Last night, as has been happening quite often lately, the Blue Lake City Council met in special closed session to discuss the performance of the town’s city manager, Amanda Mager.

The new city council, which was seated on the flip of a coin a few months ago, has been holding special meetings on the same topic quite often. Sometimes they go until the wee hours of the morning.

Mager has long been a target of revanchist ire in the town, and it was long hoped in those circles that this council — the same council that recently torpedoed an effort to get the city’s housing element into compliance with state law — would give her the boot.

What happened at last night’s meeting? As can happen in small towns, the word has spread: Mager was, in fact, fired. People are all over Facebook, either lighting off fireworks or planning protests in the streets.

But is that word correct? Apparently no one who remains at City Hall is willing to say. The Outpost tried twice today to get comment. The first time we called, we were told someone would call us back. This never happened.

The second time we called, the person who answered the phone told us that the city had nothing to report.

Nothing to report? we asked. Well, the Brown Act states that a public body must report any action taken during a closed session upon the closure of the meeting. Are you saying that Ms. Mager, was not, in fact, fired?

Again we were told: We have nothing to report.

But if that’s the case, then …

Click.

So we’re in a bit of a pickle, information-wise. Either:

• Everyone in Blue Lake is wrong, or 
• This city employee is engaging in exxxtreme cover-your-ass behavior. 

We tend to think that Option #2 is far more probably true, but we could be wrong. Maybe Mager was compelled to quit, rather than technically fired. We don’t know. Maybe she’s still working there! Seems unlikely.

In any case, pro-Mager citizens operating under that same assumption will be gathering tonight at 6 p.m. at Perigot Park to discuss what options they have, if any.

Here is the beginning of last night’s meeting, before the council went into its closed session, at which people spoke in favor of or against the city manager. Kind of gives you of taste of where Blue Lake is at right now.