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Port Richey Names Posivach Interim Manager

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By KLINT LOWRY

The Suncoast News

Published: December 24, 2008

PORT RICHEY - At a special meeting Monday night, the city council named Assistant City Manager Ellen Posivach to step in as interim city manager. Last week council voted not to renew the contract of City Manager Richard Reade, which expires Dec. 25.

The vote to install Posivach as interim city manager went along the same 3-2 split as the vote a week earlier to discontinue Reade's services. Councilman Mark Hashim and Councilman Perry Bean were in the minority in both instances.

Prior to Monday's vote, however, Hashim and Bean joined Mayor Richard Rober and councilmen Phil Abts and Steven O'Neill in expressing unanimous faith in Posivach, who spent the previous nine years as city manager in Tarpon Springs.
Hashim went so far as to request that it be added to the record of the meeting his no vote on naming Posivach interim manager was merely a continuation of his objection to the procedure of the previous week's meeting.

Most of the discussion leading up to the vote on Monday had to do with whether the Dec. 15 vote not to retain Reade's services was valid. In prepared statements, Hashim and Bean laid out their contention that council proceeded improperly at that meeting and therefore it was questionable whether Reade was still legally employed by the city.

They referred to Article III, Section 3.04, of the city charter. It stipulates the removal of a city manager requires a four-fifths "supermajority" vote. Since the vote Dec. 15 was 3-2, they contended, it didn't meet that standard and therefore Reade's contract was still in place.

To now try and replace him, they contended, would be to disregard the charter.

"This is parallel to the president of the U.S. violating the Constitution, such as not allowing women to vote, not allowing freedom of speech, not allowing citizen right to fair trial, in other words, due process," Hashim said.

The initial term of Reade's contract was for one year. Bean referred to a passage in the contract that reads, "At the expiration of this term, unless terminated by the parties herein, this contract shall go month to month unless the parties agree otherwise."

The contract goes on to mention the council's right to remove the manager at any time, but only by the process stated in the charter, which entails suspension, written notice, hearings and finally the supermajority vote.

'We Did Not Fire Mr. Reade'

Those in the majority countered that the procedure defined in the charter was not applicable. Reade was not fired, they insisted.

"I'm not sure if everybody understands exactly what happened at the last meeting," Abts said, speaking to people in the audience. "We did not fire Mr. Reade, just for the record. What we did was not renew his contract. There is a major difference."

This was the really the key issue in interpreting the contract and charter, City Attorney Michael Brannigan explained, as he offered his interpretation of what he emphasized was a poorly worded contract.

Particularly problematic, Brannigan said, is usage of the word "terminated." The charter provision, he contended, refers to the process of removing a city manager from office, in other words firing him.

The way the contract is worded, however, Brannigan said, the word "terminate" has a broader definition that includes the action of simply choosing not to renew the manager's contract.

Because the issue was framed as a matter of contract renewal prior to the expiration of the initial one-year term, Brannigan contended, this was not a case of firing Reade. Therefore the charter provision was not applicable and a simple 3-2 majority was sufficient, he said.

"I just can't logically come to the conclusion that terminating the city manager and triggering Section 3.04 is the same as just not renewing the contract," Brannigan said.

During his statement, Hashim said he understood that Reade has retained an attorney and may choose to argue the point in court.

Reade was not at Monday's meeting. Following the vote Dec. 15, he opted to take unused vacation time for the remaining 10 days of his contract. Before leaving, Reade appointed Police Chief David Brown to fill in as interim city manager until the council made a formal selection.

Posivach Has Experience

It was Reade who hired Posivach in late October to the assistant city manager position. Posivach was city manager of Tarpon Springs for more than nine years before stepping down in April. Her resume includes more than 30 years of municipal government experience.

Her duties in Port Richey have included overseeing redevelopment projects and heading up negotiations between the city and the Communications Workers of America, which represents some city government workers.

Posivach was not at Monday's meeting. On Tuesday morning, the city released a statement that negotiations that morning had produced a tentative agreement with the CWA.

The city must now go through the search and selection process for a new full-time city manager.

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