Milton City Council terminates City Clerk Dawn Molinero
Milton City Clerk Dawn Molinero, who just over a week ago narrowly survived a City Council-led effort to terminate her, was not so fortunate on Tuesday.
Having received a report from City Attorney Alex Andrade this week that chronicled findings of an investigation he'd conducted into allegations that Molinero had created a hostile work environment, the council once again took her employment status under consideration and, this time by a 5-3 vote, decided to fire her.
"We've got lots of reasons," Councilwoman Roxanne Meiss said before the final vote was cast.
Siding with Meiss in favor of the firing were council members Jeff Snow, Casey Powell, Matt Jarrett and Gavin Hawthorne. Members Michael Cusack, Marilynn Farrow and Jason Vance voted against making the move.
Andrade, who some on the council had also sought to fire recently — largely based on allegations made public by Molinero and Mayor Heather Lindsay — put together his lengthy report in response to a complaint filed by Ed Spears, Milton's economic development director and a recent candidate for the job of city manager.
It was the failed search for a city manager that brought the deep division within city government to the forefront.
More: Council effort to fire Milton City Clerk Dawn Molinero fails by a narrow margin
Scott Collins, who was chosen by an 8-0 vote on July 11 as the top candidate to replace retiring City Manager Randy Jorgenson, cited "a coordinated undercurrent effort to make either this contract negotiation or my initial contract term unsuccessful" in deciding to reject a $130,000 job offer.
Spears filed his complaint against Molinero after she withdrew a letter of support she had written for him as a candidate for the city manager's job. He accused Molinero "and friends both inside and outside the city" of launching "a very public attack on my integrity, honor and reputation for the sole purpose of sabotaging my candidacy, attempting to cost me my position within the city and besmirch my reputation."
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In his investigation, Andrade said credible evidence had been found that Molinero had disseminated personal identifying information to the public.
The allegation was bolstered when a man named John Allen stood to inform the City Council that he and his wife's Social Security numbers can still be found on the Milton website.
"My wife needs confirmation her Social Security number and my Social Security number are redacted. It will be handled tomorrow by the end of business or I will own this city," Allen said.
Andrade also said he found credible evidence that Molinero did not follow proper procedures for responding to public records requests, disregarded city policy regarding compliance to public records requests and engaged in a pattern of political activity outside the scope of her employment as city clerk.
The political activity to which Andrade referred included Molinero's dissemination of a timeline that ran through the course of Collins agreeing to negotiate to become Milton's next city manager to his ultimate decision to step away from the job.
More: Milton City Manager candidate Scott Collins withdraws from consideration for the second time
The timeline, while seemingly chronologically accurate, painted Snow, Meiss, Andrade and Jorgenson as conspirators in a plot to disrupt the hiring process even throwing out charges of "corruption, collusion and conspiracy," according to Snow. Andrade reported that much of what Molinero stated as fact in the timeline was revealed through his investigation to have been false.
Mayor Lindsay and many in attendance Tuesday weren't buying into Andrade as an objective investigator of Spears' allegations, and with Molinero having left town to attend to a family emergency, there were calls for discussion of her fate with the city to be put off until she could be present to answer charges against her if she so chose.
Matthew Hargraves, who Molinero hired to serve as her attorney in a whistleblower action against the city, was present at the meeting and wanted to know why Andrade hadn't notified him, or to his knowledge Molinero, about the investigation's findings and the effort being made to fire his client.
Andrade contended that the whistleblower case is not associated with the hostile work environment investigation and he had no reason to contact Hargraves. Molinero's attorney said the matter of his being contacted will come up in a different arena.
Others in attendance said that Andrade has been too deeply entwined in the whole city manager debacle to have conducted an objective investigation.
"This investigation should never have been conducted by someone who was at the heart of the issue," resident Pam Mitchell said. "It's a pile of crap is what it is."
Another resident told the council "the appearance of retaliation with this complaint is blatantly obvious."
Lindsay, who expressed resentment over being referred to in newspaper reports as a Molinero political ally, spoke at length in the city clerk's defense.
"I do not understand why someone has to be sacrificed," she said.
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She also accused Jorgenson, the outgoing city manager, of running a shadow campaign to promote Spears, the economic development director, in the days the city was negotiating with Collins as the next city manager.
"I have been lied to by the city manager," Lindsay said. "He told me he wasn't involved in the search for a city manager at the same time he was coaching Spears."
Jorgenson was also questioned about why a city policy for investigating workplace incidents, one that involves more people than just the city attorney in the process, had not been utilized in the Spears case. Jorgenson said he had requested Andrade conduct the inquiry to expedite the investigation to prevent further staff disruptions.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Milton City Council fires city clerk Dawn Molinero
