BUCYRUS—Bucyrus City Council Clerk Rebecca Warren has submitted her resignation letter to the Bucyrus City Council and Administration. In the letter, she states that she feels like she has been set up to fail and that she has been “slammed and berated” by Vicki Dishon. We will have more on this as it develops.
Here is the letter Warren submitted:
Dear Bucyrus City Council and Administration,
This letter is to inform you I will be resigning from my position of Council Clerk effective immediately, as of Friday, October 29, 2021 at 1:00pm. I want to thank you all for the opportunity to serve the City of Bucyrus. I regret to inform you I am choosing to resign for multiple reasons. I value myself as a good person who demands respect. I do not feel I have received that respect from a select few Council members as well as the current Council President. I feel I have been publicly harassed by a member of the public to which Council has not done anything to my defense, even though I have asked for that situation to be handled.
I came into this position with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn. I have received very minimal training, yet I have been made to look as though I am not doing the job I was appointed to do. I have been expected to know the ins and outs of this position even though I have had very minimal guidance. I have been berated and have been forced to go through defamation of character publicly. I have been told to sit back and keep my thoughts or feelings to myself in regard to all of these situations. I have had your Council President as well as members of this Council attempt to sabotage me in this position and have my personal information/texts passed around with no regard to my privacy or how I would feel about that. When I mentioned I did not want that happening I was told by your Council President, “When you are on taxpayer time your business is everyone’s business and all council has the right and duty to know what is going on.” To which I state, I have a right to privacy when it concerns my health, my life or the lives of my children and family and it is my choice who I share information with. I experienced firsthand, your Council President send out messages to council members telling only part of a story in what I feel was an effort to make herself look good and me look bad.
I sincerely feel I was set up to fail at this position from day one and I have not been given the chance to not only learn this position but also not given the chance to effectively work in this position. I reached out to all members of Council on numerous occasions seeking some type of guidance and support in the situation with Ms. Vicki Dishon. That guidance and support has not been received and the situation has now gotten worse. Ms. Dishon has taken to contacting other areas within the city and even attending other city meetings and “pointing me out”. As you all know I have felt she has been harassing me and publicly shaming and berating me since I started and the only responses I get are “wait it out, “we’re trying”, “we want to avoid a lawsuit”, “you could just try to make her happy”. All of those statements painted the light that me, as an employee of the city and working directly for council, should bow down to another person and my own feelings or performance did not matter. I had asked you all if any of you had even read my minutes versus the corrections she provided and not one person responded to that specific question. I can only guess as to the reason for not responding is because the direct answer would be “No”.
I will not allow myself to be put into this power struggle and made to feel as though I am simply a chair warmer and nothing else or made to feel less than and unimportant. I have dedicated my entire adult life to helping others and have maintained a positive outlook and I was hoping to continue that while working for City Council. Much to my regret that is not what I have experienced. I feel continuing in this position is not beneficial to myself, my family or the City as I can not sit by and be disrespected.
Whoever this position goes to I can only hope the Council will learn from my experiences and be supportive of their Clerk. I ask that you all remember, the Clerk of Council works for Council as a whole and as such the Council as a whole should wholeheartedly and absolutely stand up for, defend and back their Clerk. I sincerely hope no further Clerk(s) should be made to feel the way I have in this position. I sincerely hope the public who votes pays close attention to this letter and they think about this while they are voting on who the next Council President is going to be. I ask the public to remember the Council Clerk is meant to represent the Public and the City and should be treated far better than I have.
I thank you all for your time with this letter and wish you all the best. Unfortunately, I will not be part of whatever is coming further for this Council.
Rebecca Warren