North Port government plans conflict-resolution session to ease rift
NORTH PORT – North Port city government officials will engage in a conflict-resolution workshop designed partly to mend fences between City Manager Jerome Fletcher and City Commissioner Debbie McDowell.
Events that prompted the need for the session were set in motion several months ago.
McDowell brought up the matter at the Nov. 22 meeting, when Fletcher was not present. Fletcher responded on Dec 13 and said it should be a team-based solution.
McDowell had been pushing for a one-on-one session with a conflict resolution specialist more than five months earlier, but none of the other four board members were inclined to force Fletcher into that type of session.
Related:Did North Port City Commission 'retreat' violate Sunshine Law?
McDowell, still smarting from harsh words said about her during an April 20, 2022 team-building retreat, at first said she had no interest in what would amount to a public group therapy session, since the collective meeting would be public.
Newly elected City Commissioner Phil Stokes, the only board member not present at that meeting helped convince her otherwise when he said that he would stop any discussion that resembled piling on any individual board member.
“Personally, I won’t sit through a collective meeting and allow any of my fellow commissioners – or staff or charter officers – to be put upon and mistreated,” Stokes said. “We’re all here for the right reason and I will speak up and stop it if it happens, junior member or not.”
McDowell quickly responded: “You switched my vote and I’m going to hold you to that.”
That conflict resolution session – which will be separate from the city’s planned retreat this year – has not yet been scheduled.
The meeting will be public because it will include all elected officials and charter officers.
Never in sync
McDowell, who takes pride in asking detailed questions about upcoming city business, and Fletcher have never really been on the same page.
She was the lone dissenting vote in the decision to hire him in August 2021 and was critical of him in evaluating him after he'd been on the job six months, in April 2022.
Earlier:North Port commission to weigh in on six-month evaluation of city manager
On the heels of that, Fletcher had agreed to a one-on-one mediation session with McDowell, so the two city leaders could try to improve their relationship.
McDowell’s approach to her role as a city commissioner includes seeking more detail on items than many of her fellow commissioners, something that Mayor Barbara Langdon acknowledged when she raised the idea of a group conflict-resolution session.
Then an ill-fated team building board retreat occurred on April 20, 2022. That meeting was neither advertised nor open to the public. But it was recorded and available live to city staff members via an internal YouTube webcast.
Earlier:North Port commission: No attorney general opinion on retreat held outside the sunshine
McDowell felt picked upon during that workshop and was disappointed that it was webcast.
She voiced that displeasure at a May workshop, during which she also questioned whether the meeting itself violated state open meeting laws.
Fletcher told the board in December that he decided to cancel the one-on-one session with MCDowell after she spoke out in May about the April retreat.
“It is the lack of grace and the lack of ability for anyone to make a mistake that has led us to the point,” Fletcher said. “We all know it all boils down to trust.”
Fletcher stressed that he doesn’t treat McDowell any differently than the other four commissioners and said if the other four board members wanted him to engage in a one-on-one conflict resolution session with her he would. But he expressed concern that McDowell may ultimately share a one-sided account on social media, saying, “It would put me in a situation where I am vulnerable.”
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: North Port to seek conflict-resolution session over growing rift
