McLean isn’t the first Boise mayor to dole out a large severance to a key staffer
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean ignited questions earlier this year when the city paid a six-figure severance to her departing chief of staff, Courtney Washburn. But McLean is not the first mayor to come under scrutiny for a severance payment.
Washburn, who served as chief of staff for six years, left her role in March. The city paid almost $113,000 in severance, almost $77,000 in unused leave and $7,000 in a benefit distribution, according to a records request.
“After thoughtful reflection, I’ve decided to return to the field of advocacy. It was not an easy choice, but it feels like the right step for me at this time,” Washburn said in a press release announcing her departure.
But in the early 1990s, Dirk Kempthorne, the recently deceased longtime Idaho politician, weathered a scandal when Boise authorized tens of thousands in payments to two staffers who left to work for former mayor Kempthorne’s Washington office in the months after he was elected senator, according to previous Statesman reporting.
The payments, of $15,000 and $22,000 respectively, would be worth between $35,000 and $51,000 today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator.
Under a 1990 policy, “department heads and executive assistants to the mayor receive at least two months’ pay when they leave the city, even if they take higher-paying jobs elsewhere,” the Statesman reported at the time. The two departing staff members received four months and three months, above and beyond the policy.
The policy was designed to get top leaders out without lawsuits, The Spokesman-Review later reported. The severance payments in question were returned, according to previous Statesman reporting.
Seemingly in response, lawmakers during the 1993 legislative session introduced bills to ban severance pay for state, city or county government employees, according to previous Statesman reporting. The bill to ban local governments from paying severance to employees who leave on their own volition failed, according to the Lewiston Tribune, but the state version passed.
Still, the city of Boise undid that policy, according to The Spokesman-Review.
So what’s the policy now?
City spokesperson Maria Ortega pointed the Statesman to the city’s employee handbook, which says that when the city “severs the employment” of a high-ranking official, the mayor can decide to offer a severance package. That package depends on considerations like the person involved not being terminated for misconduct or “unsatisfactory performance,” and the employee signing a separation agreement.
People who get a severance package get one week of pay for each year worked or 12 weeks of pay, whichever is greater, though the policy said the mayor can change, lower or “enhance” the offered terms.
Washburn, who made more than $200,000 a year, appears to have received more than that.
In response to questions about the nature of Washburn’s departure and whether McLean decided to enhance the offer, Ortega said: “There’s no other information that the city can provide other than what you received in the (records request). This is a personnel issue and separation agreements legally prohibit either party from discussing the matter.”
