Do you think it's a good idea to write a letter to your boss blasting him for "grossly inaccurate," "reckless," and "offensive" comments he made about you?
County Administrator Chuck. H. Huckelberry did.
This week, Huckelberry wrote Supervisor Ray Carroll criticizing him for comments Carroll made on a radio talk show.
Carroll, who released Huckelberry's private memo, has fired back with his own letter.
Testy exchanges are never pretty, especially between two public officials who have a history of disputes.
Recently I wrote about the county supervisors' decision to spend $3.8 million to locate, count and create a computer database for the county's estimated 59,000 manholes.
It was a tongue-in-cheek critical piece.
Well, it has caused some fur to fly between the District 4 supervisor and Huckelberry.
Carroll, who has made no secret of his differences with Huckelberry, took to the airwaves.
He criticized the decision and Huckelberry. Carroll suggested that Huckelberry was manipulating the contract award "to a friend."
"It was Chuck taking care of one of his friends when his own department could have been doing that (manhole) inventory themselves, obviously," Carroll said on the radio show.
Huckelberry was a bit miffed.
"For the record, your remarks . . . are not only grossly inaccurate, they are reckless and offensive," Huckelberry wrote in his personal memo to Carroll.
The chief administrator defended the consultant selection process as appropriate within established procedures.
"In the future, I would hope you would be better informed . . . so that you do not misstate the facts and portray such items in a false light."
That got Carroll's dander up a tad.
"Mr. Huckelberry, my primary job is to look out for the taxpayers of Pima County," Carroll wrote back.
Carroll again questioned the contract and its amount, arguing that it was too much.
He wrote that he will not stop with his criticisms.
"Unlike you, Mr. Huckelberry, I know for whom I work," wrote Carroll, one of Huckelberry's five employers.
Obviously, these two guys don't like each other much.
In January, Carroll didn't vote to rehire Huckelberry and award him a $4,000 raise.
The Republican supervisor has widely criticized Huckelberry's financial management and contract-award decisions.
Privately Carroll has asked some of his four colleagues to replace Huckelberry, who has a a four-year, $184,900-per-year contract
That's not going to happen, at least not now. Carroll doesn't have two votes.
Huckelberry said he doesn't mind the criticism from supervisors.
"I get it all the time," he said in a telephone interview yesterday.
But he won't idly sit if a supervisor "intentionally misrepresents the facts," he said.
Well, I kind of feel responsible for this recent flap between the two.
In good conscience I had to do something.
So I called an expert in employer-employee relations.
Cathy Nicholson, UA director of employee relations, said there are many ways for an adult to respond to another adult in a dispute.
"Greater the words, greater the outrage," Nicholson said.
The level of response from the aggrieved party depends on the seriousness of the charge made by the accuser, said Nicholson.
Another way of saying it: One hard verbal slap will get one back.
To resolve differences, Nicholson said the two individuals first have to understand what their conflict is about and to agree that they have a common mission.
Said Nicholson: "Things happen. People get mad. Get over it."
* Contact Ernesto Portillo Jr. at 573-4242 or e-mail at netopjr@azstarnet.com
