North Port commissioner claims city manager's actions violated city charter, his contract

NORTH PORT – Tension between North Port City Commissioner Debbie McDowell and City Manager Jerome Fletcher is nothing new, but it will reach a new level Tuesday. That's when the board will publicly discuss allegations by McDowell that Fletcher may have exceeded his authority in several actions, including allegedly urging state legislators to back-burner an effort to have Warm Mineral Springs placed on a list of outstanding Florida springs.

On April 25, McDowell hand-delivered a four-page complaint with 38 pages of backup to Human Resources Director Christine McDade and City Attorney Amber Slayton detailing eight instances where she felt Fletcher acted in violation of either the city charter or his employment contract.

Related: North Port government plans conflict-resolution session to ease rift

Slayton responded with a hand-delivered response saying that the city’s policy enabling the human resources department to investigate charter offices did not cover McDowell’s allegations.

She added that the majority of the City Commission could “determine how it will analyze, address, and respond to performance based concerns of a charter officer; determine whether a charter officer violated their employment contract; and determine the parameters of a charter officer’s authority was established their job description and/or the City Charter.”

The commission will discuss McDowell’s allegations at its regular meeting, which starts at 10 a.m. in City Hall, 4970 City Hall Blvd.

In a city commission/city manager style of government, the elected officials set policy and leave it to the city manager and staff to carry out the daily operations.

Generally, the elected officials should avoid direct contact with employees below the city manager level.

McDowell acknowledged that each issue raised involved a gray area between a decision that required input from the five-member commission and Fletcher following his job description, but said “collectively it shows a pattern."

The other allegations include submission of a federal funding request prior to a public discussion and vote by the commission; a decision to discontinue the sale of passes for Warm Mineral Springs; creation of a local/small business incubator program that included the input of Mayor Barbara Langdon but not a formal commission vote; and the decision to institute a citywide pay study in 2021 – shortly after he was hired – without commission approval.

McDowell said she saw potential problems and had "a duty and responsibility to bring that forward,” adding, “...What else am I supposed to do, just turn a blind eye?”

Warm Mineral Springs: Preservation vs. partnership

The first issue on McDowell's eight-item list was Fletcher’s decision to ask state legislators to sideline House and Senate bills that would have designated Warm Mineral Springs an “Outstanding Florida Springs." That list now includes 25-30 “First Magnitude” springs and another six mentioned in the current state statute.

The the city of North Port had applied in previous years for that designation because of the potential for state grants to go with it, and did so again last December.

Subsequently, Fletcher said he learned that such designation would mean a required detailed environmental studies by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

The end result could be mandates for costly infrastructure additions. It also placed the request at odds with what Fletcher said he considered his primary directive regarding Warm Mineral Springs: creation of a public-private partnership to restore three historic buildings at the springs site and develop an adjacent 60-plus acre parcel.

Fletcher noted he informed all five commissioners of that conflict in a March memo.

“It was a time-sensitive decision to reconcile the two differences and I said we’ll pause this one because we knew what they wanted to do on the" partnership, Fletcher said.

In her complaint McDowell claimed that she did not learn of that decision until it came up at a Florida League of Cities function in Tallahassee.

“Let’s be clear: we did communicate with them in a memo in late March,” Fletcher said. ““It’s amazing how everyone else was aware and she was not.”

History of tension

McDowell was the only city commissioner who opposed Fletcher’s hiring in 2021; gave him the most severe six-month review and more recently sought to establish one-on-one conflict-resolutions with Fletcher in an attempt to find common ground.

Fletcher declined to do so unless compelled to do so by a majority of the board. Instead, the commission opted for a yet-to-be-scheduled group session.

Earlier: Civil case against North Port city commissioner allowed to proceed by county judge

Despite the incidents of conflict between McDowell and Fletcher, she insists she has no personal issues against the city manager.

“There’s nothing personal in that complaint,” she stressed.

“I do not get to make this decision, this is a commission decision as the city attorney stated in her response,” she added.

Fletcher disagrees.

“It’s been personal since the beginning and when you go back and you think about all that we’ve been through and you look at the lack of embracement of my even applying for the job and then let alone being considered for the job and then let alone being given the job, it’s all been one consistent pattern of bias,” Fletcher said. “I don’t believe it’s not personal, we all know that it’s personal and she continues to prove that it’s personal based on her being on the outside of every single thing that I’ve done well and she’s not recognizing it.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: North Port board to weigh allegations city manager violated charter