City Manager Ousted

Mayor Richard Rober said Tuesday morning he didn't "sleep a wink" in the wake of a marathon meeting Monday night during which City Manager Richard Reade was fired.

City council voted 3-2 to let Reade go once his one-year contract expires Dec. 26.

Rober voted with Councilmen Phil Abts and Steven O'Neill to not renew Reade's contract. Councilmen Mark Hashim and Perry Bean wanted to keep Reade.

Hashim wondered if the council might be violating Reade's contract by not giving him a performance evaluation.

Reade had not responded Tuesday to messages requesting comment on the council's decision.

Monday night's "contentious" meeting had been more difficult for him than even the hotly debated canal dredging issue, Rober said. The meeting lasted for about four hours, breaking up around 11:30 p.m.

Reade could hire an attorney and challenge the council's decision, the mayor said Tuesday morning. There is no other form of appeal open, Rober said.

The search for Reade's replacement could start next week, Rober said.

"At this point, it looks like we're going to set up a special meeting next Monday Dec. 22," Rober said.

The next regular council meeting won't be until Jan. 13, he noted, because the council decided to scrub its Dec. 23 meeting.

The council likely will appoint an interim city manager, the mayor said. Assistant City Manager Ellen Posivach might be a candidate for the interim post, he said.

Reade hired Posivach, the former city manager of Tarpon Springs, in October to supervise city redevelopment projects. Posivach ended her nine years as Tarpon Springs city manager in late April, after the city commission began a search for her replacement.

Tarpon Springs commissioners had become critical of Posivach's management style and suggested she was spending too much time out of town. Posivach said she had become a target of the city's political old guard.

After the naming of an interim manager, the city manager's position would be advertised, Rober said. A committee would then look over candidates and interviews would follow.

The new city manager's salary would be based on experience, Rober said. Reade was earning about $80,000 a year, plus benefits.

"It's going to take a few months, to say the least," Rober said of the city manager search. "We're fortunate we've got a lot of senior staff" with a lot of experience to handle the city's affairs.

Rober introduced the motion to let Reade's contract lapse.

"We've put Mr. Reade into a corner," Rober declared. "We've pushed him into a corner. And we've damned him if he does, and we've damned him it he doesn't."

Abts was critical of the virtual standstill during recent months of the city's canal dredging project. Abts also said the administration's "biggest blunder" might have been allowing trash pickups to lapse for several months.

"Maybe it's not his fault and maybe it is," Abts said, referring to Reade. "That could have been handled differently."

But the morale of city workers concerned Abts the most. "I've been here for 15 years and I've seen employees unhappy, I've seen them upset, I've seen them mad. But I've never seen them beat down as hard as they are right now."

Even a simple project such as filling potholes hasn't been accomplished during Reade's tenure, Abts complained.

Bean vigorously defended Reade. Trash pickup problems should be blamed on department heads, Bean said. Reade took care of problems and trash service resumed, he said.

The morale of city workers goes up and down with every election, Bean said.

"Mr. Reade has been a stellar city manager," Bean said.

"He turned on the lights and the roaches started scrambling," Bean added, alluding to problems from previous city administrations.

Hashim pounded the city council dais while declaring the decision to let Reade go a "big mistake."

Hashim criticized the mayor for saying one thing and then doing another.

"You wait until the eleventh hour to pull the rug out from underneath him, without even an explanation, without even telling him what he did wrong."

Former city managers were "a joke," Hashim said.

Addressing Reade, Hashim said: "Rich, run, run for your life. You don't need this."

Reade, of Sanford, was hired in December 2007 to replace then City Manager Jerry Calhoun, who left in September 2007 for a private contracting position in Iraq.

In May 2007 the city commission of Dade City unanimously voted to hire Reade as city manager. The deal fell apart weeks later when Reade and Dade City officials couldn't agree on the terms of a contract.

Reade was city manager of Davenport, in Polk County, from 2003 to 2004. From 1999 to 2003, he held various administrative jobs in Auburndale, also in Polk County, and worked in Haines City and West Palm Beach. He also worked as a consultant, negotiating land deals for a developer in Central Florida.