By Tao Woolfe
Boynton Beach went through another seminal change last month as acting City Manager Jim Stables stepped down and former Police Capt. Daniel D. Dugger took his place.
Dugger, who received mixed reviews during his brief candidacy for city manager, was officially and unanimously named city manager at a City Commission meeting on Sept. 22.
“I thank the city commissioners for the confidence they have in me,” Dugger said in a short acceptance speech. “I live in Boynton Beach. It is my home. I take the city to heart.”
The new city manager said he did not, however, take to heart residents’ criticisms that he was under-qualified for his new post. Instead, he said, “I take criticism as passion to make sure the city is doing well.”
He was referring to residents’ comments at two August City Commission meetings that knocked him for not having the minimal qualifications for the job.
Barbara Ready and Susan Oyer were among several residents who urged the commission to hire headhunters to find a city manager who would understand the complex workings of government and truly be a leader.
The city manager search had been handled by the city’s human resources department.
The commissioners ultimately sided with the many people who praised Dugger for his longtime investment in the city and its people, his popularity and his 18 years of experience with the Boynton Beach Police Department.
Dugger has risen through the department ranks from patrol officer to detective first-grade. He became a sergeant in 2016 and last year was promoted to captain.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Phoenix.
Woodrow Hay, the only commissioner to vote against Dugger at a special meeting in August, joined his colleagues in supporting the new city manager at the Sept. 22 meeting.
“I do plan to work with Dan Dugger,” Hay said. “Personal feelings are beside the point when it comes to the betterment of Boynton Beach.”
Oyer said after the meeting that she had been talking to Dugger and hopes for a good working relationship. “We’ve agreed to disagree so we can work together,” she said. “I have a lot of green initiatives I want the city to work on and he’s amenable to most.”
The commissioners and Dugger expressed regret that Stables was not only stepping down, but leaving the city to return to his native state of Tennessee.
“I wholeheartedly believe the city is better now than when he took over,” said Commissioner Thomas Turkin, summing up his colleagues’ feelings about Stables on the job. “Through difficult times … he handled it with such poise.”
In his parting words of advice, Stables praised the city staff and urged the commissioners and Dugger to listen to the concerns of employees and residents rather than react defensively.
“There is great value in the words of those who disagree,” Stables said.
He also urged the commissioners to throw their wholehearted support behind Dugger and to work with him to make Boynton Beach a better place.
“Don’t forget the lessons of the past, but stay focused on the bright future ahead,” Stables said.
Stables was tapped for the interim manager position at a special commission meeting April 25. He had been the city’s fire chief for a little more than a year at the time.
The unanimous vote for Stables as interim city manager came days after commissioners fired longtime City Manager Lori LaVerriere during an emotionally fraught City Commission meeting.
It remains unclear exactly why LaVerriere was fired after 10 years on the job, but she had been criticized lately for her lack of diplomacy and for failing to deliver on a downtown development project.
It was a tumultuous time for the city. Most of the city commissioners were new to the job and the Police Department and city officials were under fire after a 13-year-old boy was killed during a Dec. 26 police chase.
The boy, Stanley Davis III, crashed his dirt bike at a speed of 85 mph on North Federal Highway with Boynton Beach Police Officer Mark Sohn in close pursuit.
Sohn was fired in August after a months-long internal affairs investigation found that the officer had violated the department’s strict vehicular pursuit policy on more than one occasion.
Sohn also violated the officers’ code of ethics and engaged in conduct unbecoming to a police officer, according to the internal report written by newly named Police Chief Joseph DeGiulio.
Dugger and DeGiulio will have to steer through the aftermath of that firing in the coming months, but they will have legal help.
Outside counsel hired for police, Town Square cases
The same day Sohn’s firing was announced, a Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association attorney filed a grievance against the Police Department alleging that Sohn had been disciplined through termination “without just cause.”
The union, through an arbitration process, seeks to have Sohn reinstated as a police officer, “along with back pay, wages, pension contributions and all associated emoluments,” according to the grievance letter.
At a City Commission meeting on Sept. 8, DeGiulio asked that an outside law firm — specializing in law enforcement arbitration cases — be hired to help steer the department through the Sohn arbitration process.
If Sohn wins, “It will erode confidence in the Police Department,” DeGiulio told the commission.
The police chief suggested the city hire the Fort Lauderdale firm of Kopelowitz, Ostrow, Ferguson, Weiselberg, Gilbert — popularly known as KO.
KO attorney David Ferguson, who was in the audience for the Sept. 8 meeting, said his specialty is “making sure the discipline that was meted out sticks.”
He added that his firm has fought 30 Broward Sheriff’s Office arbitration cases and has not lost any of them.
Hay said the Sohn case had ripped apart the community and it is vital that the Boynton Beach Police Department prevails in the arbitration.
“All eyes will be on it,” Hay said. “I do feel you would represent us well.”
Ferguson replied: “I will do my best.”
The attorney also agreed to cut his usual fee of $550 an hour to $225 for the Boynton Beach PD.
The commission voted unanimously to hire the KO firm.
In a related matter, the City Commission agreed to hire outside counsel to help the city attorney navigate the stalled negotiations between Boynton Beach and Town Square developer JKM Developers of Boca Raton.
The commission hired the West Palm Beach firm of Lewis, Longman & Walker to assist with a legal morass that has lingered in the courts for more than a year.
The case centers on a disagreement over the construction of parking garages for the massive $250 million public/private project intended to revitalize Boynton’s downtown.
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