 year. So I figured with 4 months basic severance, 3.75 months for yearly severance, for a total "Golden Handshake" of 7.75 months severance, which I put at or around $170,000.00 (not counting unused vacation time or sick leave pay outs).
Perhaps now is a good time to let a new “friend” into his life – Mr. Humility. Perhaps an open letter in the San Bernardino Sun apologizing for his past transgressions against others? And maybe an offer to make himself available for the next year to Colton residents for assorted jobs, since they are paying him so much not to be their Assistant City Manager anymore.
For those people who want to use the power of elective office, at whatever level, to promote the principles of freedom and liberty – God bless them. To those, however, who would use elective office to manipulate, control and restrict the rights of others. For those people, I say, kick ‘em while their down. And for those who proclaim to be fiscal conservatives but who take massive taxpayer funded "Golden Handshake" deals I say, kick ’em, while their down.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Mark Nuaimi is singularly ill suited to exercise executive authority in a public agency – whether it is at the staff or elected level based upon his malfeasance during his tenure with the City of Colton. When you consider his total lack of education, training, and/or job experience in either land planning or development, coupled with his extreme vision of his own infallibility, not to mention his rather callous disregard, disrespect, and negative manner in which he deals with citizens, commissioners, elected officials and staff members, is it any wonder he accomplished next to nothing in his time with Colton other than to amass a large and questionable record of incompetence, failure to achieve any projects, and overall disappointment?