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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is there a real breakdown of what happened? [/quote]
Casey Anderson had been there for too long, installed/fostered a cult of personality through a small coterie of insiders, both in Parks and Planning, but also the Council who were fiercely loyal to him. He fostered an insider/outsider culture where he was apparently generous to his friends and a bully to anyone perceived as his/their enemy. His enemy was anyone who disagreed with him.

A part of this is that he was able to cultivate too much power and not only insulate himself from accountability but also to aggressive chafe at any suggestion that accountability was important or needed. So with this power and lack of accountability, he thought he was above the rules and began to take advantage. And as a result each ethical violation was shrugged off by himself and his supports as just his “enemies out to get him” and he was never held accountable by the Council. And each time he got away with it would embolden him to do worse until he spiraled completely out of control.

The ethical lapses were many: violation of state open meetings laws, violation of county rules for lobbyists, etc. It all came to a head when he was reported for violation of county zero tolerance rules for alcohol in the workplace, for which other county employees have lost their jobs. It seems that he kept a well stocked bar with over 30 bottles of alcohol and would provide drinks to his cultivated group of insiders, who have yet to be named except for fellow former Planning Board members Verma and Rubin.

The County Council, who is the only body that can reprimand Anderson, tried to cover this up through secrecy, claiming that it as a private HR matter. However, Anderson is not covered by merit protections as an appointee. So they finally did reprimand him for the alcohol by giving him a slap on the wrist by docking him 1 months pay. Verma and Rubin were each docked 1 day of pay as apparently they may also have had a drink with Anderson in his office. Verma claims that he does not drink and was only offered a drink by Anderson on his first day and declined it. I suspect it was something similar for Rubin.

Verma was apparently incensed. It is not clear fully the background. Many claim that he was trying to take Anderson down so that he could become char because he was vice chair. I suspect that it was probably more mundane, that he was pissed that his political future was tarnished by being embroiled and considered for discipline as a result of in Anderson’s ethical lapses, particularly since he does not drink alcohol. As a result, Verma apparently sent an email that included complaints about the toxic work environment that Anderson fostered. The allegations of Anderson’s behavior were pretty gross and types of things you would imagine Donald Trump to say. Anderson denied it, but his supporters chalked it off as locker room talk.

It is not clear how those allegations got leaked to the media, but in so doing the at will civil servant head of the Planning Department, Gwen Wright, who was one of this insular group of Anderson allies, did an on the record interview to defend Anderson and through that interview made statements that were pretty stupid and tone deaf for a senior manager in an organization to make which certainly seemed intended to have a chilling effect on any whistleblowers and potential harm any investigation. She had also separately, along with other senior managers at Parks and Planning, previously sent a letter directly to the County Council defending Anderson which was out of line. Days later the Planning Board convened and voted unanimously to fire her, with Anderson abstaining. Anderson then made on the record statements to the media divulging the nature of what were supposed to be confidential Planning Board discussions (another ethical lapse!).

Then, Miti Figueredo, a close Anderson ally and major insider who has worked for CM Navarro, treasurer for Raskin’s first campaign, the Chevy Chase Land Co, the Purple Line and served as Anderson’s special assistant and who Anderson installed as the Deputy Director of Parks, sent a retaliatory letter of complaint about Verma that alleged many things, including that he violated the Hatch Act and implicated that incoming Councilmembers Gonzalez and Balcombe were recipients of that support (which does not seem like a wise move for an insider who is reliant on patronage to make but such is the devotion to Anderson’s cult of personality). The next day Verma shut down his social media and declared that he was taking a medical leave of absence. Then the Council requested all Board members to tenor their resignations, with CM Glass saying that they “lost confidence” in the Board which seems particularly harsh on Patterson and Dreyfuss.

And keep in mind that is is all occurring within the backdrop that the council is trying to pass this “Thrive” business by the end of October.

In summary, Anderson’s “leadership” is obviously a joke if you just look at the mess that he has made as chair of Parks and Planning among people that agree with him and support Thrive and it should have been apparent to the Council a long time ago. The Council’s unwillingness to hold Anderson accountable and provide any oversight at Parks and Planning until this crisis erupted is their fault. And the repercussions of that are that several peoples reputations and careers have been unnecessarily harmed as a result, including people of color and women, while this privileged jerk white guy is going to ride off into the sunset with lucrative work for any number of area developers.

For so-called “progressives”, the outcome of pretty typical of how sexism and racism plays out in most workplaces where women and people of color are the only people that end up suffering for behavior of white guys who escape unscathed.

- Gwen Wright, woman, lost her job
- Miti Figueredo, woman of color, reputation tarnished and probably should lose her job
- Pratap Verma, person of color, career destroyed
- Carol Rubin, woman, reputation tarnished
- Tina Patterson, woman of color, reputation tarnished
- Louis Dreyfus, white male, reputation tarnished but he’s already retired so it matters much less

And then there is Casey Anderson, with his loyal crew of Twitter white guy defenders and hangers on, with his too-chummy some say corrupt relationships with the development community, who is going to do just fine after all of this. It is messed up.[/quote]

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