ocean ridge town manager - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T15:02:47Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/ocean+ridge+town+managerOcean Ridge: Town Hall upheaval brings in new commissionershttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-town-hall-upheaval-brings-in-new-commissioners2023-05-03T17:00:00.000Z2023-05-03T17:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11063054863,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11063054863,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="11063054863?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="493" /></a></strong><em>Former commissioners Philip Besler and Kenneth Kaleel are sworn in May 1 after their appoint-ments to fill the vacancies. </em><strong><em>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;">Two leave positions; in yet another reversal, manager hired full time</span></p>
<p><strong>By Joe Capozzi and Larry Barszewski</strong></p>
<p>In less than 30 days, a stunning upheaval of town leadership in Ocean Ridge has brought in a new manager, three new commissioners and a power shift on the Town Commission.</p>
<p>The first changes came April 3 when, in a span of less than two hours, the commission voted 3-2 to hire Lynne Ladner as the full-time town manager and Commissioners Martin Wiescholek and Kristine de Haseth resigned.</p>
<p>Wiescholek, who minutes earlier had been sworn in to a second three-year term, resigned in the middle of the meeting to protest the hiring of Ladner. De Haseth resigned at the end of the meeting, citing a need to spend more time with her family. After the meeting, she told <em>The Coastal Star</em> her resignation had been planned since December and had nothing to do with Ladner’s hiring.</p>
<p>At its May 1 meeting, the three-person commission of Mayor Geoff Pugh, Steve Coz and recently elected Carolyn Cassidy voted to appoint two former commissioners — Kenneth Kaleel and Philip Besler — to replace Wiescholek and de Haseth. They were chosen from nine applicants and will serve until the March 2024 election.</p>
<p>The three commissioners also decided to replace three members of the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission who were seeking reappointment and one of two incumbents who had applied for a new term on the Board of Adjustment.</p>
<p>What a difference a month — and an election — made in town politics.</p>
<p>Wiescholek and de Haseth were on the losing end of the 3-2 vote to hire Ladner, a move that reversed the commission’s 3-2 vote Feb. 27 to not give her a contract for the full-time job.</p>
<p>Ladner’s hire is a direct result of a change in Town Hall power dynamics that arose from the March 14 municipal election when newcomer Cassidy and Wiescholek won a three-way race for two commission seats. Incumbent Mayor Susan Hurlburt finished third, losing her commission seat and breaking up the commission’s previous power bloc.</p>
<p>Hurlburt, Wiescholek and de Haseth often voted in concert, as they did Feb. 27 when they voted against Ladner’s hiring because of concerns that she’d aligned herself with Pugh and Coz and their community supporters.</p>
<p>Cassidy was endorsed during her campaign by Pugh and Coz, and on her first night as a commissioner she voted with them to hire Ladner full-time.</p>
<p>“I think Lynne has been doing an outstanding job in reaching out to the community,’’ Cassidy said April 3. “We’ve had a very unstable work environment that has suffered a bit from a lack of leadership. I think the time for healing has to start now.’’</p>
<p>Wiescholek reminded the commission why it voted in February not to hire Ladner, who he said had been influenced by two commissioners to fire Police Chief Richard Jones (who has since left to take the police chief job in Gulf Stream).</p>
<p>At a commission meeting Feb. 27, Jones corroborated Wiescholek’s concerns when he described how Ladner came into his office two days after he’d announced his resignation and told him “that the commission wished for me to leave early. At this point I go, ‘The commission?’ It was clarified, ‘at least two commissioners,’’’ Jones said Feb. 27.</p>
<p>Pugh and Coz denied pressuring Ladner to fire Jones.</p>
<p>On April 3, Wiescholek said: “There’s this whole thing about who-said, what-said, but somebody walked into Chief Jones’ office and said the commission wants you fired. Either Lynne did that on her own and lied about it or she was instructed by two commissioners to walk into Chief Jones’ office and say the words ‘the commission wants you fired’ without talking to the other three commissioners. It’s inappropriate or it’s a flat-out lie. That in itself disqualifies anybody from holding a position in this town.’’</p>
<p>The commission had been scheduled to select town manager finalists on May 1 and interview them May 9. Colin Baenziger and Associates, the firm the town hired for $29,500 to find candidates, considered the latest pool of 18 applicants “superior” to the previous candidates, said de Haseth, who said she’d been in contact with Baenziger.</p>
<p>“We started the (search) process. We have a procedure to follow and we need to continue the procedure and move forward from there,’’ de Haseth said. “You can’t do an about-face in the middle of the stream.’’</p>
<p>“That’s exactly what the commission did” Feb. 27, Coz retorted, pointing out how the commission in January had selected Ladner on a 5-0 vote while officials drafted a contract that was supposed to be approved Feb. 27.</p>
<p>“I think the town is in a period of healthy rebirth. I think Lynne is part of that,’’ Coz said before the commission voted to hire Ladner, who will make $142,500 a year. (Her predecessor, Tracey Stevens, was making $132,500 when she left Sept. 11 to become town manager in Haverhill.)</p>
<p>A few minutes later, as the commission was considering a new agenda item, Wiescholek interrupted and said, “Based on the decision that was just handed down, with the renewal of the contract for Lynne Ladner, I feel that the town is doing itself a grave disservice. I feel that the town is putting itself at great risk. The implications that pass off that are staggering at best. I will not have my name associated to that. Hereby, I resign.’’</p>
<p>Many of the 50 or so people in the audience — mostly supporters of Coz, Pugh and Cassidy — cheered as Wiescholek stood up and walked off the dais, happy to see him go.</p>
<p>In an interview outside Town Hall a few minutes later, Wiescholek said he had no plans to change his mind.</p>
<p>“What they have there right now is a town manager that they can tell what to do. ‘You need to hire this person and that person.’ They can manage and massage anything into their own world. I am not going to be a part of it,’’ he told <em>The Coastal Star.</em></p>
<p>At the end of the meeting, de Haseth broke into tears as she announced her resignation in a prepared statement:</p>
<p>“I’d like to thank Ocean Ridge residents and staff. Being elected and appointed as your commissioner, your mayor and your vice mayor has been a multiyear vote of confidence. I appreciate your support and I have worked hard over the past five years for the residents in our town.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, family obligations now need more of my time and energy. So effective tonight I am resigning my seat on the commission. I have been proud to serve this town and represent this town. I wish nothing but the best to our staff and to all of those at the dais. Ocean Ridge truly is a wonderful, wonderful town and it’s worth fighting for. I wish everybody the best of luck.”</p>
<p>The audience responded with polite applause. After the meeting, de Haseth said she had been considering stepping down since December, but decided to wait until after the election.</p>
<p>“I was sorry to see her go,’’ Coz, who was selected as vice mayor, said after the meeting. “She was a great asset to the commission.’’</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Changes to advisory boards</span></p>
<p>Pugh, whom the commission selected as mayor on April 3, said at a special meeting April 18 that he thought the commission might need a month to find new commissioners to replace Wiescholek and de Haseth.</p>
<p>But Coz persuaded him and Cassidy to immediately advertise the openings and try to fill the two commission vacancies on May 1.</p>
<p>“The town has been in — what do we want to call it? — a quagmire for a bit here. It’s time to move forward,’’ Coz said.</p>
<p>“I don’t know about a quagmire,’’ Pugh said. “Today is like a bright new day.’’</p>
<p>At the May 1 meeting, Pugh, Coz and Cassidy voted by paper ballot without any debate to fill the two commission vacancies (from nine applicants) and make four Planning and Zoning Commission appointments (from 15 applicants) and three Board of Adjustment appointments (from eight applicants). All three picked the same people in each round of balloting.</p>
<p>Pugh praised the high level of interest in the open positions.</p>
<p>“In all the years I’ve been on this commission, I’ve never seen an outpouring of people (like this) coming up to put their names in, and their basic lives to be interrupted by these meetings and being involved in the town,” the mayor said. “This is a sea change for the town and it’s really impressive.”</p>
<p>Returning to the Town Commission are Kaleel, who previously served 16 years on the commission from 1996 to 2012, including as mayor in 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2004-12, and Besler, who was elected to a three-year term on the commission in 2018, but did not seek reelection.</p>
<p>The other Town Commission applicants were Arthur Ziev, Mike Drifmeyer, Victor Martel, Craig Herkert, Robert Sloat, Nicholas Arsali and David Hutchins.</p>
<p>For the P&Z Commission, the three town commissioners went with P. Shields Ferber, Ferenc Stephen Varga and Sydney Ray for the open three-year terms and Marc de Baptiste for a two-year alternate’s position. At the meeting, a couple of P&Z members had encouraged the commission to reappoint incumbents Mark Marsh, Neil Hennigan and Penny Kosinski.</p>
<p>“I hope you’ll be thoughtful,” P&Z Commissioner Hutchins said. “There’s plenty of people that want in and they could be very well-qualified, but, like I said, you’ll be losing some real talent if there’s a wholesale turnover.”</p>
<p>On the Board of Adjustment, the three commissioners reappointed Betty Bingham to a three-year term, but replaced Mary Ann Cody with Martel. Ziev was appointed to an open one-year term.</p>
<p><strong>In other business:</strong></p>
<p>• The commission approved Ladner’s contract April 18. Aside from her base salary of $142,500, she will receive 60 hours of vacation leave and a fuel and vehicle allowance of $300 per month. The town also paid for her relocation expenses of $5,977.</p>
<p>• The commission May 1 supported moving forward with a proposed ordinance regulating beach signs, including “No Trespassing” signs. It plans to hold a first reading on the sign regulation revisions at its June 5 meeting.</p>
<p>• Commissioners directed Ladner to look into the possibility that the town take seaweed piling up on shore and have it pushed into the dunes to help build up the dunes. Coz suggested the action, but concerns were raised about needing consent from private property owners.</p>
<p>• Residents put off by the bulletproof glass that’s between them and staff when they’re at Town Hall will get some relief. Although Coz wanted the glass completely removed, staff will take the step of opening window portions of the security glass when talking to residents, but the glass can be kept closed when staff doesn’t know the visitor.</p></div>OCEAN RIDGE: Two town commissioners resign after hiring of full-time town manager https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-two-town-commissioners-resign-after-hiring-of-full-ti2023-04-04T17:09:32.000Z2023-04-04T17:09:32.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11020305499,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11020305499,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="11020305499?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></strong></p>
<p><em>Ocean Ridge Commissioner Martin Wiescholek stands and gathers his belongings as he prepares to leave after resigning in the middle of the Town Commission's April 3 meeting. Wiescholek announced his resignation after a split commission voted 3-2 to hire interim Town Manager Lynne Ladner to the full-time position. <strong>Joe Capozzi/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong></p>
<p>In a span of less than two hours Monday night, Ocean Ridge gained a full-time town manager and lost two town commissioners. </p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11020303868,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11020303868,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="11020303868?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="102" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11020304463,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11020304463,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="11020304463?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="109" /></a>Commissioner Martin Wiescholek announced his resignation an hour after being sworn in to his second three-year term April 3, then stood up and walked out of Town Hall with the commission’s April meeting still in progress. </p>
<p>Commissioner Kristine de Haseth announced her resignation nearly two hours later, at the very end of the meeting, citing a need to spend more time on family obligations. </p>
<p>Wiescholek resigned just minutes after the commission voted 3-2 to hire interim Town Manager Lynne Ladner as the full-time town manager, a move that reversed the commission’s 3-2 vote Feb. 27 to not give her a contract for the full-time job. </p>
<p>Ladner’s hire Monday night is a direct result of a change in Town Hall power dynamics that arose from the March 14 municipal election when newcomer Carolyn Cassidy and Wiescholek won a three-way race for two commission seats. Incumbent Mayor Susan Hurlburt finished third, losing her commission seat.</p>
<p>Hurlburt, Wiescholek and de Haseth often voted in concert, as they did Feb. 27 when they voted against Ladner’s hiring because of concerns that she had aligned herself with a faction of two other commissioners and their community supporters. </p>
<p>Cassidy was endorsed during her campaign by incumbent commissioners Geoff Pugh and Steve Coz, and on her first night as a commissioner Monday she voted with Pugh and Coz to hire Ladner full-time. </p>
<p>“I think Lynne has been doing an outstanding job in reaching out to the community,” Cassidy said. “We’ve had a very unstable work environment that has suffered a bit from a lack of leadership. I think the time for healing has to start now.” </p>
<p>Wiescholek reminded the commission why it voted in February to not hire Ladner, who he said had been influenced by two commissioners to fire Police Chief Richard Jones (who has since left to take the police chief job in Gulf Stream). </p>
<p>At the Feb. 27 commission meeting, Jones corroborated Wiescholek’s concerns when he described how Ladner came into his office two days after he’d announced his resignation and told him “that the commission wished for me to leave early. At this point I go, ‘The commission?’ It was clarified, ‘at least two commissioners,’” Jones said.</p>
<p>Pugh and Coz denied pressuring Ladner to fire Jones. </p>
<p>On Monday, Wiescholek said: “There’s this whole thing about who-said, what-said, but somebody walked into Chief Jones’ office and said the commission wants you fired. Either Lynne did that on her own and lied about it or she was instructed by two commissioners to walk into Chief Jones’ office and say the words ‘the commission wants you fired’ without talking to the other three commissioners. It’s inappropriate or it's a flat-out lie. That in itself disqualifies anybody from holding a position in this town.”</p>
<p>The commission had been scheduled to select town manager finalists on May 1 and interview them May 9. The firm the town hired for $29,500 to find candidates, Colin Baenziger and Associates, considers the latest pool of 18 applicants “superior” to the previous candidates, said de Haseth, who said she’d been in contact with Baenziger. </p>
<p>“We started the (search) process. We have a process to follow and we need to continue the procedure and move forward from there,” de Haseth said. “You can't do an about-face in the middle of the stream."’</p>
<p>“That’s exactly what the commission did (Feb. 27),” Coz retorted, pointing out how the commission in January had selected Ladner on a 5-0 vote while officials drafted a contract that was supposed to be approved Feb. 27.</p>
<p>“I think the town is in a period of healthy rebirth. I think Lynne is part of that,” Coz said before the commission voted to hire Ladner, who will make $142,000 a year. Her predecessor, Tracey Stevens, was making $132,500 when she left Sept. 11 to become town manager in Haverhill.</p>
<p>A few minutes after Ladner’s hiring Monday, as the commission was considering a new agenda item, Wiescholek interrupted and said, “Based on the decision that was just handed down, with the renewal of the contract for Lynne Ladner, I feel that town is doing itself a grave disservice. I feel that the town is putting itself at great risk. The implications that pass off that are staggering at best. I will not have my name associated to that. Hereby, I resign.”</p>
<p>Many of the 50 or so people in the audience cheered as Wiescholek stood up and walked off the dais, happy to see him go.</p>
<p>In an interview outside Town Hall a few minutes later, Wiescholek said he had no plans to change his mind. </p>
<p>“What they have there right now is a town manager that they can tell what to do: ‘You need to hire this person and that person.’ They can manage and massage anything into their own world. I am not going to be a part of it,” he told <em>The Coastal Star</em>.</p>
<p>After the meeting, de Haseth said she had been considering since December to step down because of family obligations, but decided to wait until after the election. </p>
<p>“I was sorry to see her go," Coz, who was selected as vice mayor, said after the meeting. “She was a great asset to the commisison." </p>
<p>Pugh, who was selected Monday as mayor, said after the meeting that he expected the town to put out a notice for candidates to apply to fill the remaining terms of Wiescholek and de Haseth. The final selection for each vacant commission seat will be voted on by the Town Commission, possibly at a special meeting, he said.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: Three top officials leaving in latest Town Hall turmoilhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-three-top-officials-leaving-in-latest-town-hall-turmo2023-03-01T17:17:45.000Z2023-03-01T17:17:45.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Related story: </strong><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-gulf-stream-hires-away-ocean-ridge-s-police-chi-1">Along the Coast: Gulf Stream hires away Ocean Ridge’s police chief</a></p>
<p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10978357478,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10978357478,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10978357478?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="405" /></a>Less than two weeks before an election that could shift the balance of power on the Town Commission, three top Ocean Ridge officials are on their way out. <br /> Interim Town Manager Lynne Ladner will not get the full-time position, a job for which the commission chose her in January, because of concerns by three commissioners that she has aligned herself with a faction of two commissioners and their community supporters. <br /> Police Chief Richard Jones will leave by May 11 after agreeing to take the chief’s job in Gulf Stream. And building official Durrani Guy submitted his two-week notice on Feb. 27. Two other Town Hall employees have left since the beginning of the year.<br /> Although Ladner agreed to stay on as interim manager for another 90 days while the town conducts what will be a third search for a top administrator, she will not be considered for the full-time job, a divided commission decided Feb. 27.<br /> The margin was 3-2, with commissioners Geoff Pugh and Steve Coz on the losing end of a vote to finalize her contract as intended. <br /> The backdrop of the three departures is the March 14 election, when Mayor Susan Hurlburt, Commissioner Martin Wiescholek and resident Carolyn Cassidy are running for two seats. Cassidy has been endorsed by Pugh and Coz, a pair that has been on the short end of votes by a majority made up of Hurlburt, Wiescholek and Vice Mayor Kristine de Haseth.<br /> Among Cassidy’s campaign pledges is to overhaul the building department, a mandate that has been echoed by Pugh and Coz and has prompted concern by employees at Town Hall. <br /> The latest turmoil came to a head at the commission’s special meeting Feb. 27 to consider Ladner’s contract, an agenda item that would’ve been routine if not for behind-the-scenes communications Ladner had with Pugh and Coz in recent weeks about whether Jones should leave before May 11. Jones submitted his resignation Feb. 10 and under terms of his contract must give 90 days’ advance notice before he leaves.<br /> Those communications came to light in an email Wiescholek said he mistakenly sent to fellow commissioners in late February about “serious second thoughts” he had about hiring Ladner.<br /> In the email, which was meant only for Colin Baenziger, a recruiter hired to help commissioners find a manager, Wiescholek said he was concerned that Ladner “had been influenced by two commissioners to immediately fire chief Jones.’’ <br /> Wiescholek based his concerns on information shared with him by Jones about conversations the chief had with Ladner two days after he announced his resignation. <br /> Although Wiescholek’s email never identified the two commissioners, it was made clear Feb. 27, when the email was dissected in a public meeting, that he was referring to Pugh and Coz. <br /> Pugh and Coz said they spoke individually to Ladner about whether it made sense to let Jones leave before May 11 and replace him with an interim chief. But they said they did not pressure her to terminate Jones.<br /> “I’ve never had a conversation with Lynne about terminating a police chief,’’ Coz said. “I would never have that conversation. It’s ludicrous. Somehow this entire collusion with myself and Geoff and Lynne grew out of fantasy. It doesn’t exist.’’ <br /> Jones, however, had a different take on his conversation with Ladner. <br /> Two days after he announced his resignation, “I received some text messages from the town manager indicating that a resident in town had chosen who the next police chief should be,’’ Jones said without elaborating.<br /> A day after that, a Monday, Ladner came into Jones’ office. “I was then informed that the commission wished for me to leave early. At this point I go, ‘The commission?’ It was clarified, ‘at least two commissioners,’’’ the chief said. <br /> Jones said he was not told, nor did he ask, the names of the two commissioners. <br /> Before Jones described his conversations with Ladner, Vice Mayor de Haseth said she believed the interim town manager had “aligned herself” with “select commissioners” and “a small faction in this town.’’ <br /> Ladner also “has exhibited questionable behavior,’’ de Haseth said, explaining how she warned Ladner in her early days as interim manager to be careful about information she receives from town residents. <br /> “And she told me, ‘Don’t worry about it. I secretly record conversations with residents on a regular basis.’ To which I said, ‘I do believe that is illegal,’’’ de Haseth said. <br /> Although de Haseth said Ladner told her the recordings “helped her create notes later,’’ she said Ladner was “counseled” by the chief and town attorney not to record residents without their consent and knowledge.<br /> Ladner said, “When I found out that Florida was a two-party recording state, I had not made any recordings to record my meetings, I made sure to take only handwritten notes.’’ <br /> Before coming to Ocean Ridge, Ladner held management and consulting positions in Pinellas County and Pahokee government.<br /> As for her conversations with Pugh and Coz, Ladner said she told them her intention was for Jones to stay as long as he could and help find his replacement. She also said she asked the town attorney about “the cost implications” if the town let Jones leave before the 90-day departure period outlined in his contract.<br /> Ladner was set to get a $142,500 salary in her contract; an earlier version called for her to get $155,000. Ocean Ridge’s previous town manager, Tracey Stevens, was making $132,500 when she left Sept. 11 to become town manager in Haverhill. <br /> Not only is the town back to square one on finding a town manager, it also has to find a new police chief and a new building official. <br /> Commissioners voted 4-1 to retain Ladner for another 90 days while they find a new interim or full-time manager. <br /> “What I see pretty much is a vote of no confidence” in Ladner, said Hurlburt, who called for an end to the “micromanagement” of Town Hall from outside sources. <br /> “This latest incident is being used by a minority of residents as another political football. Ocean Ridge should be operating with good governance as the priority, not a stage for folks with personal axes to grind,’’ the mayor said. <br /> “These power plays are doing harm to Ocean Ridge and I’m concerned our town manager might have played right into it.’’<br /> Pugh and Coz also took issue with language in Wiescholek’s email that described “two commissioners who are dead set on burning down this town.’’<br /> Wiescholek apologized to both commissioners for his choice of words in the email. <br /> The meeting was interrupted multiple times, prompting the mayor to call three separate recesses, when a few of the 40 residents in the audience shouted at commissioners.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: Interim town manager gets the full-time jobhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-interim-town-manager-gets-the-full-time-job2023-02-01T17:57:47.000Z2023-02-01T17:57:47.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong><br /> <br /> Ocean Ridge commissioners finally chose a new full-time town manager Jan. 31, capping a difficult six-month selection process marked by complications right up to the very end. <br /> Lynne Ladner, who has held the post on an interim basis since Sept. 11 when former Town Manager Tracey Stevens resigned, will be offered a contract for the full-time job at the commission’s next meeting Feb. 6. <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10952743098,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10952743098,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10952743098?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="102" /></a>But Ladner wasn’t the commission’s first choice. <br /> After a full day of interviews with six finalists — including private one-on-one sessions with individual commissioners in the morning and public interviews at a special meeting with the full commission in the afternoon — former St. Lucie County deputy administrator Alphonso Jefferson, 52, emerged as the top choice. <br /> But during a recess, called so the town’s recruiting consultant could discuss a contract with Jefferson, word spread among a half dozen residents at the meeting about Jefferson’s demotion from his job in 2019 as assistant county administrator in Broward County. <br /> Residents found articles online reporting that Jefferson was demoted and forced to take a $30,000 pay cut after he was accused of sexual harassment by a former county employee. Although a county investigation determined the allegations were unsupported, Jefferson was demoted for questionable judgment in maintaining a personal relationship with the employee and for sending inappropriate texts. <br /> The allegations were included in a background report about Jefferson provided to Ocean Ridge commissioners Jan. 23 by Colin Baenziger & Associates, the recruiting firm the town hired for $29,500 to find a new town manager.<br /> “Broward’s Office of Professional Standards found all allegations in [the woman’s] complaint to be ‘unsupported.’ It did so in part because the complainant refused to provide her cell phone and because she did not supply any witnesses to corroborate her allegations. Mr. Jefferson could not provide the texts because they ‘were no longer on his phone,’’’ the Baenziger report said. <br /> The complainant “and Mr. Jefferson had some sort of relationship. We believe it was consensual, and Mr. Jefferson did send some inappropriate texts. It was clearly a mistake,’’ the report said. <br /> Baenziger’s report also said: “We have been told that if you hire Mr. Jefferson, it is likely [the accuser] will resurface these allegations in an effort to cause Mr. Jefferson to lose his job.’’<br /> According the report, Jefferson’s supervisor in Broward County told Baenziger that Jefferson’s “work was exemplary and he was always on top of his projects” and that his accuser “had made other allegations against other county employees.’’ <br /> Although the allegations were never brought up during the commission’s public interview with Jefferson on Jan. 31, some commissioners said they asked about the report during one-on-one interviews with Jefferson in the morning and were satisfied with his answers. <br /> But during the recess, some residents found a 2022 article in the Florida Bulldog blog that described salacious texts Jefferson allegedly sent the woman. Some residents loudly complained that the town’s selection of Jefferson was “an embarrassment.’’<br /> When the meeting reconvened, commissioners agreed to consider casting a new vote for town manager.<br /> “Some material has come to light that perhaps all of the commissioners were not aware of, which is what is causing this brouhaha,’’ Commissioner Steve Coz said, referring to the Florida Bulldog article. “Several townsfolk and commissioners thought everybody was aware of this. If they were, they maybe didn’t interpret it fully.’’<br /> Another recess was called while Baenziger met privately with Jefferson. When the meeting resumed a few minutes later, Baenziger said: “Mr. Jefferson has decided to withdraw. He felt that it wasn’t the right fit at this point.’’<br /> Commissioners held a new vote and gave unanimous support to Ladner, who was the runner-up in the first round of votes that supported Jefferson, 3-2.<br /> “I’m thrilled and excited and looking forward to continuing the progress we’ve made,’’ Ladner, 53, said in an interview after the meeting. <br /> “We have great ideas and a wonderful staff and I am really looking forward to the next several years,’’ said Ladner, whose interim contract was set to expire Feb. 28.<br /> Commissioner Martin Wiescholek, who cast one of three votes for Jefferson, said after the meeting that the texts detailed in the Florida Bulldog were not included in the background report. If they had been, he said he might have cast a different vote.<br /> After the meeting, Jefferson — who would have been Ocean Ridge’s first African American town manager — emailed this statement to <em>The Coastal Star</em>: “I was excited about the opportunity to be the next town manager. This would have been an historic achievement for the Town and me. I respect the will of the distinguished commission, and I look forward to serving an organization that will benefit from my 31 years of public/private/military sector experience.’’</p>
<p>On Jan. 18, the Interim St. Lucie County Administrator requested the resignations of both Assistant County Administrators, Jefferson and Mark Satterle, Baenziger said in his report. They were both "at will" employees. There was nothing in Jefferson's personnel file.<br /> The search process started July 25 — 10 days after Stevens announced she was leaving Sept. 11 to take the town manager’s job in Haverhill. At the time, commissioners expected to hire a new full-time manager by Thanksgiving at the latest. <br /> They also opted to save money and rejected hiring a recruiting firm, relying instead on guidance from the Florida City and County Management Association’s senior advisers program, which is less expensive. <br /> But just 15 candidates applied. After a series of meetings with the commission, all but two finalists withdrew, prompting town officials in October to start over with a recruiting firm.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: Interim manager gets started, expresses interest in full-time jobhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-interim-manager-gets-started-expresses-interest-in-fu2022-08-31T16:25:13.000Z2022-08-31T16:25:13.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong></p>
<p>Lynne Ladner, a former interim town manager in Pinellas County, will take over as interim town manager in Ocean Ridge. <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10800217074,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10800217074,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10800217074?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="101" /></a>Town commissioners voted 4-0 on Aug. 8 to hire Ladner after interviewing one other candidate, former Lake County Manager Alan Rosen. Commissioner Geoff Pugh was absent. Ladner formally accepted the job on Aug. 10. <br /> Ladner planned to start Sept. 1, working alongside departing manager Tracey Stevens, whose last day is Sept. 11. Stevens has accepted the town manager job in Haverhill. <br /> Commissioners hope to interview candidates for a full-time town manager in October and hire one by Thanksgiving. Ladner told commissioners she is interested in the full-time position. <br /> “I am thrilled at this opportunity and I am excited to come next week and get started,’’ Ladner told commissioners after they approved her contract at a special meeting Aug. 25. “I look forward to working with all of you and everyone in the town.’’ <br /> Commissioners were impressed with Rosen, but felt Ladner was the better fit. Rosen had told commissioners he probably would not be interested in the full-time position because of family commitments.<br /> “I think Lynne would be a good fit for keeping the boat afloat for the three months while we are looking for somebody else,’’ Mayor Susan Hurlburt said. <br /> Ladner has more than 15 years of experience working in local governments in Florida, Michigan and Kansas. More recently she served as interim town manager in Kenneth City, a suburb of St. Petersburg. <br /> She also has been working as a consultant for the city of Pahokee, a job she planned to leave before starting in Ocean Ridge. <br /> Ladner will draw a paycheck based on a $100,000 annual salary for the first two weeks. On Sept. 12 her pay will increase to $132,500 a year, which Stevens was making. <br /> The commission also gave Ladner permission to serve on a Florida League of Cities committee that will require her to attend a meeting once a month in Kissimmee. <br /> At the Aug. 25 meeting, Ocean Ridge resident Terry Brown, a former commissioner, asked commissioners to give Ladner an overview about the town’s neighborhoods and political factions. <br /> “I’m not trying to be cute or anything, but I want to be sure as soon as possible” that officials “give an orientation to the town in terms of demographics and neighborhoods where various tensions exist,’’ Brown said.<br /> It’s important that Ladner is “aware of what happens in the town with various groups so there are no surprises. You dig what I’m saying?’’ Brown said.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: Town Manager Stevens leaving for same job in Haverhillhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-town-manager-stevens-leaving-for-same-job-in-haverhil2022-08-03T17:43:03.000Z2022-08-03T17:43:03.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong></p>
<p>For the second time in less than four years, Ocean Ridge commissioners are looking for a new town manager, a search they hope to complete within the next four months.<br /> Town Manager Tracey Stevens is leaving Sept. 11 to become town manager and finance director for Haverhill. She will make $134,400, a little more than her Ocean Ridge salary of $132,500.<br /> Stevens, who replaced Jamie Titcomb in March 2019, submitted her resignation on July 15.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10746236694,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10746236694,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" width="95" alt="10746236694?profile=RESIZE_180x180" /></a>“I really wasn’t looking to leave Ocean Ridge, because I love serving the residents here. However, I was presented with an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up to manage the town of Haverhill which aligns with my professional and personal goals,’’ Stevens said. <br /> “I will truly miss serving the residents of Ocean Ridge and working alongside some of the best colleagues in local government any town manager could ask for. I am confident that the extremely competent and professional staff that Ocean Ridge employs will carry on my care and compassion for the town.”<br />Commissioners hope to hire an interim town manager in early August and a full-time manager by Thanksgiving, if not sooner. <br />At a special meeting Aug. 8, they plan to interview three candidates for the interim job: Michelle Berger, a former Port St. Lucie City Council member who served as Sewell’s Point town manager in Martin County from October 2019 to January 2022; Lynne Ladner, a former interim town manager in the Pinellas County town of Kenneth City; and former Lake County Manager Alan Rosen.<br />With help from the Florida City and County Management Association’s senior advisers program, a free service that offers assistance in finding new town managers, commissioners hope to interview full-time manager candidates in October.<br />Commissioners will advertise for candidates in similar-sized seaside towns in and out of Florida. Stevens, who had worked for the town for six years, also served as finance director as part of her town manager duties. A majority of town commissioners said they are sorry to see Stevens go, and some suggested political pressure may have played a role in her decision.<br /> “She has a very good offer and probably a little less stress,’’ said Mayor Susan Hurlburt. “She proved herself to be a true professional at every turn. She doesn’t do things lightly. This must have taken a lot of thought.’’ <br /> “A sad day for our town indeed,’’ Vice Mayor Kristine de Haseth said in an email to Stevens and the other four commissioners July 15. <br /> “Tracey was hands down the most professional, transparent, impartial and hard-working town manager we’ve ever had. She has helped us transition to a sustainable, wonderfully staffed town with an admirable level of service on all fronts. She will be sorely missed and difficult to replace.<br /> “But don’t think for one second that the inmates will be allowed to run the prison again. Those days are in the rearview mirror.’’<br />That last comment struck a nerve for political opponents of de Haseth, who criticized her choice of words on social media. On Aug. 1, de Haseth publicly apologized for using “a figure of speech that was never intended to be taken literally. I would never characterize our residents and our staff that way,” she said, adding that her internal email “was circulated to select members of the town by a fellow commissioner” whom she did not name.<br /> Commissioner Martin Wiescholek called Stevens’ departure “a huge loss for our town.”<br /> “I can only hope we find a replacement who is equally as good as she is and equally as committed. I know she is very well liked with the residents, and her open door policy I’m sure will be missed by many when she is gone,’’ he said.<br /> “Everybody should be able to move on to bigger and better things and I wish her luck,’’ said Commissioner Geoff Pugh, who has served on the commission through five town managers. “Through five town managers, she has been a reasonably efficient town manager.’’<br /> Commissioner Steve Coz, a frequent critic of Stevens, offered no public comments about her departure. <br /> At a special meeting July 25 to discuss her transition, Stevens asked — and received — permission to start consulting work for Haverhill on her free time at night and on the weekends. “It troubles me,’’ Coz said of her request, “but I don’t see any other way around it.”<br />Haverhill encompasses 0.6 square mile on both sides of Belvedere Road just west of Palm Beach International Airport. That’s slightly smaller than Ocean Ridge, according to the U.S. Census.<br />But the towns are vastly different. For one, the average household income in Haverhill is around $80,000, far below Ocean Ridge’s average of just under $216,000.<br />And Haverhill’s population, 2,300, is much more diverse — nearly 39% Latino, nearly 29% African American and 25% white. In Ocean Ridge, 91% of the town’s 1,830 full-time residents are white.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Political issues involved?</span><br /> While the other three commissioners gave Stevens glowing reviews in her most recent evaluation, Coz and Pugh raised questions about her abilities and effectiveness. <br /> Hurlburt and Wiescholek are up for election in March 2023. A loss by either of them could lead to a shift in the commission’s opinion about the manager. <br /> “She told me she was leaving because she was unexpectedly offered a position that she could not refuse,’’ Wiescholek said. “And not knowing what her employment status is after the ’23 election, she probably didn’t want to take a chance on being unemployed in April 2023.’’ <br />On Aug. 1, several residents offered kind words about Stevens.<br />“Tracey, your resignation is a true loss to Ocean Ridge. You will be truly missed,” former town Commissioner Zoanne Hennigan said.<br />“It’s been disheartening to know that we’ve had some town leaders who have overtly and covertly sabotaged this previously well-run machine,” Hennigan said. “We are no longer ‘Mayberry’ or the ‘Village of Endless Summer.’ We have some significant issues to solve. Let this pettiness stop so we can move forward.”<br /> Stevens’ impending departure comes a month after Town Clerk Karla Armstrong announced she was leaving to attend law school. Armstrong will be replaced by Kelly Avery, who has worked as deputy or assistant clerk in West Palm Beach, Wellington and Gulf Stream. <br /> Hurlburt said she spoke briefly to Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones about the idea of doubling his duties and serving as interim town manager but they both agreed it would be too much work for him. <br /> Even if Jones wanted to serve as interim manager, he could not do both and the town would have to hire an interim police chief, said Town Attorney Christy Goddeau. </p></div>