Council fires city manager

During the beginning of the Dacono City Council meeting Monday, Mayor Adam Morehead presented City Manager AJ Euckert with an award recognizing him for 20 years of service to the community.

At the end of that same meeting, Euckert was terminated.

Without offering any explanation, Mayor Pro Tem Kathryn Wittman made a motion to fire Euckert, which passed in a 4-2 vote.

In addition to Wittman, council members Jackie Thomas, Danny Long and Jim Turini voted to fire Euckert, effective immediately.

The entire exchange, which wasn’t part of the original meeting agenda, lasted less than three minutes due to there being little to no discussion among the council members.

“This just reeks of dirty politics,” Morehead said in an interview Wednesday.

Morehead, who votes only in the event of a tie, said he was shocked by Euckert’s firing and upset at how the situation unfolded.

“This was obviously a premeditated and planned action by these four council members,” Morehead said.

Wittman, Thomas and Turini could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and Long declined to comment.

Morehead made clear that he had no advanced knowledge of the four council members’ desire to remove Euckert and would have voted to retain Euckert had there been a tie.

“This came out of nowhere,” Morehead said. “Council refused to even discuss it and even said in an open meeting they didn’t need cause to fire him.”

The city manager is the chief administrative officer for the city and oversees its day-to- day operations. The position is also responsible for preparing and submitting the city’s annual budget to the council for consideration and adoption.

“Dacono’s scrambling,” Morehead said as a result of Euckert’s departure.

Council members Doris Crespo and Kevin Plain voted against the motion to fire Euckert.

“I don’t believe the city manager deserved that at all,” Crespo said.