Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
September 7, 2016 6:35 p.m.
During their September 6, 2016 Regular Meeting, the Fernandina Beach City Commission took care of some routine—and not so routine—business.
Charter Officer Performance Reviews
There has never been unanimity among city commissioners through the years on how to rate the performances of their three charter officers: the city manager, the city attorney and the city clerk. Some commissions have chosen to deliver their evaluations one-on-one in private setting, others to do so publicly; some have used a ten point form devised for this purpose, others have chosen to do free form evaluations.
The bottom line this year is that all five commissioners publicly rated each charter officer as meeting or exceeding specific expectations. In preparing their ratings, commissioners considered performance requirements under the City Charter as well as those in individual employment contracts.
Commissioners commented only briefly on the city manager’s performance, since they had recently given him a positive 6-month review. But commissioners rated him extremely high in demonstrating accountability to the commission.
Commissioner Kreger delivered his comments first and declared that he believed that the city was moving forward positively under the charter officers, and that he looked forward to even more progress next year.
Vice Mayor Robin Lentz rated City Manager Dale Martin highly and expressed appreciation to City Attorney Tammi Bach and City Clerk Caroline Best for the progress against goals that they set for themselves over the past year. She directed her remarks specifically to City Attorney Bach, whose performance Lentz had singled out for criticism last year. “I want the community and you to know we’ve improved things,” Lentz said. “I’ve really appreciated your feedback, contact and your level of professionalism. I’d like to thank you for that.”
Commissioner Tim Poynter said, “I think they are all doing a very professional job. And that’s what we’re paying them to do. I appreciate that. And the citizens should appreciate what they are doing. It’s not necessarily an easy job.” He added that the city has had many important issues to handle this past year and “everyone has handled them accordingly.”
Commissioner Roy Smith said he had met with all three about their evaluations. “I think we are very lucky to have all three,” he said. “They are all doing really good jobs for us.” He complimented the city attorney and the city clerk and about the city manager said, “He is doing such a good job, I don’t think we could say anything bad about him. It’s such a nice change.”
Mayor John Miller concurred with his peers. “I think Dale [Martin] has done an outstanding job stepping into a difficult job and hit the ground running. Tammi [Bach] is a wealth of knowledge. I don’t know how she does it. And Caroline [Best]… anybody that I send to City Hall comes back with rave reviews about what a great experience our City Clerk’s Office is.” He also expressed his happiness that all five commissioners were in agreement on the value and level of performance of the charter officers.
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a 3.5 percent salary increase for City Attorney Bach and City Clerk Best, who has now received her certification as a municipal clerk. Following a suggestion from Commissioner Tim Poynter, they agreed to postpone consideration of a salary increase for City Manager Dale Martin until he completes his first year of service later this calendar year.
Fire Department Grievance
City Manager Dale Martin updated commissioners on the grievance filed by Firefighter Steven P. Henderson against the city. Firefighter Henderson is grieving his demotion following a recent traffic stop. During their remarks, every commissioner expressed strong support for both Fire Chief Ty Silcox and the City Manager in this matter. City Attorney Tammi Bach reported that in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the firefighters local, the parties would meet soon to select an arbitrator to hear the case this fall.
Forensic Audit
During his remarks, City Manager Dale Martin reported that following the August 12, 2016 report from the accounting firm of Dufresne & Associates into the Parks and Recreation Department’s handling of funds, he was not recommending moving forward with the recommendation to conduct a forensic audit. He cited the cost—probably upwards of $20,000—and his own determination that all funds collected for the cancelled barbecue event had been properly refunded.
“To the best of our knowledge,” he said, “every dollar collected for that event has been returned. The reason that I cancelled that event was the lack of financial control. There was no deep-seated belief that money was missing, but we did have a lack of financial controls. So based upon the cost and the need to go through the RFP process, I’m recommending that we not go forward with the forensic investigation. I think that the Parks and Recreation Department is making the required changes in a very fast manner as recommended in the initial audit. Those recommendations are reflected in the evaluations, which I am providing to the department director and subordinate staff. I would appreciate your comments and insights into this issue.”
Commissioner Roy Smith was the first to comment. “I have a problem if we do not proceed [with the forensic audit],” he said. “If I was just sitting [in the audience] I’d say, ‘well, you spent the money to find [the problem], but now you are not going to do anything about it.’ I think that sends a bad message because, we don’t know, we could have other department problems. There could be more about the barbecue that we don’t know. We don’t know about other events. I think we should pursue it because there could be more than [Jay Robertson] involved. We need to follow through or else we set a bad precedent. I think the people in the city would expect us to follow through. That was city money involved, and we have other departments that collect money, too. Just to say that one thing was corrected doesn’t mean that there weren’t 3-4 more that were not.”
Commissioner Len Kreger agreed with Smith. He brought up other problems cited in the report, such as compensatory time. He agreed that it sends the wrong message to commission a report and then not follow through with recommendations. “It’s a big price tag, I know,” he said. “But I think we need to do it right.”
Vice Mayor Robin Lentz acknowledged the concerns that Smith and Kreger voiced, but harkened back to the situation the city has found itself in with respect to a dispute over $20K of playground equipment that has now cost the city $80K more due to legal disputes. “Let’s say we spend $20-30K for a forensic audit to discover that we are missing $1,000. It seems to me that there was only one spot in the report where a forensic audit was recommended, because [Parks and Recreation employee] Jay Robertson did not supply information needed for the report. I feel that we should task the city manager with calling the department director and the staff member in to address that issue and see if we can get that information without the cost of a forensic audit.” Lentz stressed that she was not implying that any amount of missing public money was acceptable.
Smith continued to argue his case, citing concerns in the community about the Parks and Recreation Department’s special events that have arisen in the past. He asked the city manager if Parks and Recreation Director Nan Voit and staff member Jay Robertson were getting raises this year. City Manager Martin said that he has not completed the evaluation process but that “at this time the review indicates that no raises will be given.”
Commissioner Tim Poynter said he understood the different points of view. He suggested that it was a “rock and hard place” dilemma. He did not seem comfortable broadening the scope of a forensic audit to the entire city based upon a general comment in the initial study. He expressed agreement with Kreger and Smith in moving forward with a forensic audit of Parks and Recreation.
Mayor Miller was content to defer to the city manager’s judgment. “He has spent the most time on this,” Miller said, “and if he feels the problems have been addressed and there is no reason to go forward [with a forensic audit] I would go with his recommendation.”
City Manager Martin suggested a new course of action. “Because of the anticipated cost,” he said, “we can at least go forward with the RFP for the forensic audit and then bring it back to the FBCC for formal approval. This will give you time for thought and to query the community. One of the challenges is defining the scope of the audit. [The city attorney] and I need to work on that, which we will do and get back to you.”
According to BusinessDictionary.com, a forensic audit is defined as:
The application of accounting methods to the tracking and collection of forensic evidence, usually for investigation and prosecution of criminal acts such as embezzlement or fraud. Also called forensic accounting.
Editor’s Note: Suanne Z. Thamm is a native of Chautauqua County, NY, who moved to Fernandina Beach from Alexandria,VA, in 1994. As a long time city resident and city watcher, she provides interesting insight into the many issues that impact our city. We are grateful for Suanne’s many contributions to the Fernandina Observer.