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Embattled public works chief quits By Sara Murphy CENTRAL POINT � Public Works Director Lee Brennan resigned Monday, a week after he was placed on paid leave while city officials looked into a complaint about his hot temper. "I did not resign because of the complaint," Brennan said. "I resigned because I decided to pursue other interests." Brennan�s resignation, which takes effect Thursday, came on the heels of the city�s internal investigation into a grievance filed by a building department employee. Rochelle Lake, who did not work for Brennan, complained that he was temperamental and had yelled at her in front of staff several times, most recently around the Memorial Day weekend. "She was complaining about his attitude and treatment, which amounted to a hostile work environment," said Teamsters Union representative Wayne Botta. While Lake was the only city employee to file a grievance against Brennan, City Council member Donna Higginbotham said contractors contacted the city months ago with complaints that he was "hard to work with." Still, Higginbotham said, she was surprised when she heard Brennan would be leaving the city. "Sometimes extra-intelligent people are hard to work with, and he was a good engineer," Higginbotham said. "I had an inkling that he had a temper, but he was always very nice with me." Brennan, who lives in Jacksonville, is the focus of an unrelated investigation at the state regulatory agency responsible for licensing professional engineers. The State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying is looking into a complaint about Brennan�s "professional conduct," said Ed Graham, the board�s executive secretary in Salem. The complaint, filed by a local engineer, does not involve other city staff and is unrelated to allegations about Brennan�s personality, Graham said. "You can look through our law books and you won�t find anything that says it�s illegal to be a jerk," he said. "If that were the case, we wouldn�t have very many engineers or surveyors. "And I am a licensed professional engineer, so I can say that," he joked. Graham declined to discuss details of the state�s investigation, but said the complaint involves "professional conduct," not incompetence or negligence. If the engineering board were to find fault with Brennan�s actions, Graham said, penalties could range from a letter of reprimand being placed in his licensing file to revocation of his license. Central Point will begin recruiting to fill the public works director/city engineer position right away, said City Administrator Jim Bennett. He�s considering whether to ask the City Council for approval to split the position into two jobs. "I think we�re getting near the point where we need to look at the idea of splitting it up," Bennett said, "because of the size of the city and the volume of the workload." In the meantime, Central Point has contracted with Thornton Engineering in Medford to carry out the city�s engineering duties. Bennett said he hasn�t decided whether to appoint an interim public works director. "We may or may not do that, depending on how long it takes to recruit someone," he said. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA