By Mike Lednovich
Fernandina Beach city commissioners, still reeling from the abrupt departure of City Manager Ty Ross, heeded the community’s call to right the city’s administrative ship.
In a special meeting Tuesday, commissioners chose not to push the panic button after Ross’ sudden resignation last Friday.
The city commission took two steps toward bringing order to the administration. First, they closed the books on Ross’ unprecedented brief term as city manager by approving a severance package of more than $50,000.
Then they turned the city over to Deputy City Manager Charlie George as interim city manager. It will be George’s second stint as interim city manager in the past nine months. He was interim city manager before Ross was hired in September.
“I am personally looking forward to having Charlie George back. Charlie, you’ve done a great job for us in the past and I’m thankful you’re willing to do this for us in the future,” said Mayor Bradley Bean.
The special meeting had originally been scheduled to discuss Ross’ behaviors from Oct. 29 when he admitted he got drunk downtown and then crashed his bicycle attempting to ride home. Witnesses summoned police and Ross was found disoriented and incoherent. Police then provided him a ride home. In the days that followed, Ross failed to report the incident to commissioners for nearly a month.
Instead the focus of the meeting changed when Ross, after polling individual commissioners last week, verbally resigned Friday after just nine weeks as city manager.
None of the commissioners chose to rehash the past events and turned their attention on what to do next.
Commissioner James Antun advised that the commission had three options.
“Option number one is continuing staying with our current interim city manager for up to a year and then re-initiating the search with consultant Colin Baenziger at the completion of the (2024 city) election,” Antun said. “Option number two is an immediate search (with Colin Baenziger) as Mr. George continues to run the city. Option number three would be to discuss considerations if we feel Mr. George is worthy of our current city manager position. Of course he needs to be willing to accept that.”
Before commissioners had a chance to respond, City Attorney Tammi Bach said the commission’s first action should be to vote on Ross’ proposed severance agreement.
During public comment regarding the severance, Richard Deem told commissioners, “We all want to move on … but to me the $50,000 sends the wrong signal to the community, of going through a budget process where we dipped into reserves during budget work and now we’re going to give somebody a package that looks a little fat.”
The severance included $10,000 in vacation pay and $7,500 for relocation expenses even though Ross never moved his family to the city from Tennessee.
But Bach said that if the severance were not approved, the consequences could be a protracted legal fight that could result in costing the city almost double what was being proposed.
Commissioner Chip Ross said not approving the severance would be “opening Pandora’s box and it’s time to move on.”
The second half of the meeting focused on the next city manager.
Commissioner Darron Ayscue told commissioners, “I’m not in a good position right now to be able to say this is what needs to happen permanently. I’d like to have a couple of weeks to sit down and talk about this.”
Along with Antun’s three options, commissioners threw out having George serve as interim city manager while Colin Baenziger conducted a search for a deputy city manager. That plan would be for George to mentor that deputy city manager in order to eventually take the position of city manager.
The commission also did not know if George was interested in taking the city manager job on a permanent basis.
One sticking point in having George, a city employee, holding the position of interim city manager is the City Charter. The charter states that city commissioners cannot direct the duties of city employees. Commissioners can only direct charter officers which are the city manager, city attorney and city clerk.
The charter also states the city manager must live in the city. George currently resides in Yulee.
The commission agreed for Bach to negotiate an agreement with George and to also postpone the discussion of next steps to permanently fill the city manager job until its Jan. 2 meeting.
In the sudden hype of Charlie George please take a moment to consider his track record. Mr. George oversees the Planning, Code Enforcement, Permitting, Building Inspections, Stormwater functions for the city amongst others. All of these functions have been to say the least “controversial” – some would use much stronger language. Where does a fish stink from? Mr. George spearheaded the attack on Brett’s. The City Commission did not consider Mr. George a candidate last round, he doubled their pay, a bold act in an interim capacity, suddenly he is a leading candidate. This looks like Fernandina Beach corrupt politics yet again.
The City Charter Section 25 requires that at least two candidates be considered, so a direct appointment of Mr. George would violate that requirement.
Certainly if he is interested in the position, he should apply when the opening is posted by the City Clerk, and would seem to be a strong candidate when/if he does.
Commissioner Chip Ross noted that section of the charter and said the city has considered more than 50 candidates already so selecting George would not violate that requirement.
What will Mike do until he pins a target on the next city manager? Somebody give him a Sudoku book.