In chaotic, explosive meeting Haines City fires City Manager Ed Dean

HAINES CITY — The Haines City Commission voted 4-1 to fire City Manager Ed Dean Thursday.

The special meeting erupted into disarray at several points, with residents directly challenging the leadership of Mayor Anne Huffman and becoming visibly and vocally frustrated with the way the meeting was run throughout its one and a half hour duration. One resident, Aletha Pugh, was escorted from the meeting by a police officer at Huffman's direction.

"I want to just make sure that Haines City has not, at least without me being aware of, went to having a strong mayor. Because it seems as if we only have one person making the decisions for everything that’s going on here within the city as a whole and most definitely within city hall," Kimberly Downing said. "Madame Mayor, I’m requesting – please stop. It doesn’t look good. We’re in the newspaper every week."

Previously: Haines City manager, hired just 6 months ago, faces call for termination

More: Haines City manager keeps job as mystery surrounding commission credit card usage unfolds

And: Haines City Manager Edward Dean accuses commissioners of abusing power, retaliation

Dean served a little over eight months as the city manager after beating out a few other candidates for the role, including current Interim City Manager James Elensky.

During his short tenure, Dean's employment was in jeopardy a total of six times until his official termination Thursday.

Sixth attempt to fire Dean

Toward the end of April, Commissioner Morris West, who at the time was serving as mayor, called a special meeting to consider firing Dean. Just a couple of months before, Huffman had moved to fire Dean, alleging that he was signing contracts without commission approval and was improperly using his city credit card for lavish meals out. That motion failed.

The April special meeting was called off when Dean threatened to sue the city. Dean alleged that he was a whistleblower facing retaliatory action from commissioners for calling attention to actions he claimed were in violation of the city charter and Florida statutes. He named Commissioners Huffman, West and Vice Mayor Jayne Hall in his letter outlining his intent to sue.

At the same time, developer Garrett Kenny, CEO of the Feltram Group, threatened to sue the city and Dean for disparaging comments made about his character.

In February, one of the reasons Huffman wanted Dean ousted was because he'd allegedly changed the scope of a development Kenny was working on along North 7th Street. At the February meeting, Kenny said he found out his three-story project may be raised to six stories at the public meeting despite previously signing a memorandum of understanding with the city.

On May 5, Huffman once again moved to have Dean fired just days after commissioners voted to place him on a 10-day paid administrative leave while City Attorney Fred Reilly explored negotiations with Dean and his lawyer, Louis Baptise.

At that meeting, Huffman moved to fire Dean for cause. She claimed that Dean had cost the city roughly $240,000 through the city's settlement with Kenny and through an increase to the final bill from the architect of the development in question, accrued from exploring going from three stories to six.

Huffman's motion failed on a 2-2 vote, with Huffman and Hall moving to terminate. West and Commissioner Omar Arroyo, who was sworn in that night, voted against the motion, favoring instead to follow Reilly's legal advice and wait until Dean's administrative leave had ended and he'd had a chance to negotiate through his attorney to avoid any issues with due process.

Commissioner Roy Tyler was absent from the meeting. Tyler did not reply to a request for comment concerning his absence.

Dean fired in a 4-1 vote

On Thursday, Reilly laid out three options for commissioners regarding Dean's employment:

• Commissioners could vote to retain him as city manager.

• Commissioners could vote to fire Dean without cause.

• Commissioners could vote to fire Dean with cause.

Arroyo, Hall, Huffman and West voted to fire Dean without cause. Tyler voted against that motion and said before the official motion and vote that he wanted to keep Dean on as city manager.

If the commission had voted to fire Dean with cause, the city only would have needed to pay $8,644.23 between sick, vacation and holiday pay in addition to $9,389.42 in retirement contribution. Those numbers are pre-tax and were calculated May 2; they will have to be recalculated to include any accumulations over the past 10 days.

Since the city moved to fire Dean without cause, the city also owes Dean $59,615.36 in severance pay per his employment contract, which is equal to about 20 weeks of compensation.

More: Haines City clerk explains mystery surrounding credit card usage

After Dean threatened to sue the city, he demanded the city instead pay him $200,000 in severance, $8,000 in relocation fees he said he didn't receive and all annual and sick leave accrued through May 11 in exchange for his resignation, according to a document obtained by The Ledger. Dean also wanted the ownership of his work vehicle, a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck, transferred to him.

Reilly told commissioners May 5 that he and City Labor Attorney Linda Edwards had submitted a counter proposal to Dean and Baptise but had not heard back from them. As of Thursday, Dean and his attorney still hadn't responded.

"It would appear to be the negotiations have simply not continued," Reilly said.

Hall arrived after Reilly's 15-minute presentation to the board on their options for dealing with Dean's employment.

Dean was present at Thursday's meeting but declined to speak when given the chance by Reilly. He left shortly after the votes to fire him were cast.

Baptise did not respond to a request for comment. Dean could not be reached for comment.

"I wish him the best and I think that is exactly right that we move on," West said. "We will move on without cause [and] pay him what he's earned while he was here."

Residents: 'You're limiting our ability to speak'

While discussing firing Dean, commissioners kept referring to the city's need to "move forward." But residents said they feel certain commissioners are holding them back.

During the public comment section before the official vote, Huffman set rules for any residents wishing to speak.

"The comment should be regarding the three options that we have," Huffman said. "Base your comment on whether or not to retain City Manager Dean; option B, terminate City Manager Dean without cause; option C, terminate City Manager Dean with cause."

The first speaker, Pugh, immediately challenged those boundaries.

"It is limiting the voice of the public if we can't, if we're not offered the opportunity to comment on these proceedings as a whole," Pugh said. "You're limiting our ability to speak on what we believe these, on these proceedings. That's what you're doing."

Huffman said the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the three options — nothing more, nothing less.

"Pick whichever option you feel about and if you care to explain why you feel that way, you can do that within your three minutes," Huffman said. "But we're not going to talk about anything else."

The meeting only deteriorated from there, with Huffman frequently interrupting residents and engaging in back-and-forth exchanges.

Pugh wanted the city to retain Dean as city manager.

"We absolutely do need to move forward. That doesn't mean moving forward without the current city manager," Pugh said. "We've had times when other members of the board could have faced complaints from employees and those employees let them off the hook. Apologies were accepted."

Huffman interrupted Pugh to tell her to stay on topic but added another minute to her three-minute allotted time.

By the end of Pugh's time, Huffman decided she'd overstepped again.

"There is conversation in the community about each and every one one of you sitting here today. There are feelings about each and every one of you sitting here today," Pugh said.

Huffman told Pugh she wasn't there to discuss the five commissioners before trying to move on to the next speaker. Pugh attempted to use another resident's three minutes rather than having that resident speak at the podium themselves. But Huffman refused to allow it.

"We're not going by that rule in this special meeting," Huffman said before slamming her gavel and directing Pugh to sit back down.

When Pugh responded that Huffman didn't specify that before opening public comment, Huffman had her removed. The audience erupted into outrage.

Downing was the only other resident to speak on Dean's fate.

"This is one of the reasons that we're here. Because we have some commissioners, now current mayor, that want control of this city," Downing said.

After interrupting Downing to tell her to state which option she was speaking in defense of and to not personally attack commissioners, Huffman told her the rules were just decorum.

"No, that's called your rules," Downing said.

Downing argued for retaining Dean, backing his claim that his dismissal was due to the personal agenda of some commissioners. She said some commissioners didn't want him there in the first place and that they micromanaged his performance without giving him space to improve.

"I also feel that City Manager Dean is being basically punished and his job is being taken away only because of the personal hidden agendas that some of the current commissioners that’s sitting there, including the mayor, have against him," Downing said.

Elensky is in — for now

Before leaving the meeting early, Tyler said he wanted Elensky to be considered as Dean's replacement. Tyler did not return a request for comment concerning his early departure. Tyler also said he will likely be absent at the next regular commission meeting Thursday.

But Hall had a different solution: She said Rick Sloan, the former manager of Haines City, approached her about reclaiming his old position.

Sloan resigned in 2017 alongside three other top municipal managers. At the time, former commissioner Don Mason said that the resignations were the result of the election of Huffman to the commission.

At Thursday's special meeting, Huffman said that her criticism of Sloan stemmed from her being new to the commission and allowing others around her to influence her decisions and who she trusted. She said she and Sloan have since reconnected and apologized to one another.

Hall motioned to immediately bring on Sloan as city manager, a motion Huffman asked to be amended to bring Sloan on as interim manager.

But other commissioners wanted the net to be cast wider.

"Rick Sloan, he quit on us. He quit on us. We didn't terminate him. It's a big world out there; I mean, I don't understand why we're in such a rush," West said. "Don't just hand something out, because if you hand it to them, then you're giving it to them. They didn't earn it."

West also called for Elensky to be considered for the job, saying he's just as qualified.

"Commissioner West, Jim also applied for the position of city manager. And you did not vote for him," Huffman said.

In August 2021, Elensky received two votes for the city manager position from Hall and Huffman. West, Tyler and former commissioner Horace West — brother of current commissioner and former mayor West — voted for Dean.

Huffman asked Elensky if he would like to become city manager.

Elensky said he wanted to know if everyone on the dais wanted to see him in that position first, because it was "rough" at the beginning with Dean since both of them had applied for the same position.

"I don't want to go through another application process, be denied, and then have that person looking down on me," Elensky said. "Everybody would have to want me."

Hall withdrew her motion regarding Sloan.

West motioned for Elensky to remain as interim city manager for four weeks. The motion passed unanimously, minus Tyler, who had already left the meeting.

The commission also voted unanimously to have a formal discussion of the city manager position at their regular June 2 meeting.

The item may draw more angry residents into the commission's chambers.

"I've sat in these meetings for over 13 years," Downing said. "I would say this is one of the most hideous meetings ever."

Maya Lora can be reached with tips or questions at mlora@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @mayaklora.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Haines City commissioners fire city manager Ed Dean 'without cause'