Armento's departure makes this the third senior staff to leave the city's employment in less than a year.

First it was the city manager, Bob LaSala, in February; then it was the Public Safety chief, Ernie Bakin, in August. And now Armento. And this week we learned that the head of the city's human relations department, Mark Gregersen, is leaving so he can work closer to his home in the Sierra foothills and the city's director of libraries, Victoria Johnson, is heading out, too.

By any standard these significant departures leave a major hole in the city's management team.

As of now, the city has an interim city manager (long term); it's on its third interim public safety chief, and the assistant city attorney will step up to take over for Armento.

What's troubling here are two things; first that the council has not even begun to look for a permanent city manager, a task that typically takes six months. Under a city management form of government like Sunnyvale's, the staff does the day to day work for the city while the council sets policy. The city manager is the one who hires the public safety chief, the human relations director and the librarian and so on and is the one to set the tone and management style for staff. While Amy Chan is a long-time and well thought of city employee, she still has the title "interim" city manager. With a council that seems to take pot shots at the staff, Chan is in a difficult position.

Second, and even more troubling, is the tone this council is setting in its relationship with city staff.

The circumstances under which the council ousted the city manager and the city attorney cannot but leave the rest of the staff intimidated and wondering who might be next. In the current atmosphere, it's hard to imagine any staff member feeling the support of the council.

Frankly, those of us who have watched this council at meetings have witnessed a lack of respect for the work of city staff.

It's important to understand that it's not unusual for a city council with newly elected members to decide it cannot work well with a current city manager or city attorney, but there is no reason to treat any employee, certainly the senior staff, with disrespect.

City manager, Bob LaSala—according to what several people told The Sun off the record—was suddenly escorted out of his office one day by two council members and then locked out of his email. Mayor John Howe denied that this had happened but said that LaSala, who had worked for the city since 1997 and had the support of previous council members and of the city staff, had been put on administrative leave.

This sort of action in itself implied that LaSala had done something wrong. But Howe insisted that LaSala was simply on leave and that nothing was wrong.

Not long after LaSala had been put on leave, The Sun learned that he had retained an attorney and that the council had also retained an outside attorney to deal with the matter. Then some two months later the city issued a press release announcing that LaSala and the city had parted company. The agreement stated that those involved with the settlement could not talk about the matter publicly, leaving the matter of what had happened to rumor. The settlement allowed for more than $200,000 in payments to LaSala and the ending of all claims the two parties had against one another (whatever they were). And LaSala kept his retirement benefits.

The council could have let LaSala go in a completely different and professional atmosphere if it had followed a process that was laid out in his contract with the city. Wait 90 days from the date of the election of new members to the council and say goodbye.

Public Safety chief, Ernie Bakin was hired in August of 1999 but had fallen out of favor with the Public Safety Officers Association—a powerful player in Sunnyvale politics—in large part because Bakin agreed to cuts to public safety's budget in 2003. Bakin went on leave with a back injury in October 2003. He retired in August of this year without ever returning to work, and there have been three interim chiefs since he went on disability. The second one left saying he simply couldn't work with the current city manager.

And now Valerie Armento has suddenly left her position. Well not suddenly because there have been a number of closed meetings between the council and Armento since July, and both parties retained lawyers. Mayor John Howe told The Sun that Armento had simply told the council she wanted to resign. But Armento has told The Sun that last July the council expressed its interest in her not continuing her employment with the city. She also told The Sun the new council never attempted to establish a working relationship with her. Armento has been Sunnyvale's city attorney since 1991.

According to the agreement signed by both parties, Armento will stay on the city's payroll until Sept. 30, 2005, and will collect her full pay and benefits until then.

Armento served Sunnyvale for 13 years and LaSala for seven years. On their watch the city retained its reputation for being well run, and they had the respect of previous council members and the staff they worked with. They deserved to be treated with dignity, respect and candor. And the city staff and the city's residents need to see that kind of behavior from this council; otherwise the council appears to be unprofessional; one could even call these council members bullies.

This council needs to find a qualified city manager as soon as possible to reestablish an atmosphere of respect for city staff.

Or, yes, this city could well fall apart and lose the positive reputation it has enjoyed both locally and nationally.

Sandy Sims is the editor of The Sun. Contact her at 408.200.1055 or via email, ssims@svcn.com.