[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written and submitted by verified resident. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of South King Media, nor its staff.]
Burien Deserves a Leader, Not a Bully. Fire Adolfo Bailon!
With deepening concern, we call on the City Council to fire City Manager Adolfo Bailon. His leadership has fractured our community, poisoned city government relationships, and shown a dangerous disregard for transparency and ethical governance. Burien has never faced such turmoil in all the years I’ve lived here. The time for action is now.
Bailon’s Combative Leadership Breeds Dysfunction
Mr. Bailon’s confrontational approach has shattered trust and cooperation within city government. His refusal to meet with Councilmember Hugo Garcia effectively silenced a duly elected representative. This obstruction of democratic process is intolerable. Collaboration and open communication are cornerstones of effective leadership—principles Mr. Bailon clearly lacks.
Key City Personnel Forced Out
Under Mr. Bailon’s tenure, critical city leaders have been driven out. Former Police Chief Ted Boe, an experienced and respected law enforcement officer, was ousted after refusing to enforce an arguably illegal camping ban—a stance supported by the King County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall publicly condemned Bailon’s retaliatory actions, highlighting their violation of state law. His reckless decision-making has left our city less safe and more divided.
Mishandling the Homelessness Crisis
Mr. Bailon’s disastrous management of the homelessness crisis has deepened the city’s struggles. His reckless cancellation of the city’s contract with trusted service provider REACH destabilized critical support systems. In its place, he hired The More We Love—a controversial group notorious for aggressive “sweeps” tactics and alleged breaches of sensitive personal data. This callous mismanagement has harmed Burien’s most vulnerable residents and tarnished the city’s reputation.
Concealing His Performance Review
Equally alarming is Mr. Bailon’s refusal to release his performance evaluation—a critical accountability measure. A consulting firm hired to conduct the review terminated its contract, citing the city’s unwillingness to act on its findings. This suggests the report contains damning evidence of Mr. Bailon’s failures. What is he hiding? The public has a right to know.
The Verdict: Bailon Must Go
Mr. Bailon’s pattern of misconduct, incompetence, and deceit is undeniable. His continued presence as City Manager threatens the very fabric of our community. We demand the Burien City Council act decisively and terminate his employment immediately. Burien deserves leadership rooted in integrity, transparency, and compassion—not bullying, mismanagement, and cover-ups.
– JJ Greive
Burien
City Manager Responds
Below is a statement from City Manager Bailon provided to The B-Town Blog, in response to Greive’s letter:
“Mr. Greive is a well-known and extreme political activist in our community. I am not surprised to see him draft a letter – on this topic – on the heels of a several months-old recycled story republished on the website PubliCola.
“I am not concerned by the letter drafted by Mr. Greive, but I am concerned that Mr. Greive, and Ms. Erica Barnett from PubliCola, seem to support the creation of a hostile work environment against subordinate public employees. I have not seen any indication that Mr. Greive or Ms. Barnett are concerned with and eager to report on the slanderous statements of Councilmember Garcia against his subordinate. It is a shame that some people – and online publications – within our community choose to ignore the actions of their political allies – or those who work to further their preferred political agenda – and look away from the spread of misinformation and creation of hostile work environments against subordinate public employees.
“It is important to note that Councilmember Garcia was previously employed by government (King County) and removed from his position. There have been no calls from Mr. Greive or Ms. Barnett to have Councilmember Garcia release all documents related to any performance evaluations performed of him or his work while employed by King County, that I am aware of.
“Mr. Greive is correct…Burien deserves a leader and not a bully. I will take the words of Mr. Greive to mean that I should exercise my right as a member of the public and submit my own request for public records to King County for all documents related to performance evaluations of Councilmember Garcia and his work.
“Sincerely,
“Adolfo Bailon”
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The precedent you mentioned regarding the release of performance evaluations for city managers was set in the case of the Spokane City Manager, where a state appeals court determined that such evaluations are not exempt from disclosure because they are of legitimate concern to the public. This ruling clearly established that the city manager’s position as “the city’s chief executive officer, its leader, and a public figure” necessitates transparency in their performance assessments.
Your attempts to shield your evaluation from public scrutiny by citing exemptions related to confidentiality and privacy are directly contradicted by this legal precedent. The court in the Spokane case specifically addressed these arguments, finding that the public interest in transparency outweighed concerns about privacy in this particular context.
The law is clear and unambiguous in this matter. We, the citizens of Burien, demand the immediate release of your full, unredacted performance evaluation in compliance with established legal precedent.
Commenting on your own letter is at the least narcissistic, is constantly complaining all you have to do in life?
It’s so appropriate calling him an “extreme political activist” and reason enough to disregard any blather spewing, it’s individuals like that who only want to see and believe one side of the situation due to clouded and vindictive judgment.
If Bailon intended for his letter to demonstrate leadership, level-headedness and fairness, he failed utterly.
It’s well past time to fire Bailon. He’s been nothing but a complete disaster for this city.
So online activists can make all the false claims they want, but if someone defends themselves they showing lack of leadership? Fortunately the majority of people in Burien see the truth and have voted and kept your ilk like Cydney Moore, Crystal Marx, and Patricia Hudson out of local office (and State and National office when it comes to Marx!), and instead elected pragmatic politicians focus on what’s good for Burien, and that includes supporting Bailon.
Never ending bickering. SMH!
Scrolled down to see the author of the original letter… and yeah, no thanks. In other news, Happy Holidays and Cheers to Burien residents!
Totally agree with John. JJ needs to move on. SOS.
I feel like I’m gonna vote Bailon next term.
How about everyone concentrating on doing your jobs. Be civil and polite.
How about these City leaders instead of thinking about their ego’s how about doing the good for the Burien citizens, that is what you were voted in to do! But I think they never will and they ALL need to be booted out and no not the “others” be voted in either, start over fresh and clean.
You haven’t been paying attention as over the last year (minus the dysfunctiona activst duo Sarah/Hugo) the City has accomplished so much for the good of residents and businesses.
Budget Balancing, Comprehensive Plan, fired REACH and refused to bow down to the Homeless Industrial Complex and it’s SCL shack plan. Put pressure on KC to rid the Courthouse of that hellhole camp and made efforts towards providing services that actually accomplish goals, unlike REACH. Most importantly the KC Sheriff and Dow got handed a huge ego blow by having that lawsuit implosion all the while neglecting to enforce laws hired to do so. I call the accomplishments of the Council and Manager a huge success, now if the got a handle on the drug addled crowd outside the DESC and the squatters/trash in the phone bank building entrance. The DESC causes so much neighborhood grief they should focus entirely on that mess for the good of Burien. Happy Holidays
I agree, get tough on that building and get the rules changed, DESC is not helping the homeless or drug addicts, their actually contributing to their addiction’s
“Forced Sheriff Boe out” – no Boe quit
“..controversial More to Love..”
“Refused to meet with Garcia” but you don’t state why.
Finally if Ms Erica Barnett is involved you’ve lost all credibility with me. She is a no stranger to publishing lies being forced to admit to reporting false allegations in the past when with the Atlantic.
No law allows a person to request personal employment information as public records on an ordinary public employee. However, a state court has ruled that a city manager’s employment review, as the executive of a city, is subject to public records requests. Bailon has no legal right to CM Garcia’s employment records at King County. Grow up.
Yet you continue to call the Mayor “ceremonial” all the while complaining and violating public meeting rules and decorum. You really should focus on how your actions conflict with your views.
The state ruling you are talking about is Spokane v. Research and is a NOT the right case to use. It is a case from a court of appeal, and does not have precedence over the WA state supreme court ruling. Read Daly v. Dawson and get quiet. Make new 2025 resolutions to have a life and let others work!!
I agree that Bailon needs to go. I’ll also be voting against a number of other council members.
So crazy that the far left creates the divisiveness, encouraging Garcia and others to partake in it from the Dias, and then tries to blame others for their drama. Look at Burien since the moderates won – notice the clean streets and lack of tents downtown. The falling crime. These are the results of the majority of council working with Bailon. It’s the fringe left like Garcia, Cydney Moore and Sarah Moore who can’t work with others and have their friends show up every week at council hearings to harass the hard working council members they disagree with.
And saying the camping ordinance is “arguably illegal” flies in the face of the fact that the Supreme Court of the US has said it’s legal and the lawsuit challenging it was thrown out of local court.
JJ – you lost the local election. Stop trying to subvert Democracy with the crazy demands and work FOR Burien and with the majority of the people here. Like Bailon and others are doing.
I would double Bailon’s salary if it were up to me, he is about the only thing that has stood between the Burien downtown and it’s total destruction.
None of these advocates, have any stake in downtown, they would happily destroy it and walk away
And, as a side note Mr. Grieves Business is a long way from downtown, which I mention because he uses his 152nd address like it is downtown which it is not, to support his point of view
“I will take the words of Mr. Greive to mean that I should exercise my right as a member of the public and submit my own request for public records to King County for all documents related to performance evaluations of Councilmember Garcia and his work.”
And yet you still refuse to release yours.