Budget disagreements and concerns about SE Pioneer Way’s marketing focus have led to the “mutual termination” of Oak Harbor’s hired communication specialist.

Lesley McConnell announced in a Wednesday email to a group of downtown merchants – the Strategic Advisory Group – that she had agreed to end her contract with the city.

“Under the circumstances my only course of action was mutual termination of my agreement with the city as I cannot deliver an unfunded program,” she wrote.

McConnell was hired in March to help implement a $167,500 plan to mitigate negative effects of the Pioneer Way Improvement Project, particularly those on the business community, through marketing of the downtown area.

McConnell, who has a background in communications, was to be paid $34,560 for eight months of part-time work.

According to McConnell, the fallout was tied to budget problems. In a recent meeting with Mayor Jim  Slowik and City Administrator Paul Schmidt, McConnell said she was informed that the proposed marketing strategy was not possible to fund as there are too many restrictions on city funds to allow a quick decision on any individual line items.

“We mutually agreed it was best for me not to stay,” McConnell said. “I wasn’t asked to resign.”

McConnell said she was asked to provide a breakdown of her time for the past three months, up to and including the end of May, along with suggestions about how to proceed with the remainder of the city’s marketing program.

According to Pioneer Way merchant and property owner Kristi Jensen, the news rocked the downtown business community. McConnell had only been on the job a few months, but she had earned the respect of many shopkeepers.

“We were shocked to hear she was going,” Jensen said. “We put in a lot of hours with her and liked what she was doing.”

Jensen is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group, the consortium of merchants that formed to voice the marketing wishes of Pioneer Way merchants. As the city’s intermediary with the downtown business community, McConnell worked closely with the group to develop a focus for the marketing effort.

Together, they came up with “Remembering the past, building the future,” a theme that played heavily on downtown’s pioneering history. But the slogan may have been a factor in McConnell’s split with the city as it proved unpopular with decision makers.

At a recent Public Works Standing Committee meeting, Slowik criticized the theme to attending city council members by saying it was not the plan that McConnell had pitched when she was hired. While the city’s history had a place in the Pioneer Way marketing effort, he said it was never supposed to be the main focus.

“She’s doing great but it doesn’t seem to apply to what we’re doing downtown,” Slowik said.

At the same meeting, City Councilman Rick Almberg pressured city officials for greater accountability on how the $167,500 was being spent. He requested a detailed financial breakdown similar to the one that has been supplied for the larger Pioneer Way project.

“I don’t feel like we have the same road map for extended outreach,” Almberg said.

As for the marketing focus, Jensen said focusing on downtown’s history may not have been the best choice but it certainly beat the city’s plan to simply keep the public informed with regular updates about the construction effort and promote the finished product.

She also defended it as the choice of the Strategic Advisory Group, a body that formed largely at Slowik’s own suggestion. He wanted a collective voice of merchants that could communicate to city leaders how they believed the marketing money could best be spent.

“The actions don’t follow the words,” Jensen said.

McConnell also expressed surprise over her fallout with the city. Particularly concerning funding, she said she didn’t know what has changed since the day she was hired to make it impossible for the marketing effort to move forward.

She also argued that she has been clear from day one that history would have to be a big part of the marketing effort. Right now, it’s the best quality that the downtown area has to promote.

“What it has to offer at this time is history,” McConnell said. “It may have made some people uncomfortable, but I don’t see why.”