What Has Former CRPD Chief Been Up To?

David Edmonds spent more than three years leading the park district that oversees parks in Rosemont and Rancho Cordova, last year without any public explanation.

Since leaving the Cordova Recreation and Park District, he took a $140,000-a-year job in Trinity County, but was removed just four months later.

Edmonds started his job as the county administrative officer with the northern California county on Oct. 16 and was removed in late February, according to the Trinity Journal.

"Absent from all Board of Supervisors’ sessions last week including a mid-year budget review he had reported preparing for, an explanation came Monday in a brief press release saying the county and CAO Edmonds have mutually agreed to separate their employment relationship," the Trinity Journal wrote on Feb. 29.

Edmonds' salary in his new position would have been $140,004 plus benefits, while the previous Trinity County Administrative Officer made $93,861, according to the Trinity Journal. He was also paid $5,000 for relocation fees.

Edmonds' successor, Wendy Tyler, will make $103,000 plus benefits.

Trinity County residents are now left with more questions than answers; an editorial from the Trinity Journal said people "deserve to know why things didn’t work out."

"Why, after a lengthy and exhaustive search for a new CAO, did the Board of Supervisors’ selection last just four months?" the Journal's editorial wrote. "Supervisors gushed over the hire even as red flags from previous employment were raised. The search lasted longer than the hire, but perhaps not long enough.

"What was the reason for his departure? Was it performance-related? Who was unhappy with whom? Did he just not adapt to small town, mountain living?"