The City of Bethel's planning department is the latest to lose its leader. The former city planner was fired a month ago according to the planner herself, Betsy Jumper.
Jumper says that Acting City Manager Bill Howell called her into his office on June 13 and told her she could either resign or be fired. She chose to be fired. She says that Howell told her that there had been complaints about her, but Jumper thinks that her firing was due to a dispute she’d had with Howell about a development in Housing Subdivision that she opposed and he supported.
Acting City Manager Howell declined to comment on personnel matters.
Jumper joins a growing list of former department heads that have left the City of Bethel in recent months. It started with the former city manager, Pete Williams, who was fired 3 months ago. In the past few weeks, both the police chief and the city attorney have resigned.
The city will be interviewing candidates this week to fill the city planner position.
