Jacquelyn Hulsey

Big shocker in the airport management clash that was scheduled for the Board of Supervisors meeting today. (See here and here.)

County Administrative Officer Phillip Smith-Hanes opened the item earlier this morning by announcing that the county had yesterday received a letter of resignation from an unnamed senior manager in the county’s aviation division. Therefore, he said, staff had decided to take back its recommended layoff of Program Coordinator Emily Jacobs in order to regroup.

“As a result of this letter of resignation received by the public works director yesterday, staff will need to review the management structure of the airport,” Smith-Hanes said.

Though Smith-Hanes didn’t name her, the resignee appears to be longtime County Airport Manager Jacquelyn Hulsey, who has had a troubled history as the county’s point person on aviation matters. (Again, see here for a quick rundown, and do follow the links to Ryan Burns’ excellent reporting on the subject if you haven’t seen it yet.)

Why did Hulsey suddenly decide to submit her resignation just before the proposed layoff of her deputy was scheduled to explode at the board? That would, indeed, be quite a tale. For now, we can only report what Supervisor Virginia Bass told her colleagues right before voting to go ahead with the other layoffs recommended in today’s item, in response to the flood of comments she had received in advance of today’s meeting:

“I’ve never seen so many people interested in budget review.”