Harvard city administrator placed on leave after contract extension rejected

Minutes before new Harvard City Council members were sworn in Tuesday night, the outgoing board voted to not renew City Administrator Lou Leone’s contract.

On Thursday, Leone was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into possible violations of record-keeping requirements, Mayor Mike Kelly said later Thursday. Kelly said the city is looking for emails that may have been deleted.

Leone later said he “absolutely and categorically” denies “ever tampering with public documents” by deleting city-related emails.

Leone was hired in December 2022, replacing Dave Nelson, who was in the role for 35 years. Leone, who was paid $154,425 a year, said this week that he’d expected to stay in the position until his contract ran out May 30, but he was walked out of the office Thursday.

The board rejected a four-year contract extension on a 5-2 vote with one abstention. Those who voted against extending the contract were Lisa Haderlein and Jay Schulz in the 1st Ward, Charles Gorman in the 3rd Ward, and Matthew Perkins and Rosa Luna in the 4th Ward. John Lavallee in the 2nd Ward and Lorena Lancaster in the 3rd Ward voted in favor of extending the contract. Daniel Carncross in the 2nd Ward abstained.

In a second city meeting that followed, Annamarie Platt-Miller was sworn in to the seat that was held by Schulz, Joel Kriete to the seat held by Gorman, and Mike Hoeflich into Carncross’ spot. Schulz, Gorman and Carncross did not run for reelection.

It was up to Kelly, who was reelected April 1, to chose when to hold a vote on Leone’s contract.

“My thought process is the current and now previous board ... have experience working with the city administrator and have the best knowledge of the issues the council has brought up,” Kelly said. “I did not feel the newly elected members ... would have any valid input as to experience working with him.”

He said the council had been considering before Tuesday’s meeting whether to renew the contract. A short, closed-door executive session came before that vote.

Kelly said he was “sad and disappointed but, frankly, [Leone] created this situation.”

In his 2½ years in Harvard, Leone said he never had an evaluation by the City Council or any write-ups.

“I am stunned, to say the least, with everything I have done for the city to move it forward,” he said.