if you would please if you would do a roll call for us commissioner pres commissioner pres presion here may Myers pres City attorney Don holes here and guest J flowers here um thank you Commissioners the date is February 7th 2025 this is a special meeting um that we called um basically
at a request of Mr flowers who had been a an applicant for our city manager position at this time [Music] standen father we want to thank you once again for allowing us to come together we ask that you bless each and every one of us that are here on today we ask that you help us to be fair to make good decisions on today we ask that you bless
everyone that's present on today and have mercy upon all of us give us strength and understanding and all these blessings we will ask of you Jesus name amen Amica stand justice for all thank you thank you everyone that's here um commissioner before we get started um just one thing I want to
bring up that we might want to do is we found this to be of concern um before and I spoke to Mr Holmes about this as to whether or not we want to have this live streamed or in this discussion if we don't want it to be live streamed um that would require a motion from the commission um and an approval by the Commission in
order to do so I'll make the motion to not stream this meeting second that motion in a second do we have any discussion so what is the reason for not scaming t because because you know we got ourselves in a whole heap of trouble when we scream the whole negotiation process and quite frankly there was no law that says we have to stream everybody okay I I understand that but
um from looking at the agenda and based on our previous commission decisions I don't see this as being a negotiation process the agenda says discussion of email correspondents from Dwayne flowers requesting the city to reconsider them for the city manager position it doesn't say that we're planning to negotiate a contract
okay I'll my I your motion my motion okay okay all right I understand what you're saying makes sense did you oh I don't have anything to say about that but yes I would like opportunity to address you uh indulge me in a point of
personal privilege I'm sorry about my iPad I LIF my phone in the you don't know how to turn it off you just had to bring that up didn't you just want fine fine you know how to turn it off top believe my grandkids [Music]
thank you commission um when um I learned that you intended to call this special meeting uh for the purpose of considering my understanding but for purpose of reconsidering hiring Mr flowers I spoke with the mayor quite
frankly and I and I said listen I think I'll just appear by by zoom and I don't think I'll say anything I've already made my opinion known and U I don't think I'll add I can add anything to the conversation so I'll just sit on the sidelines and if I'm ask a question I'll answer it but otherwise I I'm not my way in it's your decision to make you decide what you want to do and we we agreed that would happen
but then um sometime after that uh I received a call from a commissioner who said did you get copy of the email that he sent to each of us I said no it was this last weekend they said and they said well he basically mentions you prominently I don't want to misstate what they said but he says a lot of things about you in it and I said huh that's interesting I didn't didn't know that so I said how about uh she said do
you want to see it I said yeah absolutely so they sent it to me and my opinion changed as to whether I was going to speak today um if uh if you're going to make statements about me then you need to expect that I'm going to respond and set the record straight and if that hurts feelings then so be it so let me talk for a second about this
email that he wrote which which he didn't send copy he didn't copy um draw your own conclusion about why and as a I spit most of my life in the courtroom and a lot of it as a prosecutor so I'll try to refrain from going into prosecutorial mode it won't add anything to this meeting but I do need to respond the gra of the letter if I can
use that term is basically that uh I am the reason why he essentially did what he did and you can paraphrase what he did however you want to accepting your job taking another job unaccepting the other job coming back in one of your job you you paraphrase it however you want to any he mentioned several things in that in that email in support of his premise such as the fact that that he wasn't given my contact
information and he had to track me down uh I didn't respond to him knowledge the receipt of his contract requests and then I have delayed in getting him a contract so let's I want to talk about a couple of those points can't take the trial attorney attorney out of me and for a lot of years I've sat in front of juries where there's been different versions of the same event and I've told them over the years years where you got two different
sides saying different things try to look at the facts that are Undisputed and then judge The credibility of the rest of what those folks are saying by their position on this Undisputed facts so what I want to start with is a timeline of my involvement in this case understand I wasn't part of the negotiations the interview process none of that but it's sometime I was told you had selected him and I apologize for taking your time but I don't won't take me
on January 16th 2025 Mr flower sent me an email containing his contract requests 16th it's Thursday I had been in touch with the mayor just from the perspective of her saying you're going to be getting it uh I'm going to give you his demands and me clarifying with her what my understanding of my negotiation Powers were and that was I really wasn't to try to negotiate as if I was a threat negotiating a contract but I was going to be a party end I was basically to
handle a soft negotiations to try to clarify his positions and if there were some positions that I thought were a bit extreme find out if he had any wiggle room in them but I wasn't to take any hard stances because I didn't think it was for me to put myself in your place and deciding what you wanted to do for him she thought she agreed and she told me in advance that based on her conversations with him she knew there were a couple things that were kind of kind of um let's say on the edge
$1,000 a month car allowance and a no probation he wanted to come to work with no probation and uh so we talked about that so the 18th or 16th I'm sorry he sent that email to me he says that he had to track me down folks I can't let that pass I practiced law here for 49 years eight years as a prosecutor I represented the city of Paca for 19 City Manager for three I held all kind of positions in Paca various organizations and I got a law
firm Branch right down the road with my name on it and a phone number in addition City Halls right here the mayor he was talking to if he couldn't find me then I question how hard he looked or what his powers of Investigation on but nonetheless he apparently did find me at some point and he sent me this email on the 16th 16th was a Thursday your meeting was the 22nd he says I didn't communicate with him I was delayed delator in that well between the 16th
and the 22nd and there's a weekend in between by the way I did talk to him on the phone I mentioned that in the negotiation session which is on YouTube that I had talked to him and that he had agreed to soften a couple of his requirements he went from a th000 to 750 on his monthly car allowance which seemed generous since there's a two- mile area of say city of Crescent City but again that was what he said he was willing to go to I did not try to press him on that he didn't did not back away
from not warning a probationary period but I did tell him in All cander I won't support that it would be my legal advice that they not that they not Grant you employment with no probation and that was the end of that conversation now I guess I could have put a contract together and brought it here on the 22nd but I had no idea what your ultimate terms were going to be so we went through the negot on the 22nd again
there was a weekend in between so that was a Thursday he sent me the email weekend in between we have our meeting on the 22nd which is a Wednesday and you negotiate with it it's on YouTube I went back and looked at it I'm sure many of you have too so and during that meeting it was it was acknowledged that I had talked to him in the meanwhile and ultimately you made an offer it was summarized by the mayor after the motion was made and I think two hours and 34 minutes into the
YouTube uh conversation you made that offer we started the meeting at 9:30 or so the meeting was about 2 and a half or three hours long so I get back up Tom office afternoon and I do have other clients the same day I asked your clerk for a copy of the contract that Mr rud had had because in that YouTube in that in that negotiation it was stated I Believe by Mr Deo but I could be wrong we go back and look that you wanted the contract to basically track the rud
contract except that in rud you had made him live in putam County you had a 35 m r is but he made him live in putam County so I asked on the same day 22nd for copy of that contract it was provided the next day the 23rd I sent a contract to Mr flowers that was tailored to your negotiations one day turn around on a contract actually it's less than a Daye because I didn't have a full day in my world that's not a delay that's
not unreasonable and if he's got somebody who can do a lot quicker than that then he's he got somebody who's waiting impatiently for something to do or he's got somebody who doesn't have a lot to do but one day turn around is not a bad thing so he got that on the 23rd I heard nothing on the 23rd and he's right I took off these are all allegations he's made in this email he's right uh I take off on Friday next month I will have practice law for
49 years I take off on Fridays I work four days a week and I apologize to him or anybody else for that I've earned it so the next day was the 24th which was a Friday I took off I took my youngest grandchild to Orange Park about 4 in the afternoon I get a call somewhere around that time from the mayor saying Mr flowers wants changes made the contract and he and and madis in his meeting at 5:00 and he thinks they're going to offer him a job and my first
response was I thought Mr flowers had already agreed to accept the job why is he still negotiating with Madison and she did not have a she did not really make a comment there wasn't a great discussion about it and I said what is changes and she told me and I I'll look at them specifically but she told me he wanted uh the $4,000 a flat fee and not a reimbursement for uh expenses he wanted um 50% severance
package if he got fired during the first 6 months and he wanted 100% of his approved benefit time if he resigned or left the employment of the city at any time and my response was that's substantially different from the terms that that you the commission approved I can't change those I can't agree to those I don't have the authority to she agreed she didn't need and she said well
can we call you know can we call special council meeting to consider them sure but you got to have time and if he's going to make if he's telling you that you got to decide by 5:00 I don't have the ability to respond to that and that was the end of that conversation until it's 7:24 712 I apologize went back and looked she texted me Mr flowers accepted the Madison Florida position how do you want the commission
notifi done deal he's accepted a position somewhere else there was an equivocal it wasn't he's thinking about it it was he accepted it how do you want the commission informed and I said have the clerk send an email tell the Commissioners telling them not to respond all because that would be an improper communication letting him them know that he accepted position somewhere else so uh we rock on at that point schedu a meeting for next week for you
to decide what the basis is for your further negotiations and then I as I said learn that you're having a special meeting today and then I was told that um he had sent this email essentially saying that I was the problem and that had caused him to agree un agree agree and un agree with two different Employers in a span of about four days five days and I could not accept that without responding so let me talk for a minute about what I see
as the heart of his statements that are provable easily provable he said and this is a quote from his email even the City attorney that's me made comments that I felt unfairly attacked my character suggesting that I was simply jocking between cities for the best deal that could not be further from the truth I wasn't asking for money I mainly wanted what was agreed upon Wednesday morning going to be accurately reflected in the
contract hold on to that a minute hold on to that a minute when I did look at his email and you got it now I think don't you I don't you don't have his email no I don't not the email with everything that you're talking about should be um the email that was uh so strongly against the working yeah January 30 that was Friday 31 at 3:18 p.m. it was sent to
this particular commissioner and I understood it was sent to All Commissioners and I think she even clarified you need I don't have it okay so maybe yeah maybe there was an email that so within his email in which he attacked me he said that he sent me an email at 2 o' on Friday afternoon the 24th and I didn't respond to it he if he had I didn't work on Fridays or that I wasn't
working on this Friday something might have been different well nothing would have been different because I didn't have the authority at 2:00 I didn't have the authority at four o00 I didn't have the authority at 5 o' to give him what he wanted but the key here is he tells you in this email that all he wanted was basically to have the contract reflect what you agreed upon he didn't want more money well do you have the email that he did send to me at 2:00 on that Friday that he says didn't ask for more money and just wanted errors corrected do you
have that what is the date of that the date of that email is January 24th yes now now I do yes you don't y to have it I'll get you give you a copy of it I brought one copy we can make copack so let me tell you what he wanted you don't have hold on are you not getting it should be in the packet on your desk are you not getting your email
at [Laughter]
I don't see that email in my packet either be honest says mayor and commission may the title of it is Mayor and Commissioners mayor Myers and CES City commission January 24th 2025 2 p.m I didn't get it but it doesn't matter right now the point is this is the email in which he says that I in improperly and inaccurately characterized as him joing and wanting
more money when all he wanted was that the contract reflect what you agreed to well this is what he wanted item number one the initial draft specified that unused annual and sickly would be paid at rate of 50% earned upon termination of employment however I request that these ACR benefits be paid at 100% of earned value you listen to the motion that was made and that mayor Myers clarified and you tell me where you approved changing
the payout of acou benefits from 50 to 100% tell me that it was an error when I left in that contract the same provision that you had provided to rud when I was instructed to use the rud contract as a basis for for the The Proposal so his statement that all he wanted was clarification or correction not correction of Errors so that the contract actually Ely reflected what you agreed upon that's
untrue his next statement No let let me go to one below the next one that has meet Severance terms during the probationary period the initial draft excluded sance pay if the termination occurred within the six month probationary period I propose that 50% of seance terms apply during that period if termination occurs without cost C this adjustment provokes stability and mutual trust between the
City Commissioner and the city manager during the initial months of employment go back and listen and find for me where you agreed to pay him 50% of his termination or service benefits if you terminated them fur during the first six months the exact opposite is there was summarized by the mayor after six months he gets 20 weeks severance pay nothing during the first six so this term wasn't to correct an error made it was a new term it was a modification of the term
that you agreed upon and for him to say that it was nothing more than a correcting my error is not true also for him to say that he wasn't looking for more money is untrue because both of these s more money and by the way just as a an aside as an aside um with him getting 20 weeks Bank vacation 20 days Bank vacation the day walked the door and if you gave them half of the
severance package during the probationary period Then day three if you fired him for doing something stupid he'd be entitled to two and a half months pay plus 20 days pay if he gets 100% of his approved benefits and two and a half months paid for sance package about 30 grand 30 grand day three so I probably wouldn't have been all that wild about it but if I had had the authority I would at least talked about I didn't have the authority now the other items that are here you you
you tell me if these other items are significant enough for you to to not take a job that you say you want badly to live in a community that you love even though you AR going to live here tell me that evaluation timeline the revised agreement now specifies that annual evaluations will occur on the anniversary of the city manager's hire date the clarification ensures consistency and accountability in the evaluation process okay is that do you think that's such a huge term that there's going to be a problem with you agreeing to modify
if he goes ahead and accepts your job and doesn't accept the Madison job and it comes back to you and ask you to change that not if you wanted this job Clarity on relocation St in the agreement ini stated up to $4,000 will be reimbursed for living expenses I requested this term be adjusted to provide a flat relocation stock at the 4,000 paid within two weeks of signing the agreement you know quite frankly in looking at the tapee you did say
stien and stien could very well be interpreted as you just paying him $4,000 for him to do with what he wants to that could have been an error again do you honestly think that that was the kind of error or problem or issue that would cause you to not take a job that you'd already agreed to take because of wording in a contract and then professional development he wanted to for you to pay dues in one more in one one more professional association the contract already
provided that you were going to pay news in the two that are most often joined by city managers in the State of Florida um you already were agreeing to pay for the international City County manager association and the Florida county Managers Association if you said in that motion that you wanted to add this one to it I missed it if you did but again is that amount of is that due pay dues payment something that if you wanted a job that you'd agreed to accept you would turn
down because it wasn't in the contract and especially when you complained about it two hours before another group was meeting and you told us that they were meeting to hire you I I was suggest not so basically his email is saying that this was all my fault I would suggest to you is let's just say disingenuous I'll be kind of my words and if the timeline
that I gave you and the and the email that you if you don't have the email to compare I'll be happy to provide it to you and then you know you you decide where you go from there but I'll I'll submit to you then when when he ended the negotiation on the 22nd I had no reason to believe that we had to get a contract signed delivered in the next day or hour
my understanding was he accepted your deal there's nothing in his statement that said I appreciate what you've offered me understand I'm going to wait and hear what Madison offers and then I'll decide between the two of you and by the way I W this in writing before I'll consider it I guess I'm old school and old my word is is something that I count on people counting on and I try to live by that unfortunately sometimes I assume that others do too so when he left this meeting and if there's anyone
of you who didn't believe you had hired him raise your hand right now any one of you didn't think that when he left this meeting you'd hired I did too so I didn't know the negotiations were on Pro is still in progress I thought that that we had a deal and it was just fine print fine P so he's right I guess if I had known I'd have stayed around and communicated with him but ladies and gentlemen I couldn't have
done anything to change the contract when the terms were substantive all we could have done was hold a meeting the following week and I guess you didn't have that much time but I didn't know it because 5:00 was your deadline on Friday when he decided to accept the Madison deal and what happened to that deal I have no idea I haven't tried to inquire don't really care but I'll um I'll just uh I'll leave the facts as they are and um it's your decision to make and as a matter of fact I told the mayor it might be best for me just to leave the meeting now and let you kind of not not not feel
that I've tainted your deliberations in any way you you decide whatever you choose to decide you're you're the employer not me and uh I don't even get a vote on the hire and don't don't want one but I did want to straighten up the record I wanted I wanted my version in place had I been provided this copy of his email on Friday when he sent it i' have responded with an email and maybe we would have avoided having to do this in person but I wasn't so do you have
any questions of me you want me to stay or leave May case we have AAL question I think that we should have our to hear we we don't have a off person care us and I just kind of would like to move ahead and say in all fearness okay I'd like to make a motion to uh to like to move forward with Dwayne flowers can be reconsidered for the city manager
position and the time the commission reopens the position right now I feel the position is closed he made his mind up that he and we made our mind up he made his mind up to to go to another organization but at this time we need to do our meeting on February 12th we need to understand how we move forward with any type of uh negotiations and and uh I mean I've got a big long list here but uh you know I
filled the contract uh commission negotiated on the 23rd of January was done in good faith and it was not accepted by Mr flowers he accepted Madison so that point uh I feel the contract we have before us which uh I feel between the city of Cresent City and DNE flowers is melan boy and Mr flowers again agreed to take position elsewhere January 25th so I think we need to move forward as a commission and
really the nuts and the bolts and and uh on February 12th you come up with you know a a uh system of how we want to move forward with our evaluation and negotiations motion is very long so all right my move Dwayne flowers can be reconsidered for the city manager position after time the commission reopens the position because this position is closed
right now okay um well I heard two different motions I talk too much I talk too much no I guess um if I could just say I was about to Second it but I heard two motions and it's up to you which one you want to make first I also thought I heard you make a motion that we would um keep our schedule meeting on Wednesday the 12th and that special meeting and decide what we set out that we would
decide at that meeting did I hear you say that I did okay but you want to make this motion let separate let's separate this motion motion should be first that he can be reconsidered when we open the position I understand that right yes okay but not now but not now we're not negotiating today I'll second
that do we have any discussion um I do um you know from our communication and from what Mr flowers told us in emails he has never accepted the Madison job so that was a miscommunication that we were told that at all no no I was told I got a phone call on Friday afternoon on Friday evening I got a phone and that he had accepted that he had accepted their offer however he had not
signed okay because he was looking and I even reiterated that at the meeting that we had as as a followup to determine where we were going to go from there that he had accepted the Madison but he had not signed um the contract because he had to find housing he was looking for housing um housing I think was an issue was an issue over there and then you know um it was I felt prudent that you know I wasn't going to S on any of
that information over the weekend and so I asked Melanie um to please meet me here before AR day so she could get an email out to all the Commissioners so you were informed based on Mr Holmes's Direction and and she did that so she got that out on Saturday and we have a meeting after that next week and we all and Mr bur was on zoom and we all decided well this is not going to happen we don't want going back and forth in Madison but the fact was that he was not employed by Madison and did not accept a
job then that's not what was going on I don't really know what was going on but I'm going to tell you something it was very very confusing and this is why it's been stopped and this is why we're having a meeting on the 12th so we can get our feet back underneath us to understand how to move forward that was the idea of the 12 and that's on the 12 and I I hope all of you went back and and listen into the renti the negotiation on the 22nd that um and and
he did make it very clear he was negotiating with Madison on Friday and we joked with him about it um and even at the end um made mention of that so if if you haven't you should listen to your negotiation well after looking at the original contract that we negotiated okay I just uh you know looking at the whole thing I don't think that we were prepared and and we were not prepared to negotiate and I think it's very obvious as you even go
through uh the Youtube that we were really think you know I'm going to put it I'll put it bluntly okay I felt that the negotiation was not a negotiation I felt he asked and we gave and so I just over here I want I want and he said yes yes yes and I just think that we can do better and I think that we can do better uh negotiating this in
the interest of the city okay we I just think we just kept kind of kept saying yes yes yes yes and and uh I think we can take our time at this point uh Mr B um yes brart has has said he can stay uh until we do find a city manager I think that we should take advantage of that take our time there's no reason to rush at this point in time and and I I I'm
saying okay Mr flower certainly can reapply when this position opens again okay well we have a motion that's you've made that very clear in your motion yeah and we have a second so commission finish before I recogniz yeah I just wanted to clarify a few things because between our meetings of the 22nd and 8 and then emails fing around this process has gotten very
messy yes and um I was somewhat surprised um I think we all got individual emails from Mr flowers on January 24th and it suggested that I call or whatever I it was addressed to me only and I wrote back and said did you send this to everyone and he responded Yes he did and then um after we met on the 28th 8 at 7:15 that night um I didn't pick up
the phone directly so I didn't know who it was but I had an email message from Mr flowers saying he would like to talk to me so my question is during this period after we got the information that Mr flowers had declined and then he sent us emails and has anyone here besides the mayor emailed back and forth with Mr flowers for had a phone conversation with Mr flowers
I did have a phone call with Mr flowers and I left a phone call just as I'm kind of leaving this and basically I said um the door the door is still open because we we do not have a new city manager and so I'm going to say just what I'm saying here that he is welcome okay to come back and reapply when that position is open again and at that point in time once we know how to negotiate
better and maybe not so sloppy and not so quickly and and know what we what we have to offer okay a new city manager um it'll work for everybody well so my my concern about this is you know when we set up our initial interview process um a couple of us have said interviews and mayor um set it up without oneone interviews and she
had a good reason she said to us you know it's better if everything is in public I believe and if you have one on interviews there's no HR person available and as well we were told during that process we should not be contacting applicants individually so for me to have this post contract negot process where some of us have spoken with Mr flowers and some of us have not
and we don't know what's been said I think the prudent and logical and appropriate thing to do is what commissioner Burton has suggested is to allow Mr flowers to reapply so that we can have a Level Playing Field and there's no extra conversations this this is this is very messy um I I don't think
we contemplated that we would be talking to an applicant individually outside of the commission meeting um I want speak to that because I mean I know you received some phone calls because you were contct person well but that was after the fact that's after we had made our decision prior to that prior to that we made it very clear and I was very um astute to that was she because Mr Hansen who was Mr Hansen you
are there correct is he there yes okay that Mr Hansen had you know um said that he was having some difficulty um with staff in in coordinating and so that's when I was given that direction and I however I was not to be in contact with any of those applicants I was not in contact with any of applicants prior to using what what I'm talking about is we set out a hiring
process that said and we all kep to it we would not individually be in touch with applicants what I am saying is this has gotten very out of order very messy not what we said we should do or probably should do we have had the person who wants the job having individual conversations with one or or Commissioners and emails and we it needs to be reset and everything should be
done according to process on a level play field I don't think we should be hiring anybody after the fact based on commissions they I mean conversations that they and I just want to say the only reason that I U spoke with Mr flowers was really because I felt this contract was closed and you know a lot of times people will call and as why why did I not get the job or whatever uh and
and I I will not go through the whole conversation it's a private conversation uh but that's how I ended it is kind of the same way with what I'm saying here right and mayor I just want to CL I'm not saying the commissioner did anything long by taking the call I'm just saying it puts us in a process that we did not plan on having and it really isn't appropriate I think it's more appropriate to start over instead of making a hiring decision where some people had conversations and some people didn't and that's not how we said we
would do this well we're always going to have individual conversations at some time that we're not relaying I mean not that we're not relaying but that somebody can say something to us and I don't feel that you know we immediately have to reach out if it if it's not substance I reached out to Don immediately when when he contacted me on Friday I was in public shopping with my parents and he reached out to me I at no point did any
negotiation with anybody George made it very clear at that meeting after we did the hiring because typically the mayor and the City attorney work on the negotiations okay and it's good to have and we have found that Mr Holmes just stated that he has got multiple clients we have to keep in mind we are not his only client okay someone trying to come to town as we go forward next week we'll have to discuss
this that as someone's coming to town it's good for them to have at least a contact person that they can talk to if they have a question um I'm not negotiating nor did I at any time um Mr flower stated to me and I stated to him I've got to called Don I said I understand there were two points and that was the um the $4,000 and there was the uh $3 I'm sorry um yes
we agreed to and I listened to the video again um 20 hours annually and that comes out to like 3.08 the contract said three I said I understand that anything outside of that Mr flowers you have to understand has to go to commission approval and I don't have time to do that um to call a special meeting at this at this late hour let me talk to Don about it Don agree well I agree but clarification
there's nothing in this email that he sent where he said he wants directions that talks about the difference between $3 and $3 a day and I didn't know that this meeting and then when he says in his letter that he talked to you and you agreed with him there's nothing in this that talks about the difference between $3 $38 what this says is he wants to be paid 100% of the fre benefits instead of 50 and that wasn't discussed it that wasn't part of
the negotiations so and I didn't again I did not have that in front of me I had not seen that um I was away all day and that's just what he spoke when he talked to me and said what he had I guess went over that and I reached out to Don and so that's it I just want to I just want to make that clear because um and then he called me back that evening and said you know with Madison I'm with melan immediately you know um we got the email out to all of you and he called you back
and said unequivocally that he accepted the Madison job he said mayor I accepted Madison John and then later on it came up that he had not signed as we got into um I guess when we were going into the meeting next week and he was still looking for some how housing housing became housing was an issue there and that's what you accurately conveyed to me and that's when I said the commission needed to be informed of that so and I agree this is messy and we do doing things by zoom we're doing things um um
da you know I I felt I mean I really felt for Don because we told Don negotiate this contract and he didn't really even know what his authority was or what he could negotiate and um and and I think in all fairness going forward I don't think I should the self- Neti or clarifications are fine but again you're the ones that ultimately have to decide what you're willing to offer and pay not not me and my ideas of what are reasonable and yours are are very can be very different and I'm not I
shouldn't be the decision maker you should be so I I don't want I'm happy to ask inquire clarify but I don't think that that it's appropriate for me to decide whether he gets $1,000 a month uh in car allowance or whether he gets to live outside the county and and pay taxes in a county other than the one where the taxpayers live that pay him or any of those things I don't think that's for me to decide you have a different
point of view on some of those things than I do so I don't want that Authority but more most importantly I didn't have that Authority you know I didn't have it just to make that clarification at 4:00 or change at 4:00 on the 24th right um at this time I'm G ask Mr flowers he he's here he's driven in so Mr flowers okay so first of all thank you'all for meeting this morning I appreciate those short notice and that uh y'all come in on Friday morning I really appreciate that we were coming to
Florida uh this weekend anyway so came a little bit earlier today for um first Mr Don I appreciate your passion I appreciate your upset you're you're acting exactly the same way I did when I saw the video last M but I was pretty calm until a few things got SI so I didn't put all the blame on you sir if you email I did understand I put all
I said specifically I'm not poting fingers at one people that one person and I meant that I take some blame in this the commission needs to take some blame in this respectfully it's a process it was not well organized that's all I said and the word track you down I'm sorry that offended you I didn't mean it far as me having to hunt you down but I was told a couple times that I would be provided your email address that wasn't at you but I wasn't I had to
go find your email address I had to go find the phone number to talk to you so I'm sorry you're upset but I do understand it I was upset Monday night or Tuesday night day last week y met I understand it so that mean to offend you to it's not all your fault I'm I've never said that if you if you if I wrote it wrong made you feel that way I apologize it was a process that was the problem in my opinion I appreciate your apology but we'll we'll fix it y'all can fix it I'll be glad to help you fix it that's what I do um so
that's that's that that was a big thing U I do want to be here my family take I want to be here I made a quick irrational decision and it was a mistake um my Rec call me sorry um I'll just put it this way to you I sent an email
yesterday morning yesterday morning to Madison told me that for some personal reason I was pulling out was part of it there's other reasons as well knowing that house the problem spend in the area I still live in Georgia up inad we didn't want to do that for couple reasons more do as's business but same thing um this is the email I got back so you
know so I'm I'm very disappointed to hear this but I also knew your heart wasn't end I came from the city of Madison a lot of work and time went through spent getting the get the contract together but Madison is a great place to live great employees and wish that g them opportunity to be a part of their community and this the best wishes request to that was it that's what happened because I still wanted to be
here in my interview got to ask yall questions at the end one of the questions end was hey what what yall think I need address when I first get here when I was communication more obvious now than never you go to the hiring process you'll find somebody might somebody smarter than me maybe more experienced than me they W care about you more I put up and I understand Mr Mr D's frustration this morning
Andi have a reg one day but uh fact of matter is I think people go to the right spots at the right time to carry them forward and I think that going be a right guy but I understand I expect it I understand and the reason why I called y after the meeting y had meting said no we moving forward was it was he said it wasn't about me Mr D I didn't basically I didn't write a
good email I apologize but the thing was these two things were not were not speciically pointed out right um but if we're going to do this let me ask about this too um that's one some protection move my family down um but anyway um I respect your decision understand I this position so I I do apologize but
uh wish best than thank you um I will I will share that um Mr flowers when he called me on Friday evening he called me that Friday evening and I think as we go through negotiations with any of us but you know um we just need to be very just just very cont just that you know they are they are we are competing we we're always going to be competing
and um you know so um did you have something to say um well I just you know this whole thing has been just a mess and you know as Mr CL says some of it's his fault some of it's our fault some of it's just life's fault I mean it is hard that we have to communicate we can't communicate with each other um out of here you know for obvious reasons but you know the whole thing seemed like one
misunderstanding after another or another and some miscommunications but I you know I don't know why we have someone here that wants to work here we have a job that we need to fill I don't know you know we we went through this whole process we went through so many applicants and we got him and we all loved him above everybody else by far it wasn't even we didn't even have to have a discussion we all said BL fathers it was unanimous it was unanimous and not and quickly unanimous and I don't know
why you know these these things that are in the contract that we need we can fix it and we can hire him and we can move on instead of starting all over and I just don't I think I I wasn't done but you know the process yes we have Michael Pro hard here he's asked for an increase in his salary which we granted so I mean you know we're we're paying him more now Jus said here and got to fill the position I want to city manager it's going to be here and it's going to be committed and
be a part of this community Michael's not we know that so right now he's just kind of running things and not moving forward on some project you know he's not no he's doing a good he's doing a great job I know and you know it's just I just don't know why we have to throw this all out and start over I I just I feel like it's our fault that we messed this up in the beginning and we have a chance to make it right and know why we can't do that but that's right your s thank you bon I
I also just want to say and you know we've had a couple weeks now that all this stuff been going on and um and I talked to a lot of people talked to a lot of people in the streets as I say um a lot of people uh were very surprised at how generous we were and really were asking me where we going to come up with all this money and all these things and and uh so my constituents weren't necessarily uh happy with our negotiations and um you know I also
heard from uh some staff uh you know that they were quite shocked okay it was a sticker shock for them you know it's finally fine and new Chevy now shevy truck you know at $109,000 and uh you know and and it's and it's just you know I got to take that into consideration as well you know so that's why we set this meeting on the 12th so we can get a handle on what we actually can do moving
forward and I think it's important that we look uh professional the next time we go through okay going through the negotiations or whatever we're going to be be doing after the 12th hopefully we will be ready to do it professionally and and not make a mess okay that's where I'm at and I would like to call the question we have yes I'll take public
comment please state your name and your address if you will please Dianes Crescent City um I was I was here at the meeting to meet all the candidates and I was here on on the boat um and everybody agreed that Mr flowers was the best candidate to read advertise the position position again and have to consider all the costs
because there are you know there are cost to bring people in because we might not find someone who's an hour away from pres City there's slight costs and hotel costs and as a citizen I don't really think the city should spend that money to to um re interview more people um I know that it's you cannot consider legally um familial status but once Mr flowers and his family moov
here his child will be in school and I doubt very seriously that this is just my opinion that anything that happen that would cause them to leave in six months because that's a big deal when you got a kid I have one and uh moving you moving a child um in schools and everything is a big consideration and I know you can't consider that it's against fed law but I figured I'd say it
anyway thank you thank you um okay we have a a prop and that is that um at this time we um close this and he is welcome to apply at the next opportunity discussion issues well I just it did cost us I
believe it cost us that of about $3,000 I believe 3,000 2500 or 3,000 for interview and we wound up um the interview cost us $3,000 we wound up in a position uh financially that we had originally intended to go that will be a recurring amount money um I just I don't see where the fire is um we have a regularly we have a meeting that we as
the commission set um to discuss our process and I have some serious questions about how messy this got I have some serious questions about um I I don't even understand we we don't need to really do anything today um I have serious questions about a candidate not respecting our process potentially I
don't know and I don't want to get into the details but I'm very uncomfortable with anyone who declines a job and then we set a meeting to talk about the process this entire discussion could have been had at our meeting next week yes this this is really extraordinary and out of order it could have happened at our meeting next week um that we said we said together that we were going to have that meeting so I I'm just I'm very
uncomfortable with um making a 180 degree turn based on a variety of individual Communications I just don't think we should do that and there's no fire and I appreciate Miss's comments but considering that this is one of most expensive hire we're going to have I think we need to do it right and I think we need to make sure that our processes
respect is respected um and that people people can have confidence that we go through an appropriate process um with that Melanie I'm going to ask you to go ahead and doo this is on a motion we're voting on a motion I have a motion and I have a second we
repeat the can be reconsidered to the city manager position at the time the commission reopens the position yes okay I V yes yes to that absolutely commissioner Lori no commissioner Mo yes commissioner Burton yes
and we're not voting that he cannot apply we're just not voting for this motion I want to make that clear with my vote that I'm not voting he cannot apply I hope he does apply yes ibe too um he's very passionate about prestent City I've been where he's sitting and um and maybe that's why I'm a little more tender to this because I have been on that side and it was very unpleasant experience um dealing with this the commission and so
I know what it's like to go through those negotiations um I also want to say then commissioner Lori is that Mr Bart um I have been extremely impressed with he is moving us forward if you knew his dayto day and what he's doing and involved in and the things he's done um we are very blessed um we also need to be aware that Mr Bart um has no interest in taking this as a fulltime and he is also looking at
options too right well was in the paper he he did not make the cut and frankly I would appreciate if he would let us know that he is apply don't know we should Bey to that that's his own personal business and um just and we knew he was only going to be an interim so you know a lot of people are very private about that because you don't know what you I know it's not you
want to know everything and sometimes that's you know that's personal business personal business joking it was in the paper if if you're 30 miles down the road know do we have anything else yes commissioner I was just wondering I mean since Mr rohart is not being considered for the position is there reason that he can be in these meetings he just chose not to be it's his decision he he chose
not to be part of it um heally get he chose not to be part of it um and and and we respect that yeah he remember might he might be at some point going against Mr flowers for another position here in florid there's a lot a lot of managot now um Ashley Jake thank you um and um we
encourage you to okay um just a clarification um we had set a special meeting for Wednesday um I don't see that on the city website I haven't gotten one of the I believe m is working melie you're trying to get that it's on the website I'm looking at it right now okay there was late last night before we accusations let's make sure we have back
straight so we are yes we are planning on meeting that's just what I want to clarify we are but meeting on 12 but I have not gotten an alert and then um I didn't get work so for that meeting we talked about having um and this is where I don't know if Jim's still there but we talked about having contracts and front of us someone might be commissioner L referenced the fccma
contract are we on track to have these documents in front of us is that for the next meeting you're [Music] saying I'm sorry those conversations going if you want that ccma standard contract I'm sure I have Jim send it to us oh Jim already got
it it I get it was in all the stuff we started the whole process but I can send it to the clerk agenda and I'm leing the packet Jim also sent and it should be in the packet that monel who is also currently um working on trying to get a city manager that they've done a Sal study um so that's in your packet as well um Mr Hanson sent that to me and I asked okay I was not sure where that came
from actually from L okay okay I have a proper motion to