F-bombs fly in Fort Lauderdale: Commissioner accused of cursing at staffer

It’s not every day F-bombs get dropped on the dais. But they were flying during Tuesday’s Fort Lauderdale meeting at The Parker after three commissioners denied the city manager the same 3% raise they’d given the city auditor and city clerk.

The tense exchange lasted less than three minutes, ending about 10 minutes before midnight. But it lays bare the simmering tensions between commissioners whose seats are all up at the end of the year. All five are expected to run for reelection in what is already shaping up to be an ugly election season.

Commissioner Steve Glassman, fuming over the snub to City Manager Greg Chavarria, admits to dropping the first F-bomb while taking a breather backstage.

Glassman told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he snapped at Jeri Pryor, chief of staff for Commissioner Warren Sturman, who voted against the raise. Glassman says he told Pryor, “F—!” then paused and said, “Your boss!”

Back on the dais, hours later, Sturman blasted Glassman for disrespecting his staff.

“You have no right to disrespect my staff,” Sturman said, reading from a prepared statement. “You are never to ever curse at them again, yell at them again, give them the F-bomb or otherwise disrespect my staff. Ever.”

Glassman was quick to tell Sturman he did not hear exactly what happened.

Sturman claimed he overheard the comment hours earlier.

Commissioner John Herbst chimed in, accusing Glassman of making Pryor cry. Herbst says he’d stepped off the dais earlier in the meeting to get a soda and encountered Pryor in tears.

“That was disgusting behavior!” Herbst said. “The fact that you would curse in her face and say ‘F— you, f— your boss’ is unbelievable.”

Herbst and Glassman continued, talking over each other and trading barbs.

“That is not correct,” Glassman said. “And you can get as dramatic as you like.”

Herbst’s retort: “From the drama teacher. There you go. Thank you.”

Said Glassman: “It’s not correct. And I’ll say from the language you just used, shame on you.”

Herbst told the Sun Sentinel he reported the incident to the city attorney soon after learning about it.

Pryor has not filed a formal complaint against Glassman, City Attorney Tom Ansbro said Wednesday. But he did receive an email from attorney Barbra Stern asking him to look into the matter, he said.

“I asked them to conduct an investigation into his conduct and any potential violations of any anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies,” Stern said. “What kind of message does this send when your elected public official engages in intimidating and threatening behavior toward a city employee?”

Pryor could be not reached for comment Wednesday.

Sturman told the Sun Sentinel that Herbst heard Glassman’s comment, too. But Herbst, who was sitting on the far end of the dais near stage left, told the Sun Sentinel he did not hear it.

“It happened backstage,” Herbst said. “We have an anti-bullying policy. Cursing at people can be considered verbal assault.”

Glassman says it’s all much ado about nothing.

“I needed to take a break after they denied the manager a raise,” he told the Sun Sentinel. “I needed to cool off. I was really upset.”

Right after the vote to deny the city manager a raise, Glassman vented from the dais, saying “Shame, shame, shame!”

Several community leaders who had spoken up in fierce support of Chavarria repeated the “shame, shame, shame” phrase from the audience. Many were presidents of neighborhood associations across the city who came out en masse after hearing that Sturman might make a motion to fire Chavarria on Tuesday night.

Herbst joined Sturman and Vice Mayor Pamela Beasley-Pittman in voting against giving him a raise, but no one made the motion to terminate.

“I think the message to Greg is ‘You’re on probation,’” Herbst said. “You’re not getting fired, but you’re not getting a raise. You have all the people in the community saying he returns their calls. Well I don’t care. He’s not meeting my expectations.”

Herbst declined to elaborate.

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com