City council moves personnel payment dispute involving former administrator to executive session; says it will defend claim

The City of Washington’s mayor and council voted Aug. 12 to move a payment matter involving former City Administrator Jerry deBin into executive session for personnel and litigation discussion.

During the open meeting the council made a motion to stop all payments to deBin and referred the issue to executive session; the motion was taken up behind closed doors. The executive session concluded about 9:20 p.m., and City Attorney Adam Nelson reported that two personal matters and two litigation matters had been discussed and that no further action was taken in the closed session.

After the executive session, the council stated it has forwarded a complaint filed by deBin to the city’s insurance carrier and said it maintains deBin “was not subjected to any discrimination and will aggressively defend this claim.” The transcript does not record additional public detail about the substance of the complaint or any financial calculations related to payments to deBin.

The council did not record a public vote tally for the motion to move the deBin matter to executive session; minutes indicate motions at the meeting generally passed unanimously but do not provide roll-call counts tied to this item. No formal settlement or payment decision was announced in open session.

Next steps recorded in the meeting transcript: the matter remains in executive session review or with counsel and the insurance carrier; the council adjourned after the closed session.