Last updated on 2017.02.23
Madison City Commissioners and the general public were treated to an exercise in non-information at Monday night's commission meeting. Our first public works director, Heath Von Eye, tendered his resignation with a public statement. KJAM new director Lauri Struve presents the first five minutes of his statement in audio online, but neither that statement, nor KJAM's report, nor the Madison Daily Leader's report, make clear why Von Eye left.
Here's the closest Von Eye comes to explaining what's up:
It is however unfortunate for me to report to you that due to circumstances beyond my control that my services for the city of Madison will no longer continue at this time. The conclusion of my time here is not at the hand of any one person or group of people, but rather what I see as the hand of God leading me from here and on to new greater challenges and accomplishments that I know will come. I do not doubt that my accomplishments here will precede me in my future endeavors. I will take with me all that I have experienced in Madison, and it is through God's glory that I will proceed from here [Heath Von Eye, public statement on resignation, Madison City Commission, 2011.03.21].
Von Eye invokes God earlier in his speech, citing Him as the source of all his talents and achievements as public works director. (If God really is responsible for Madison's public affairs, I have a few complaints. Gene Hexom is fallible, but omnipotent beings can do better.)
This isn't the parting of the Red Sea; this is an engineer leaving one job and seeking another. The speech as recorded is by turns strangely grandiose and awkward, hintingly defiant and humble... and generally uninformative.
Von Eye starts to say something about his masters degree in civil engineering and his ambition, but the online audio runs out at that five-minute mark. According to the Leader, Von Eye went on to say he's simply "pursuing other interests." Von Eye's speech works awfully hard to say nothing. One would think a public statement on resignation, if even necessary, would serve to allay concerns, quash rumors, and just give public the straight dope. "Sioux Falls pays more, wife got a better job, so long, and thanks for all the fish."
Instead, if anyone was wondering about the circumstances of Von Eye's departure, Monday's speech only intensifies such wondering.
Public employees are not obliged to explain themselves for quitting. Sign a one-sentence letter, hand over your keys, walk out the door, and tell nosy neighbors "None of your business"—that's well within your rights. But if you're going to get up at a public meeting and say something, then you should actually say something.
I agree. This "public statement" was a grandoise example of saying much while providing little. Most Madison residents would have to conclude Heath left his job not of his own free will and certainly not by God's choice.
If city leadership wishes to clarify otherwise, they owe it to the public to make a statement of their own.
Anything to do with Dave Pitts letter to the editor?
He seemed like a decent guy who would like to feel good about a few of the things he did while serving our city. Careers don't always go the way we expect and the jolts are disconcerting. Good luck to him.