SEQUIM — E-mail has ignited a war of words between a Sequim City Council member and a council candidate, with a city manager hopeful caught in the middle.

Earlier this year, council member Ken Hays began exchanging e-mails with Alan Lanning, a finalist last November for the Sequim city manager job, about Lanning’s interest in restarting negotiations.

The messages, obtained through a public records request by the Peninsula Daily News and by council candidate Mike East, show what East considers “back-room” dealing on Hays’ part.

East is running against Don Hall for the position to be vacated by council member Paul McHugh in the Nov. 3 general election.

In a five-page statement issued late last week, East accused Hays of being “involved in his own recruiting efforts to solicit, support and apparently attempt to manipulate the hiring” of Lanning.

Hays on Friday called those allegations “ridiculous nonsense.”

Lanning initiated contact with him, Hays said, and his e-mails were later shared with interim city manager Linda Herzog and the rest of the City Council.

Lanning, for his part, said he wrote to Hays because after visiting Sequim last fall — he went through interviews and met the public at a reception but left after hiring negotiations broke down with the City Council — he still believes he’s the one for the top job.

Lanning e-mailed in May to ask whether the “bridge had been burned” or if he could reapply, and Hays wrote back, urging him to try again. More messages ensued, and on June 1 Lanning e-mailed his “proposal to be Sequim’s next city manager.”

Sequim has lacked a permanent city manager since May 2008, when four new council members, Hays, Susan Lorenzen, Erik Erichsen and Mayor Laura Dubois, voted to fire Bill Elliott.

Hays, in an e-mail to Lanning, said he’s “a strong candidate” and told him of Waldron & Co., the Seattle human resources firm hired by Sequim to recruit a city manager.

Herzog, brought into the exchange between Hays and Lanning, then wrote to the entire City Council.

“I understand from Ken that he has advised [Lanning] to submit his application through Waldron & Co. In this way [he will be] thoroughly vetted and compared with other candidates,” she said in a June 8 e-mail to the seven members.

In the weeks since, the council has met in executive session with Waldron’s Tom Waldron and Lane Youngblood to talk about the pool of candidates and choose finalists.

Session Monday

On Monday, another closed session is scheduled — at 4 p.m. at the Sequim Transit Center — and the council is expected to invite the finalists to Sequim on Aug. 25 for interviews and a community meet-and-greet session.

Lanning said he hopes to be notified early next week whether he’s one of the final three or four candidates.

Dubois, who has no complaint with Hays’ correspondence with Lanning — “he wanted to keep him encouraged” — wouldn’t discuss any of the city manager hopefuls but acknowledged that she too e-mailed Lanning to let him know he could reapply.

Statements ‘outrageous’

East’s statements, Dubois said, are “outrageous.”

Dubois believes East may do “more to harm the process by trying to get this splashed in the paper.”

Hays agreed, adding that it appears East is “trying to make political fortunes” as he seeks election in November.

“The city is actively trying to hire a city manager using a professional search firm who will screen all of the candidates and bring the best ones forward to the council,” Hays said.

East, to his mind, may be “influencing that process and potentially diminishing our options of worthy candidates.” Hays considers that “grossly, enormously irresponsible.”

East responded that he believes Hays had no business corresponding with Lanning separate from Waldron & Co.

“He should have left it alone; he should have let Waldron do the interviewing, recruiting, instead of getting involved,” East said.

“I don’t think I’m interfering. I’m trying to clean up the process.

“I just want the people of the city to know what’s going on behind the scenes.”

If East is elected, he’ll serve on the council with the man he’s accused of inappropriate dealings, at least until the close of 2011, when Hays’ first term ends.

“Yes, I’ll have to work with him,” East said. “I will make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen again.”

East’s opponent, Hall — a former City Council member and current Citizens Park Advisory Board member — has said he has no problems with the way the city manager search is being conducted and that he expects to work well with Hays.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.