Vote to fire city manager of Haines City fails — again

HAINES CITY — A motion to fire the city manager of Haines City failed — again.

On Thursday, Mayor Anne Huffman moved to terminate Edward Dean's employment, effective immediately. Dean, meanwhile, has been out on a 10-day paid administrative leave since May 2.

The motion, made at the tail end of a four-hour public meeting, failed on a 2-2 vote. Huffman and Vice Mayor Jayne Hall voted in favor of termination . Both women were elected to their new positions Thursday. Huffman is the first Black female mayor of Haines City, according to Hall's nomination.

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

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

Commissioners Morris West — who held the position of mayor for the past four years — and Omar Arroyo voted against the motion. Arroyo was sworn in Thursday, officially replacing former Commissioner Horace West. The two men decided to follow the advice of City Attorney Fred Reilly, who advised commissioners to wait until Dean's 10-day leave was up to avoid running into issues with due process should the commission vote to terminate him.

Commissioner Roy Tyler was absent from the meeting.

"Last night was our fifth time discussing Ed's termination. He had received four opportunities for his due process and nothing. It just seemed to me like it was a stall tactic," Huffman told The Ledger. "I just felt that this was a waiting game that Dean's side is playing."

The commissioners set a special meeting for Thursday, May 12, at 2 p.m. to discuss the future of Dean's employment with the city. His administrative leave ends Wednesday. Dean has made a series of demands of the city in exchange for his exit.

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Huffman named two primary causes in her motion to fire Dean.

First, Huffman drew issue with an increase in the cost of a contract with an architect stemming from Dean's plans to potentially alter a development by Garrett Kenny, CEO of Feltrim Group.

In February, one of the reasons Huffman named in her attempt to fire Dean were changes she said he made to a proposed development project that had already been approved by commissioners, who signed a memorandum of understanding with Feltrim Group.

The agreement with Feltrim called for the construction of a three-story building with retail shops, apartments and a parking garage on property across from City Hall on North 7th Street. At the Feb. 22 meeting, Huffman said Dean modified the design and expanded it to six stories, on top of moving the planned apartments to North 9th street. The new plans would cost $338,000 more than was approved, Huffman said.

At the time, Dean said he explored the idea of a larger development to accommodate future growth, "but at no point was there any monies being spent other than what these buildings could look like."

At that same February meeting, Kenny appeared before commissioners and said he wasn't aware his project was being changed. He said that left a "very, very bad taste" in his mouth.

"The city approved a 3-story annex and we should not have made changes to it without conferring with Feltrim Development on it," Huffman said. "And Ed Dean had decided that regardless of not meeting with the commissioners and getting approval, I'm going to get a rendering for a six-story building."

Huffman said the city owed the architect somewhere in the ballpark of $80,000 for the project. The invoice came in for $98,000, $15,000 of which was listed for the conceptual rendering of a six-story building, Huffman said.

"Ed did not have permission. He never brought it before the board. We never approved anything with it," Huffman said.

At the February meeting, Reilly told commissioners that Dean did not need commission authorization for contracts totaling less than $25,000, although he had advised Dean to seek approval anyway. Previous changes to the project in question had all been placed on agendas and approved in regular commission meetings, Huffman said.

Huffman named a second reason for firing Dean Thursday, also related to developer Kenny: a defamation lawsuit.

Kenny threatened to sue Dean for comments Dean allegedly made about him to several people, including potential business partners. Huffman said the city settled with Kenny to the tune of $225,000.

"Dean made some really disparaging comments about him — that he was broke, had no money, and his investors had all pulled out from him. And he repeated that to some business partners that were looking to do business with Feltrim Development," Huffman said. "I let him know it was unprofessional and inappropriate. But it got back to Mr. Kenny, and so Mr. Kenny through his attorney ... put the city on notice of their intent to sue the city and a separate suit for Ed Dean."

Huffman said Kenny was going to pay the city about $250,000 to purchase the land for the aforementioned annex project. The city had to credit him $225,000 to settle the lawsuit, because there were "so many witnesses," Huffman said.

"At any rate — the taxpayers never got a check deposited," Huffman said.

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Debate over whether to fire Dean pitted Hall and Huffman against Arroyo and West, with no one there to break the tie.

Reilly told commissioners that he and City Labor Attorney Linda Edwards began negotiations with Dean's attorney Louis Baptise "immediately" after being directed to by the commission Monday. He said they had presented Baptise and Dean with a proposal and were awaiting a counter proposal. He recommended commissioners set a special meeting to discuss Dean's employment "in the event that negotiations between now and then don't yield any tangible result."

Huffman didn't want to wait.

"We wasted enough time and taxpayer dollars on [this]. We have potential business owners that want to come to Haines City but not until this is settled," Huffman told The Ledger. "My thing was, I'm not changing my mind come Wednesday. We need to go ahead and get this done and over with."

West said that he had previously called for Dean's termination and stood by that decision. But he wanted to follow the city's legal counsel.

"If we're not going to follow counsel, what's the purpose of having legal sitting up here next to us?" West said.

Hall asked Reilly if the city could fire Dean after putting him on leave. Reilly said they could, but it was complicated.

Reilly said that because Dean had been placed on a 10-day leave, the question of his employment was not on the actual agenda and because Dean and his attorney were not present at the meeting, he was "confident" a due process issue would be raised if the city moved forward.

On the other hand, the city charter and Dean's contract state that Dean works "at the pleasure of the city commission," Reilly said. Every time the commission meets, they can technically choose to terminate the city manager, city attorney or city clerk, the three charter officers.

"Are you precluded from doing something tonight? The answer is no, you're not," Reilly said. "But I think there's good reason for you not to do something tonight."

But Huffman pushed back, saying that the firing was "long overdue" and that the charter does not state the city needs to have a special meeting or give Dean due process.

"I'm exhausted with it," Huffman said at the meeting. "The charter gives us absolute authority to be able to terminate the city manager tonight."

A few residents spoke up during public comment, questioning what the harm was in following legal counsel and waiting the extra few days. That position was echoed by Arroyo.

"I think my concern before was on the termination of him was him probably doing more bad things to the city," Arroyo said. "But at this moment, he's already put on leave, or whatever, so he's not really in charge of it."

Ultimately, the vote split, and Dean's employment remained intact.

"That's the fifth time," Hall said as she brought the gavel down.

If West sticks by his latest change of heart, it would appear the commission has the votes to fire Dean on Thursday.

But Huffman isn't optimistic that will happen.

"I'm expecting on Wednesday for Ed's attorney to send a new letter. And that will probably end up canceling the Thursday meeting," Huffman said. "I don't know when this is going to be over."

There was supposed to be a meeting April 27 to discuss firing Dean. That meeting was postponed after Baptise sent the city a letter outlining Dean's intent to sue. According to the letter, Dean claims he's a whistleblower facing retaliatory actions from the city commission.

In the letter outlining Dean's intent to sue the city, three commissioners stand accused of violating Florida law and attempting to retaliate against Dean: Hall, Huffman and West.

Huffman said that the allegations against her are "definitely not true."

Dean makes several severance demands

According to another document obtained by The Ledger, Dean has offered to leave his position in exchange for several demands:

• The city is to pay Dean $200,000 within 10 business days after May 11

• The city is to pay Dean another $8,000 in relocation fees that the document says Dean did not previously receive

• The city is to pay Dean for all annual and sick leave accrued through May 11

• The city is to transfer ownership of Dean's work vehicle, a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck, to him

According to the document, Dean's employment will end May 11, should the city agree to his terms. He will not sue the city, though the letter claims Dean cannot waive his right to file a charge of discrimination with an administrative agency, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The letter says Dean would not be able to receive money as a result of such an investigation.

Additionally, Dean will not make any comments that are disparaging or reflect negatively on Haines City and its associated commissioners — so long as the city agrees to not make negative comments about Dean.

Dean will never again seek employment with Haines City, but he wants some control over how the city talks about him with future employers.

"CITY MANAGER DEAN agrees to direct all employment reference inquires to the Director of HR for HAINES CITY," the document reads. "HAINES CITY acknowledges that it shall strictly limit its comment regarding CITY MANAGER DEAN'S employment with HAINES CITY to that which has been agreed upon by both parties."

Furthermore, the document states that if Dean violates the agreement, he will have to pay back all of his severance pay except $100.

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Dean also wants the city to pay $5,000 worth of attorney's fees to Webster & Baptiste, the law firm representing him, within three business days.

In his employment contract, Dean was hired on for a five-year term ending September 2026 at a base salary of $150,000. In that contract, it states that if Dean is fired before those five years are up, he would be entitled to 20 weeks of compensation — a little less than $60,000 — unless he was fired "for cause."

The contract states that if Dean is fired for cause, he is not entitled to severance but would receive payment for accrued sick and vacation days.

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 fails to fire city manager