EARL WATT & ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
After a 45-minute executive session and a specially called meeting Friday, the Liberal City Commission came to an open session and voted to terminate City Manger Rusty Varnado with cause.
The motion was made by Jeff Parsons and seconded by Matt Landry.
The vote was 5-0.
Varnado was a contracted employee and had two more years on his current agreement. The agreement states what is expected of the city manager and what behavior would be considered to be cause for termination of the agreement. Since the commission stated that the termination was with cause, that would indicate Varnado violated the terms of the agreement.
Varnado was not in Liberal at the time of the termination.
Varnado became city manager after Calvin Burke resigned soon after the election of Jeff Parsons, Janeth Vazquez and Jose Lara in 2021. Burke replaced Mark Hall, who was terminated after the election of Connie Seigrist, Taylor Harden and Justin Varnes in 2017.
After the termination of Varnado as Liberal’s city manager, the Liberal City Commission met Monday afternoon to discuss the next steps.
After two 30-minute executive sessions and some brief open discussion, the Liberal City Commission ultimately voted unanimously to appoint Scarlette Diseker as interim city manager. Diseker currently serves as the City of Liberal Chief Financial Officer.
More details as far as Diseker’s contract and other logistics will be discussed during the commission’s forthcoming meetings, and will be reported on when they become available.
