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Spina Critical Of His Work

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By LAURA KINSLER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - If his self-evaluation is any indication, City Manager Steve Spina is not expecting a great review this year.

Now in his 12th year as city manager, Spina gave himself high marks for his public relations efforts, economic development and fiscal control. But he didn't cut himself any slack in his oversight of city staff, citing several failures in leadership and management.

Spina said he had been too "lax" with city employees, specifically with their use of city-owned cell phones and vehicles. He blamed his lack of oversight for the recent payroll scandals that rocked the police department.

"First is the obvious issue of problems that were festering at the police department and were not worked out and/or resolved," he wrote. "I believe that had I taken a more proactive stance in 2007 and asked for an internal audit of payroll records rather than order the audit a year later when the charges were again made, I could have better addressed the issue upfront and avoided more discontent and morale problems within the ZPD."

Mayor Cliff McDuffie said he has asked city council members to complete their reviews and turn them in to him by the end of the month. McDuffie then will compile the final report, which is expected to be presented in October.

The good news for Spina is that several council members are more forgiving of him than he was of himself. Council President Luis Lopez has been highly critical of Spina in the past, but this year he praised the manager.

"I've changed how I look at reviews," Lopez said.

He was especially pleased with how Spina dealt with a particularly tough budget year, and he held the manager largely blameless for the police department scandal that forced the ouster of the chief and one of the top detectives.

An investigation concluded that then-Chief Russell Barnes had falsified payroll records showing that Sgt. Robert Perrault Jr. had been working for the city when he was actually teaching at Pasco-Hernando Community College.

Perrault, the department's former spokesman and head of internal affairs, resigned during the investigation to take a teaching position at Zephyrhills High School. Barnes resigned shortly before the city council was to vote on firing him.

"He admitted he should have caught it earlier," Lopez said of Spina. "But you have to be able to trust your department heads. He was pretty hard on himself. He's not trying to hide anything."

Spina wrote that he was wrong to promote the idea of "flexible scheduling" in 2007 and lax in enforcing city policies regarding payroll, accrual of compensatory time and outside employment.

Councilwoman Jody Wilkeson agreed with Spina's assessment of his shortcomings. "Steve did not do a very good job of keeping his pulse on what was going on," she said. "The issue of flex time was a problem long before these investigations."

Spina also held himself accountable for costly changes to the airport T-hangar project. Spina said he should have hired an independent engineer sooner to head off "turf battles" between the airport manager and fire marshal.

The city may have to spend as much as $90,000 on the project to protect from possible fuel spills. The problem arose after the council had adopted the budget and construction had begun. Airport manager Trina Sweet and Fire Marshal Kerry Barnett butted heads over who was responsible for the mix-up.

Lopez said he doesn't hold Spina responsible.

"I don't know what he could have done to prevent that," Lopez said. "He's not a fire marshal and he's not a T-hangar expert."

Wilkeson said that despite a few missteps, Spina deserves a positive review. His biggest problem may be that he's too nice, she said.

"He gives people the benefit of the doubt," she said.

Reporter Laura Kinsler can be reached at (813) 865-4844 or lkinsler@tampatrib.com.

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