Mayor Foster’s last official council act is to deal with an employee issue

• Editor’s note: Mayor Foster’s last official act presiding over the last scheduled city council meeting of his term will be Tuesday’s Executive Session to “evaluate complaints or charges brought against a public officer or employee.”
• Ostensibly, this will be about the sexual harassment and intimidation allegations against City Administrator Michael Grayum.
• City Administrator Grayum has not publicly announced any transition plans to work with Mayor-elect Joe DePinto, so one take-away would be that Mr. Grayum will not remain at city hall much longer, regardless of the results of the independent investigation.
• One of Mayor Foster’s lasting legacies will be his 6+ month lag in properly instigating a third-party, independent investigation of the Grayum allegations, and never placing him on administrative leave, which allowed a “toxic” workplace to ensue.
• Will the public be informed about the employee issue, in transparency Foster committed when he ran for mayor?

+ Yelm City Council: Tuesday’s agenda has an Executive Session “to evaluate complaints or charges brought against a public officer or employee RCW 42.30.110”