By John Pacenti
Jeri Pryor will not stay silent.
Delray Beach’s neighborhood and community services director blasted a report authored by an outside investigator that her complaints against City Manager Terrence Moore and Vice Mayor Rob Long were “unsubstantiated.”
Pryor — who oversees code enforcement — said she was told by Long to “back off” on certain businesses in a conference call initiated by Moore.
Attorney Brooke Ehrlich’s report reduced Pryor’s complaints to he-said-she-said, she-said-he-said. Ehrlich also found that Pryor was not a whistleblower because “no adverse employment action has been taken by the City” against her.
Not so, Pryor says in a seven-page letter to City Attorney Lynn Gelin in what very much has the look and feel of a coming lawsuit. Pryor was particularly outraged that Ehrlich did not investigate who on the commission leaked her complaint to The Coastal Star and to the South Florida Sun Sentinel and the Facebook group Delray Matters.
“The leak caused changes to my employment terms, including reporting to a new supervisor,” Pryor writes in the June 30 rebuttal. “I have been facing public and private attacks, resulting in a hostile work environment.”
She said the public disclosure jeopardized her right to a fair resolution of the complaint that Long — who denies any wrongdoing — threatened her position and violated the City Charter by ordering “selective enforcement.”
At issue was restaurateur Rodney Mayo, whose Dada establishment was the subject of the complaint during the three-way conversation. He told The Coastal Star separately that his coffee shop, Subculture, has also been unfairly subject to code violations.
Mayo released the partially redacted personnel file of Pryor when she worked for Fort Lauderdale, including evaluations and some personal identification information.
“I have seen public attempts to damage my reputation and influence the investigation by the government body that should be impartial,” she wrote to Gelin.
As for Moore, Pryor said the city manager’s silence when Long was allegedly violating the City Charter spoke volumes. Ehrlich noted in her report that Moore never said “don’t enforce the code.”
“Remaining silent when bullying, intimidating and questionable tactics are used by the public to gain favor underscores the need for accountability and systemic changes at the highest level of government in the city of Delray Beach,” Pryor wrote in one of the most stinging sections of her letter to Gelin.
Pryor had plenty to say about Ehrlich, as well, noting the attorney did not have experience in code enforcement to properly investigate her complaint.
“Ms. Ehrlich failed to consider and appropriately apply the totality of the evidence provided for her investigation,” Pryor wrote. “She did not consider all the evidence that was direct or indirect that proved a violation of the city charter, a violation of the Whistleblower Act or selective enforcement.”
In an email response to The Coastal Star’s request for comment, Ehrlich wrote: “The report speaks for itself. I was engaged as an independent investigator, and my investigation concluded with the submission of my report to the City on June 27, 2025.”
Mayo criticized the “politically motivated witch hunt” and the investigation’s cost in a July 22 email to commissioners, city officials and the media — while at the same time urging officials and the media to dig deeper.
“What could $30,000 have accomplished if spent wisely within our City?” Mayo asked. “This is an absolute outrage, and it warrants investigation.”
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