This is wrong on many levels...

Click here for PB Post article that appeared after the meeting. They provide a little more detail regarding the contracts that were involved. Be sure to listen to the end of the February 26th workshop meeting by clicking link above. There was no clear direction given. Minutes of the meeting appear below. Re-post from last week.


Where do I begin with this one? This appears on the New Business portion of next Tuesday's agenda. I have included a link to the audio record of the meeting. Click on the title and that will bring up your Windows Media Player. Go towards the end of the meeting by clicking your mouse on the right side of the moving blue line at the bottom of the player. Go to where it says you're at the 1:55 mark and click to hear the actual discussion on employment contracts referenced in this memo.

Below are the two pages from the minutes of this workshop meeting when this item was discussed - no action could be taken. The minutes were approved May 5, 2009.


This is Commissioner Mulvehill asking the Mayor and the rest of the Commission to bring in outside attorneys to sue former City Manager Robert Baldwin for not following the direction of the City Commission - supposedly made clear at the workshop meeting of February 26, 2009 - and executing contracts for certain employees, resulting in an obligation of the city to pay severance pay.

If you listen to the audio, you hear Commissioner Mulvehill saying that she agrees with Commissioner Lowe that this item should not be discussed at this meeting. She suggests that the item be work-shopped so that a clear policy is developed. The minutes reflect this. There was no direction given to Mr. Baldwim other than to talk with the various elected officials and act accordingly. While there was one specific employee situation discussed, that employee was never identified and there was no discussion of other contracts. The only need identified was that the Commission have a workshop to clarify its policy. I am sure that those Lake Worth residents that dwell in the hall of mirrors will conclude differently. They'll be the ones in attendance Tuesday night talking about how we should spend money on attorneys and further embarass the city.

Now, I am not a defender of Mr. Baldwin. In my mind, he was essentially a "drive-by" City Manager that over-delegated responsibilities and never really invested himself in the future of Lake Worth. But, I am a defender of process and the City Charter. Here are excepts from the Charter that address the separation of powers between the City Commission and the City Manager:
So, we have a clear "over-reaching" of the City Commission into the administration of the City. Listening to the audio, we hear Mr. Baldwin asking for clarification of a Commission policy regarding contract employees. Reading between the lines, we get the sense that it involves the amount of severance pay attached to such contracts. But the Commission fails to give direction and the person writing the "let's see if we can sue" memo doesn't even want to discuss it.

Now, there are two things that could have happened. One is that the City Commission and/or City Manager never scheduled a workshop to further refine the policy before Mr. Baldwin's departure. These employment contracts were on his desk, were the last order of his business and acted in his capacity as City Manager to consummate the contracts before leaving. Or, and this is the more problematic scenario, he went around to our elected officials and gained "consensus" behind closed doors and out-of-the-sunshine. We'll see if anyone can shed light on this.

Commissioner Mulvehill's memo says that the policy was clear from that meeting. Listening to the audio and reviewing the minutes, it is clearly NOT CLEAR. If anything, the Commission is to blame from not making it clearer in a public forum before push-came-to-shove and the contracts got executed per the City Manager's powers as given in the Charter.

More troubling is the message this says to the world about being a professional employee for the City of Lake Worth. What this potentially says is that, "If you work for the City of Lake Worth in an administrative capacity, even if you adhere to the City Charter and policies enacted by the City Commission, you are liable to face a lawsuit for your actions once you leave our employment - even if the action was prompted by the inability of the City Commission or Mayor to articulate city policy as it related to your action." I blame the Commission here not being more PUBLICLY explicit and it was really treading outside its Charter mandated powers in the first place.

And here we have the city now using the services of Ms. Hoffman to recruit a new professional for the position recently vacated by Ms. Bach in the form of the Community Services Director. How does this sort of statement go over with the pool of potential applicants for that position or any other high level administrative position with the city? Not well is the answer. Like so many things in Lake Worth, we will be left with adverse selection. The better candidates will not bother with our recklessness and confusion and will go to places where there is a clear direction and established procedures are followed.

Lake Worth - left to chose from the worst of the worst, instead of the best of the best.