Snipes resigns

Yesterday, Assistant City Manager Anthony Snipes resigned.

Snipes had arranged the March training event designed to help staff deal with the deluge of female City Council members. That training drew national ridicule to City Hall and sparked widespread outrage.

In a memo to Mayor Steve Adler and Council, City Manager Marc Ott explained that he was verbally informed about the results of last week’s investigation into the training.

“After that briefing,” wrote Ott, “I decided to meet with Assistant City Manager Snipes to discuss the circumstances of the training. Based on that conversation, Mr. Snipes has tendered his resignation and I have accepted. His last day will be August 10, 2015. He will use his remaining time with the City to transition his vital projects, programs, and work tasks to applicable staff.”

At a press conference the day after news broke about the training, Ott conveyed that Snipes was surprised about the content of the talk along with everyone else. He said that although Snipes introduced the speakers, he then went directly upstairs to a meeting and missed the discussion.

However, in his introduction to the training session, Snipes himself said that he had selected one of the speakers, Jonathan K. Allen, based on a previous talk Allen had given on the topic.

The next day, Snipes was placed on paid administrative leave.

In his memo, Ott also explained that the official report on the investigation is not yet complete, because he had further questions. Ott wrote that if he has no further questions after the next briefing, however, he expects the final report will be complete and issued “within the next week.”

Though the city has since removed video of the training from its website, the complete seminar is available on the KUT News site.