News

By Margie Plunkett
    
The first choice for the Delray Beach city manager position was picked for the “fresh eyes” he’d bring to the community — and chosen over the inside candidate.
City Commission voted Dec. 11 to enter contract negotiations with Louie Chapman Jr., who has been town manager of Bloomfield, Conn., for 19 years.
    But Commission will further investigate unsolicited information on questionable behavior in the candidate’s current position while simultaneously negotiating his contract, the commissioners agreed at their Dec. 8 workshop.
    Included in the start of negotiation are a salary of $160,000, car allowance of $400 a month and temporary housing costs of up to $1,500 a month and capped at $9,000, according to Commission consensus at the workshop meetings. They are scheduled to discuss the contract again at their Jan. 3 meeting.        If commission ultimately approves Chapman’s employment contract, he will succeed City Manager David Harden, who is retiring this month after 22 years. An interim manager will be named to take over after Harden leaves and prior to the new manager’s start.
    Mayor Woodie McDuffie said that unsolicited information came to the Commission after its Dec. 11 vote for Chapman. The sources said that Chapman had moved his girlfriend in with him using a city vehicle, according to the mayor.
    He also asked a member of the police department to remove the head of Human Resources at his city and to escort her out of the building because he no longer could deal with her and wanted her gone, according the mayor’s account of the source’s report.
The police officer declined, because he said the woman hadn’t done anything.
    The allegations fueled discussion among commissioners about whether and how it should be vetted. Vice Mayor Tom Carney pointed to whistleblower statutes and said, while allegations under those cir-cumstances may not always be true, they are taken seriously.
“There are things we have to do to make sure we are confident on our decision,” Carney said, adding, it’s better to address the questions now than later.
    The workshop meeting followed by a week the meeting at which Commissioners chose Chapman above a candidate already at work in the Delray Beach City Manager’s office.
“Delray Beach should really have a manager who’s been a manager,” said Carney at the Dec. 11 meeting, adding, “It’s important that we have fresh eyes here.”
    Chapman, previously assistant city manager in Charlottesville, Va., beat out Delray Beach Assistant City Manager Doug Smith for the position. Carney, along with Commissioners Angeleta Gray and Al Jacquet, supported Chapman, while Mayor Woodie McDuffie and Commissioner Adam Frankel favored Smith for the experience and knowledge he has of Delray Beach.
    “Delray Beach Florida, has a lot of different issues than Connecticut,” Frankel said. “One thing I failed to mention: Every staff member who I spoke to is behind Mr. Smith.
    “We’re at a time in Delray where this could be a lot of transition. A lot of senior staff is facing retirement. It’s too much upheaval for me.”   
Jacquet, who said, “We need new blood,” countered that Harden was an outsider when he was hired into the position. “like him or not, the city has moved forward.”
Several commissioners — both for and against Chapman — said his stand on pensions raised cautionary flags.
“The one concern I had was his position on pensions,” Jacquet said. “With that being said, we five are the ones who are tasked with the responsibilty to make policy decisions. It does not matter what Mr. Chapman thinks about pensions.”
Commissioner Carney said he too asked Chapman about pensions. “He said his job would be to implement the views of the Commission.”
Mayor McDuffie raised two issues: That Chapman repeated several times that he would not “clean house,” which caused the mayor concern that “he doth protest too much” on the topic.
The mayor also described a second issue, which he said was a domestic dispute in which no charges were filed. Commissioners pointed out that the townspeople did not demand Chapman’s resignation and he remained in his position for 10 years after the situation.
The newly selected city manager has a master’s in planning from the University of Virginia and a Bachelors from Norfolk State University.
Chapman was among four candidates Commission brought in for interviews at the beginning of December.