Submitted by Eric Bartelt
June 3, 2015 6:45 p.m.
The June 2nd City Commission meeting addressed the issue of City Manager Joe Gerrity’s resignation and the process for finding a replacement. At the last Commission meeting, Gerrity resigned his position, saying he would like to stay on until Oct. 2nd. He thought that that would be in the best interest of the City as it would allow him to oversee the upcoming budget process, which begins shortly.
Commissioner Gass said she would prefer to not accept Mr. Gerrity’s resignation at all, but that if it was to be then she would prefer that he stay until Oct. 2nd. Commissioner Lentz questioned how effective Mr. Gerrity would be, citing a possible change in Joe’s commitment, morale and work ethic. She said, “Sometimes when you’ve checked out, you’ve checked.” She raised the possibility of a sooner departure date.
Commissioner Gass countered by defending Gerrity’s professionalism and commitment to the community, and that she didn’t think his staying until Oct. 2nd would be a problem.
Commissioner Poynter disagreed, saying it would be in the best interest of the City if Gerrity leaves earlier, not later. Poynter said he didn’t see the need to have Gerrity around while the City tried to find a new City Manager and Fire Chief. He felt it would be “disruptive to the City as a whole.” He felt the the budget process could be easily managed with the help of Controller Patty Clifford.
Commissioner Miller also defended Gerrity’s professionalism and said he would like to “keep him around as long as possible.” Miller said he felt that was crucial in making the transition to a new City Manager.
Gerrity’s response to this discussion, conducted almost as if he wasn’t there, was to say he would be willing to make Sept. 1st his last day. He agreed with Commissioner Poynter that it would be best if he was not around when the Commission interviewed candidates for his job. He thought it would take four to six months to seat a new manager, anyway, so Sept.1st or Oct 2nd seemed acceptable to him.
Commissioner Poynter again pointed out the difficulty in having a current City Manager in place while seeking a replacement. He wondered, “What happens if the next best guy or gal comes in in the next three weeks, what do we do? Do we wait, or do we have two City Managers and a Deputy City Manager?” Gerrity responded that if the Commission found someone before Sept. 1st, he would be fine with that.
Commissioner Lentz brought up Mr. Gerrity’s severance package, suggesting that it would be financially better for the City if Gerrity left either immediately or on Oct. 2nd. Gerrity pointed out that his contract calls for 30 days notice, so leaving immediately would not be consistent with that.
Mayor Boner reminded everyone that the Commission isn’t firing Mr. Gerrity, “…he’s resigning. It’s a friendly thing, or it’s supposed to be a friendly thing.”
If the City found someone before Oct. 2nd, Commissioner Gass reasoned, “…it means that person is unemployed and one thing we don’t want is an unemployed City Manager, because they’ve already been fired (someplace else). So we might want to hang on to what we’ve got till we can find out what’s going to replace him.” Attorney Bach interjected that the City has never had any trouble getting lots of qualified City Manager applicants.
Before turning to the process for hiring a new City Manager, Commissioner Miller made a motion to accept Sept. 1st as Joe Gerrity’s last day. The motion died for lack of a second. Commissioner Gass then made a motion to accept Oct. 3rd as the final day, as Mr. Gerrity originally proposed, and that motion was seconded by Commission Miller and a vote was taken. The vote was 4-1, with Commissioner Poynter voting against.
The Commission then turned to the process for hiring a new City Manager. After discussing the benefits and cost (about $23,000) of using a professional search consultant, the Commission agreed to go that route instead of using the free services of the ICMA Range Rider Program, which assists communities with the process of locating new City Manager applicants.
Editor’s Note: Eric Bartelt retired as a corporate design consultant and moved to Fernandina Beach in 2004. His previously lived in Wisconsin. Since Eric’s arrival in Fernandina Beach, he spends his time volunteering, and playing soccer. We thank Eric for his contributions to the Fernandina Observer.