Contract dispute leads to call for firing city manager
Konk Life Staff Writer
The two highest paid officials in Key West city government sit side by side at all City Commission meetings, looking like collegial colleagues working together to efficiently run a $160 million municipal business.
But the simmering tension between City Manager Bob Vitas and City Attorney Shawn Smith boiled over at the June 17 city commission meeting, leaving Smith near tears and at least one city commissioner advocating firing Vitas.
The dispute began when Smith, who has been the city’s top lawyer since 2006, told commissioners that under the terms of his contract, they needed to tell him by Aug. 23 whether or not they intend to renew his contract, which expires in December. That prompted City Commissioner Tony Yaniz to ask Smith point blank whether he wanted to stay on as city attorney. In a surprising response, Smith said he was unsure, even though “I thoroughly enjoy my job.”
“However, as of late, I’ve watched the city spiral downward and it’s troubling and it hurts me,” he told city commissioners, choking back tears. “Given the present state of things, I am not all that inclined to do so, in all candor.”
Smith did not go into detail on what he believes is causing the “spiral downward,” but other commissioners spoke heatedly about the difficulty Smith and Vitas have had in working together. The most recent example, they said, was the fact Vitas hired retiring Assistant City Manager David Fernandez back as a contract employee overseeing the utilities projects currently under the direction of Utilities Manager Jay Gewin. Gewin, who made $61,000 a year, is resigning effective July 3.
Vitas has signed a contract with Fernandez for almost double Gewin’s salary – the contract would pay Fernandez $113,000 a year for five years, with benefits – and did so without running that contract past Smith’s office. When Vitas defended the move by saying the city charter gives him the authority to hire, fire and promote employees, the usually controlled Smith accused Vitas of lying.
“To hear that it [city charter] is vague and ambiguous, that contracts don’t come through my office, is a bold-faced false statement to this commission,” he told Vitas, who was sitting next to him. “It is crystal clear that all agreements come through the city attorney’s office.”
Smith went on to say Vitas’ actions may violate state budget statues on budgeting and excess compensation because Fernandez’s contract allows him to carry unused sick days over to his new contract. That prompted Yaniz, who was frequently clashed with Vitas in the past, to call for a special meeting to invalidate the contract. He also said he intends to ask his fellow commissioners for a vote of confidence or no confidence in Vitas because he may have committed “a substantial violation of the city’s policies and procedures” by not running the Fernandez contract past Smith.
“I believe we now have the ammunition in our hands to terminate Mr. Vitas’s contract. For Mr. Vitas to not run this contract through the legal department as required… I think quite frankly, that constitutes grounds for termination,” Yaniz said.
Whether or not the commissioners will go along with Yaniz is unclear. However, at least four of the commissioners – Yaniz, Commissioner Clayton Lopez, Commissioner Billy Wardlow and Commissioner Jimmy Weekley – said they want to invalidate the Fernandez contract.
“I think five years is way too long, first of all for this job and the amount of money,” Wardlow said about the disputed contract. “[Fernandez] is going to be making over $200,000 or close to it, which is probably more than any administrator in this county.”
Vitas’s only defender was Commissioner Teri Johnston.
“It all comes back to the charter. We as a body here do not have the authority to dictate hiring and firing. We have micromanaged [Vitas] to this point. This is his decision,” she said.
That drew an angry response from Commissioner Lopez.
“With all due respect, Commissioner Johnston… that’s poppycock. That makes no sense to me whatsoever,” he said, adding that employee morale at Key West City Hall “is at an all-time low” and Fernandez’s lucrative contract has made it worse.
Vitas acknowledged that many city policies are out of date and inconsistent. However, he said he checked previous contract employee agreements and saw no indication they had been reviewed by the city’s legal staff. He also defended hiring Fernandez because of his 28 years of experience working on city storm water and sewer projects.
“The decision I made was to bring somebody on board with 28 years of service to the city. Somebody who built that utility… and somebody who over the next five years can get us to the point we need to be at,” Vitas said. “For the past two years, Mr. Fernandez has been the right hand in my office.”
The city is in the midst of several multi-million dollar projects to alleviate storm water flooding and upgrade sewer treatment facilities.
There was no date set for the special meeting but commissioners indicated they wanted it to take place before July 3, when the Fernandez contract takes effect.
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