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Wednesday, May. 20, 2009

UPDATE: Edge says he refused to resign from top county post

Blames his top aide for 'enormous betrayal of trust' after she complained about him

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Deposed County Administrative Officer David Edge said today he was fired this week because he would not resign and take a smaller severance package after his top aide, Gail Wilcox, made “informal allegations” that he had made “unwanted intrusions” into her private life.

Among the intrusions that Edge revealed: He bought Wilcox a book entitled “Getting Naked Again: Dating, Romance, Sex, and Love When You've been Divorced, Widowed, Dumped, or Distracted,” by clinical psychologist Judith Sills.

He said the book – which despite the racy title was well-reviewed and mainstream – was designed to help Wilcox at a difficult time in her personal life.

In a lengthy conversation with The Tribune Wednesday, Edge did not reveal everything, but generally outlined his side of the controversy, repeating several times that what he considered as a longtime relationship in which he served as Wilcox’s professional mentor and private friend went sour in recent months.

Wilcox, who remains on paid administrative leave, could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Board of Supervisors Chairman Bruce Gibson said Edge’s departure does not affect Wilcox being on administrative leave. “As long as (she’s) on administrative leave, you can assume there’s a personnel matter we’re working to resolve,” he said.

Beyond that, Gibson said he was keeping mum about the inner details of the Edge-Wilcox situation on the advice of County Counsel Warren Jensen. The law requires supervisors to protect the confidentiality of employees, he said.

“I’m not indicating that any of these allegations even exist,” he said.

However, speaking for himself and not the board, Gibson shed a little more light on Edge’s departure.

He said it is possible for a board of supervisors and chief administrative officer to simply have differences in style. “You can come to a point where you’re simply not compatible,” he said.

For example, he said, he disagrees with Edge’s assertion that the county has a culture of “stifling political correctness.” He also said he has no indication that anyone leaked information from an executive session about Edge’s dismissal, which Edge claimed Tuesday, and challenged Edge to deliver proof.

The fact that Edge made those charges, Gibson said, shows that “There is some level of mismatch between him and this supervisor,” Gibson said.

As Edge laid out his side of the story Wednesday, the supervisors prepared to find a replacement. Supervisor Adam Hill said he would prefer a search that includes candidates from outside San Luis Obispo County.

Today Edge shared with The Tribune what he saw as the circumstances leading to his departure, going well beyond his cryptic allusion to “political correctness” at Tuesday’s dismissal hearing.

Edge conceded that Wilcox might have a different version of events.

For the first time, Edge addressed the heretofore unattributed rumors that he lost his job because Wilcox, his direct subordinate, complained about inappropriate sexual behavior.

“I have a feeling of enormous betrayal of trust,” he said. He portrayed his relationship to her as that of an elder brother and confidante over 10 years.

Edge said that Gibson and Jensen told him on May 7 that they had received “an informal complaint from Gail.”

The next day, he said, during an extraordinary four-hour executive session with the board, supervisors told him, “If I were to leave the county in a reasonable period of time,” the issue would die there.

That issue, he said, grew out of a long-term professional relationship with Wilcox, who was widely viewed as his protégé. As happens with people in the work place, they shared information about their private lives as well.

He said she introduced “extensive details” of her life in their conversations, and joked that talking with him was less expensive than seeing a psychiatrist.

Sometime in the past six months, Edge said, he believes he crossed some sort of line where Wilcox found his advice intrusive. That was particularly true when he got involved with discussing her re-entering the dating scene, he said.

One of the gestures he made was to buy her the “Getting Naked Again” book.

In hindsight, Edge said, he does not believe it wise and perhaps not possible for people of opposite sexes to develop personal friendships in the workplace.

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